Q: Tell me what do you think Byrd's legacy was?
LR: Well, I think Dick Byrd really for all of the weaknesses and so on that
are coming out, Dick Byrd remains a very great individual. And I think we have
a tendency now to overestimate his weaknesses, to emphasize them, to prey on
them, to be obsessed by them. He probably didn't get to the North Pole, he
claimed, insisted that he saw mountain ranges before everybody else when in
fact he hadn't. His last film, for example that he did for, in 1947, "The
Secret Land," contains some awful stories that in fact didn't take place. But
I think that Dick Byrd's legacy transcends that. For all of his fears, for all
of his anxieties, he pushed himself to do great things, and he was legitimately
and authentically one of the great aviation pioneers of this century. He was
also, and he was justifiably proud of this, he never lost a man in the two
expeditions that he commanded to the Antarctic. He, and this must be
emphasized, the vast majority of those who went down with Dick Byrd either up
to Spitzberger or down to the ice, spoke about him with great affection, with
great respect, with enormous loyalty. He got the best out of just about
everybody that went down with him. And I think he deserves to be remembered as
one of the real pioneers of 20th century aviation, as one of the really great
last explorers. He really was the last explorer in the sense that after he
came back from Antarctica in '34, polar exploration for that time and indeed
exploration in general went right over to governments. Never again would you
have the individual person who went out and got the money, mustered the
resources, got the people, took them down there, got them through the ice pack
and was absolutely and completely responsible for them every time, from every
moment from the time they cast off their lines in the United States to the time
they came back and docked. And his achievements I think are very, very great.
Q: Do you think that Byrd was ultimately a tragic figure, and why?
LR: Well, it's interesting. I think Byrd thought he was a tragic figure. He
felt that he wasn't wanted anymore, though in fact if you look back on it the
Navy did better than, than many of us thought that he had maintained his
position as basically head of the new operation "Deep Freeze" in the '50s and
he went down to the South Pole. But he -- in '56, and was supposed to go back
in '57 just before he died. But he felt that the world had passed him by.
They don't want me anymore, he would tell colleagues. I think he was much too
hard on himself, as I think a lot of people who set enormously lofty goals for
themselves are too hard on themselves. He never, I think, took time out to
really appreciate what he had accomplished as an aviation and a polar pioneer.
He was constantly swinging for the fences. He was one of these guys who, you
know, ah, went out and batted in the bottom of the 10th, ahead 10 to 0. He, he
couldn't stop. But in fact, he wasn't a tragic figure. He contributed an
enormous amount to the aviation history and polar development of polar science,
and polar exploration in the 20th century. He's a very significant
character.
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