Valor -- By John L. Frisbee, Contributing Editor
     Greenland Rescue - Three attempts to save the men who had crash-
 landed on Greenland's ice cap had failed. It was up to Lt. Col. Emil
 Beaudry to get them out.
     There is no more inhospitable area on Earth than Greenland, the
 world's largest island. More than 1,600 miles long, much of the ice-
 capped island lies north of the Arctic Circle, with ice ranging from
 1,000 feet to two miles thick. During the winter there are only three
 hours of daylight in the south, and the sun never appears in the
 north. Temperatures of minus 45 degrees are not unusual, nor are gale
 force winds. Greenland is not an ideal area for flying, but over the
 interior there is no other way to travel.
     It was in this scene of frigid desolation that an Air Force C-47
 crashlanded on Dec. 7, 1948, during a routine flight from Bluie
 West-8 to BW-1. None of the seven men aboard were injured. For the
 next three weeks attempts to rescue the men were thwarted by weather
 and technical failures. The central character in this drama was to be
 Air Force Lt. Col. Emil Beaudry, USAF's foremost expert in Arctic
 rescue operations.
     As the C-47 prepared for a belly landing on the snow, the radio
 operator got off a position report to BW-1, 125 miles to their south.
 They touched down at about 8,000 feet, an altitude that added another
 dimension to their survival and the rescue attempts that were made in
 the days to come. The Air Rescue Service detachment at BW-1 immedi-
 ately dispatched a B-17 to locate the crash site but with no success
 that day, due to blowing snow.
     Four days later, after the crash site had been located, the wea-
 ther improved enough to launch a B-17 with a two-man crew to attempt
 a wheel landing near the downed men.  All went well as the B-17
 touched down on what appeared to be hard snow. Then the aircraft hit
 a hidden obstacle. The landing gear and one engine were torn off,
 leaving the uninjured crew to join the C-47 survivors. Now there were
 nine.
     It was clear that the men on the ground could not survive for
 long in the frigid fuselage of the C-47, even with supplies, includ-
 ing portable stoves, dropped to them by parachute. Using all avail-
 able tools they dug a 10-by-16-foot cave through the snow to solid
 ice. A roof was improvised from parachutes. The stoves provided suf-
 ficient heat to keep the shelter warm enough for survival.
     For the next few days, weather ruled out another rescue flight.
 Beaudry and other operations planners believed the best chance of
 success lay in a cargo glider towed by a C-54 from Goose Bay, Labra-
 dor, to the crash site. After a very rough trip the glider landed
 safely, and within 30 minutes its crew set up the poles and ropes
 that would enable the circling C-54 to snatch the glider into the
 air and tow it to BW-1. A hookup was made successfully, but as the
 glider broke ground the tow rope parted. A second attempt was un-
 successful for the same reason. During the night, high winds destroy-
 ed the glider. Now 11 men were stranded on the ice.
     On Christmas Day another glider, this one with a single crewman,
 was towed to the crash site. Again the tow rope parted, whipped
 back, and destroyed the nose section of the glider. The number of men
 on the ice now had risen to 12.
     The Navy had volunteered to try a rescue with helicopters flying
 from the carrier Saigon, but the ship's arrival was delayed by severe
 weather, and there was no certainty that the choppers could operate
 successfully in Greenland's unstable weather.  Beaudry decided that
 the most likely chance of success was to take advantage of a fore-
 casted break in the weather and go in with a ski-equipped C-47 using
 Jet Assisted Takeoff bottles for the takeoff from the rescue site.
 The additional 2,000 pounds of thrust that they provided would be
 added insurance of a successful takeoff in the thin air at 8,000
 feet.
     BW-1 was closed by weather, so Beaudry waited at BW-8, where
 there was snow on the runway, for the break to come. Because of
 mountainous terrain and the lack of landing and takeoff aids, oper-
 ations at both bases were permitted only during the three hours of
 daylight (semi-daylight at BW-8). The round trip from BW-8 to the
 crash site and return would take about four hours. In order to land
 back at the base before complete darkness, Beaudry decided on a
 night takeoff, despite its hazards.
     Beaudry landed safely near the crash site and with the help of
 past experience and the JATO bottles got the 12 men safely back to
 BW-8. The original seven C-47 crew members had been on the ice cap
 for three weeks while three heroic attempts to save them had gone
 for naught.
     For his rescue flight in the face of past failures, Beaudry was
 presented the Mackay Trophy by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Hoyt S.
 Vandenberg for the most meritorious military flight of the year.
 Beaudry retired as a colonel in 1969 and now lives in Winter Park,
 Fla.
 Thanks to Beaudry's daughter, Ann.
 AIR FORCE Magazine/March 1998  Page 77
 BW-1 is now listed on aero maps as Narsarsuaq, Greenland and BW-8 is
 Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland. There are ruins of Eric the Red settle-
 ment near BW-1.  Jim Sanders
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