Richard E. Byrd and his relationship with Antarctica

 This clue revolves around one of the most remarkable men you may have never heard of, Richard E. Byrd and his relationship with Antarctica, and the secretive missions he carried out there until his dying day. 

Some of you have followed the legend of Richard Byrd through the hollow earth theory. We aren’t going to be covering any hollow earth in this chapter, but instead focus on the man and his involvement with the South Pole.

The readers digest version of Richard Byrd is as follows: Born in 1888, he became an American naval officer who specialized in feats of exploration. He was a pioneering American aviator, Medal of Honor winner, polar explorer, aircraft navigator, expedition leader in the worst environments in the world, and the youngest Admiral in the history of the navy.

In addition, his list of awards takes up several pages in Wikipedia, including three ticker tape parades in his honor. In short, he was Indiana Jones on steroids. Some people will say that Roy Chapman Andrews was the real Indiana Jones, and you might be right, but Richard Byrd beat Indy six days a week and twice on Sunday.

I mention all his accolades to paint a picture of credibility and trust. The governments of the US and the world trusted his judgment and leadership, and they took advantage of every chance they had to put him in charge of special missions.

The first large scale mission was an expedition to Antarctica in 1928. This was noteworthy because even though he had just flown over the North Pole in 1926, all expeditions from 1928 on were focused on the South. The expedition lasted two years, and during it, at the age of 41, was promoted to Admiral.

His second Antarctic expedition ran from 1933 to 1935, and his third from 1939 to 1940. While in Antarctica he also was an advisor for other countries who had their own expeditions, including England, France, Germany, and building off previous countries expeditions from Belgium, Japan and Sweden.

He then helped lead US Navy fleet operations in World War 2, was present during the Japanese surrender in 1945, but then something strange happened….He went back to Antarctica.

Now some of you aren’t surprised, because he’d been there since 1928, and I agree with you, it’s thehowthat’s interesting here.

His fourth trip to Antarctica wasn’t an expedition, it was a military operation called Operation “High Jump”.

Commanding an entire aircraft carrier group that included 13 support ships, Admiral Byrd led 4,700 men to the South Pole, for reasons that are still shrouded to this day.

Some say they were chasing the remaining Nazi fleet, even though Germany had surrendered a full year earlier. Others say that there was a Nazi base established in Antarctica during the war, when Admiral Byrd was absent. None of these theories are important for this clue.

What we do know is that the US had sent an excessively large military force to the ice, all under the guise of peaceful intentions.

During this operation, Admiral Byrd told a Chile newspaper this:

The most important result of his observations and discoveries is the potential effect that they have in relation to the security of the United States. The fantastic speed with which the world is shrinking – recalled the admiral – is one of the most important lessons learned during his recent Antarctic exploration. I have to warn my compatriots that the time has ended when we were able to take refuge in our isolation and rely on the certainty that the distances, the oceans, and the poles were a guarantee of safety.

After the operation, Admiral Byrd toured the states, and gave interviews. The most interesting of which as a national television show in 1954 called the Longines Chronoscope, a horrible name, but a decent show. I’ve added the transcript to the end of this chapter and put the reference link below[3]and in the resources, so that you can watch it for yourself.

During this television interview, he first spoke of an area beyond the South Pole as large as the United States, which no one had set foot on yet. He then went on to say that there would probably be expeditions year after year because the US government had really become interested.

The interviewers then probed as to why the interest in the South, when any perceived military threat from Russia (keep in mind this was 1954) would be from the North. He went on to say that it was the most valuable and important place in the world for science. It involved the future of the nation, an untouched reservoir of untapped resources, including coal, oil, minerals, and uranium.

He added that at the time of this interview, there were seven nations currently engaged in Antarctica including Russia, Australia, Argentina, Chile, and New Zealand.

During the interview the Admiral talked about planning the next military mission to Antarctica. It was called Operation Deep Freeze, and ran from 1955 to 1956.

The mission was completed, and he supposedly returned home.

Now this is where you come in and say, so what, and normally I’d agree with you, except for what happened next. Nothing happened next. The missions justsuddenly stopped, and that was it! No other expeditions, military or otherwise were conducted on the continent,ever!

Then a treaty was put in place banning any country from doing basically anything.The end.

And if you’re wondering what you’re missing, it’s this:

Admiral Byrd goes on television, says that this massive body of land, most of which sits on a plateau 2 miles high, is rich with every resource you could ever want, ENERGY rich, pristine, with no indigenous population or plant life, and every country that has sent teams is ready to carve it up like a big turkey, not to mention there’s a expanse of land larger than the United States they haven’t even LOOKED at yet, and out of the blue everyone just calls the whole thing off? There are no environmentalists in 1959; this is the land of Diner food and 20 cent gas!

FLAT EARTH CLUES 

The Sky’s The Limit

Sergent Mark