Bernt Balchen (1899-1973), was a pilot, soldier, explorer, and America’s greatest modern Arctic expert. Born in Norway, he was a cavalryman in the Finnish Army against the Russians in World War I, then a pilot for the Norwegian Naval Air Force, where he became an experienced Arctic pilot. In 1926, he participated in the Amundsen dirigible flight across the North Pole. In 1927, Balchen was a pilot on Admiral Byrd’s famous "almost first" flight across the Atlantic. On Nov. 29, 1929, he piloted the first airplane to fly across the South Pole.
          He became a U.S. citizen in 1931. After ferrying planes to England and Singapore for the British at the outbreak of World War II, Balchen was put in charge of America’s Greenland air base — so important for rescuing downed fliers — by US Army Air Force General Hap Arnold. His

US Air Force career extended until 1956, during which time he remained an arctic specialist, helping develop search and rescue techniques, the Thule, Greenland, airbase, and sites for the DEW (Distant Early Warning anti-ICBM defense) Line. When, in 1949, he flew at USAF C-54 cargo plane across the North Pole from Alaska to Norway, Balchen became the first to fly over both poles. A statue of Balchen was dedicated by Norway’s King Harald V in Kristiansand in 1999.
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