Air Force the Official Service Journal - Air Force Historical Studies ...

Ten o'clock of a December morning at Ladd Field, Alaska. There
may he a midnight sun in summer, hut winter is a long, dark season,
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they found this likely looking valley which seemed to offer
an cvcnuc of escape. Then they crashed. Despite all the
hazards of the trip, one man made it in a Piper Cub. In
December, 1942, Capt. Malcolm Pruitt looked over his insurance
records and took off from Great Falls in a Cub that
had a range of only three hours. lIe knew that he could not
make the 242 mile jump from Edmonton to the flight strip
at Grand Prairie without adding extra hours to his flying
time, So he went into a hard-varc store and purchased a
funnel. Then he scraped up 22 one-gallon gasoline cans
and cut a hole in the gas tank whicl: extends into the Piper
cockpit. I lc kept one eye on his course and one cye on the
gas, EITry time the gas snpply dropped, he heaved another
gallon into the tank.
After flying ont of Edmonton for four hours and fifteen
minutes, he was still nowhere ncar his first stop, The outside
tcmpcr.rturc \\as a smart 20 degrees bel 0\1' zero, and Pruitt
had no heater. I Ie fiuallv went down into nine inches of
snow in the middle of a 'fanner's field, I Ic figmed that he
could telephone for help-but the farmer had no phone.
\\'heu he got out to his plane, he fonnd that the motor
had fr ozcu. Pruitt had alrcaclv had too m.mv troubles to let
that bother him, lie fonnd a'\\ashtnb, built' a fire in it, and
shoved the tub under the motor, he:lting it np sutlicicutlv for
the take-off, After an hour of night filing with out iuvtr umcnts,
he landed again at a little railroad t owu in the Peace
River couutrv. Fm.illv, he got into Grand Prairie and eventu.illv
delivered his plane to Fort St. John, 790 miles from
Crcat hIlls,
Cetting through in those days W:IS often a matter of luck.
Some of the most experienced pilots in the Air Forces went
clown more than 1\1'0 years ago-and thcv .md their a irpl.mcs
haven't been found yet, Because of the lack of radio rangC',
it was impossible to not ifv the b.ixc as to the approximate
crash position. A wrecked plane was nothing more than a
fly speck against a background of snow and icc that extended
for thous.mcls of miles,
There were no roads, no people, no shelter, and l'Cry little
chance of finding food, It was the kind of territory that CITIl
Renfrew of the Rovul Canadian l\lounted has never vixitcd.
:r-.lam' crewmen \\'1'10 crushed were found frozen to death,
There hale been except ions: Lt. Leon Crane got hack after
84 davs in the wilderness. On the other hand, a crew bailed
out ,~ithin sight of an airfield-and their plunc is still
und iscovcrccl.
The man with one of the most unusual rescue stories is
Capt, Thomas Dichiara. IIc was coming buck from Fairhanks
as a passenger in a C-OO, The plane went into a spin
and Dichiara bailed out. \\'hile lie Ivas floating down into
that frozen barren count rv, the pilot righted the ship and
flew on, Dichiara was vcrv much alone.
I Ic had no idea where 'he was, so he just picked a direction
and headed off. In 30 minutes, he came across the only
railroad track in that part of the world. Fif tccn minutes later,
a train which runs only once a week came along and picked
him up.
Toclnv. conditions in that area have been changed, Where
there were oulv four radio ranges, nO\I' there is a range station
cvcrv l'il) to 200 miles. With one exception, all legs
arc interlocking, Instead of hundreds of miles without a
possible landing site, there arc now 13 regnbr landing fields
and cight flight strips, a hundred miles apart. The Alcan
Iligh\\'av provides a perfect checkpoint with a station eyery
40 miles,
An Arctic Rescue Svstcm has been organizcd which has
cflcctivclv combatted one of the most serious of all problems
faced along the :t\'orthll'est Routc-the question of the
mental hazard faced by airmen who knew that in case of
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