Seward daily gateway., 1930-01-22
IMPERISHABLE TRADITIONS


 Whether his comrades of the air succeed in find ing Colonel Ben Eielson, and Mechancian Borland or n0f the efforts III that direction again to empha size the courage and faithfness of that little group of airmen who have and now writing some of the most brilliant chapters of American aviation.
 It has only required something spectacular to bring into bold relief the full puport of the adventure that has resulted m creating of simple heroic fixed mllepOst III the conquest of the air
 We See Noel Wein modest retiring and bearing those evidences of the finest type of American youth leapng into the air the fringe of the Arctic armed merely with incomplete maps, dashing away Ber ing Strait field of rugged, floating icebergS, cir cling like an eagle scanning the landscape for it's prey
 tiny spot of black between the Siberian mainland and Wrangell Island breaking the monotony of sea of white which looms below. It is ship in the grip ofI Frost King He returns to Nome over the same treach erous route to his base at Nome
 Wrangell Island-the name coniures LID tales of Arctic hardship-of Ada Blackjack, survivor of an lll-fated expedition; primitive Eskimo woman whoI won the battle when her white companions perished.
 But 1t not curiosity, romance or adventure that took Vein his pioneer mission and brought Neimenen, Young, Bamhill, Crosson, Eielson, Dor bant-Russell Merrill, of the finest iii the world dld not have the opportunity to cross but would have been of the first to respond to the present call had he vanished into the unknown months ago. in his wake Rather it taking another step in the development of aviation that will exert tremendous influence upon the future of aviation, and will em blazon these names upon the honor roll of those who have conquered the air.
 Last month Thomas F. Nelson veteran mail pilot flying companion of Lindbergh disappeared while fy- ing his route from Cleveland to New York Instantly Lndbergh, Doolittle Stnson, Love and other famous fers, eapt into the air and batted mdwnter storms until Nelson's body found.
 The same spirit of self f-effacement and heroism is being enacted, only vivid scale in the Sber ian and Alaskan Arctic If the search for Nelson thrill ed nation, what must be the effect of the battle now being waged by Crosson, Young and Dorbandt, com rades of the intr.pid Eieson, and ranking below him only in that theirs has been purely utitarian effort rather than romance that catches the imagination of exctement-ovng world.
 There refuges along the Siberian coast and in the interior of bleak Siberia those created by the daring pilot; landing fields and short distances to in the event of n1shap Such flights entail every hazard encountered in the conquest of the poles Every challenge of nature is accepted and the price of failure is death.
 Such magnificent courage has not before been ex- hbited in the history of aviation It is the product of qualities rarely found outside the ranks of this flower of American youth, embematic of every virtue one would ask in sterling manhood Bound as they are by common danger and loyalty measuring up the greatest traditions of comradie these pioneers of new age have won the right to stand beside the illus trious of all ages
 These traditions blend tremendously with those that have gone before in the conquest of Alaska and serve to vivify the epitome of Service:
 "That only the strong shall survive