Evening star., 1942-08-08
Wimsutt
Continued From First Page J

we were ABOUT 50 miles from the baSe
the motor completely failed, due to
connecting rod trouble"
Col. Wimsatt described the sur
face of the ice cap over which he
was flying. "It was highly crevas-
sed,' he said, with bottomless holes
caused by the cracking OF the ice
cap as it moved seaward.
I'VE couldn't use our parachutes
because of the tremendous number
of crevasses. On my right I saw
what was apparently glacial
moraine. a sort of delta like fat
caused by glacier pushing through
the mountains.
This was pretty rough, mostly
gravel and studded with large
boulders. I slid the plane in on its
belly purposely to avoid nosing over.
1t stopped rather abruptly when it
came in, and l was thrown against
the instrument cowling. That's how
l got my nose and jaw broken"
Located by Army Plane.
Col. Wimsatt remained conscious
despite the impact. He made the
crackup landing about 7 pm.
Greenwich meridian time.
There was nothing to do after that
but to wait until the base missed
us and sent out searching parties, -
he said. I'VE were located by an
Army plane about an hour later.
Col Balchen was in the search
ing party and some sleeping bags
and food were dropped. Col. Bal
chen dropped note saying he would
return as soon as possible"
Bad weather set in shortly after.
and about midnight it started rain
ing. Col Wimsatt said the con-
tinuous rain, with low ceiling and
fog, made it impossible to do any,
thing.
BY the fourth day the weather
cleared and in the afternoon, he re-
lated plane dropped a note say
ing that a. lake on the ice cap had
been located about 6 miles from
the scene of the crash on which 1t
was believed Navy amphibian
could be landed. ..p-
''We were informed that a land
ing party would be attempted that
evening, and that Col. Balchen
would come to show us the way out
of there" he continued. 1-.
Made Successful Landing.
Late that afternoon 1t. Parunak
made a successful landing near
them, and Col. Balchen and Maj.
John r. Mcbride, medical officer at
the base camp, started on foot for
the crash scene They were de-
layed by thick fog and did not ar
rive until the next morning.
After their arrival" Col. VIM
satt said, I'VE decided it was i'm
possible to take any of our equip
ment with us, as the country was
very rough, and there were several
mountain rivers to be crossed"
He did not mention the details of
the painful journey.
Put in Rubber Boat.
1--WE arrived at the head OF the
lake-actually it was two lakes-on
which 1t. Parunak had landed at
noon and I was placed in rubber
boat in which / made the final
stage of the trip to the plane, about
three miles," Col. Wimsatt con-
tinued.
When we arrived at the amphib-
ian we found it moored in the lake
A small camp had been set up at the
waters edge Camp was broken i'm
mediately, the amphibian's motors
warmed up and 1t. Parunak few us
back to base camp without incident
a matter of 10 or Is minutes"
Col. Wimsatt is a member of a
Washington family that has lived
here for three generations. He was
born here November 6, 1899, gradu-
ating from Gonzaga High School,
and from Georgetown University
In 1921, his senior year at George
town, he was cadet commander Of
the ROTC unit On graduation he
entered the Army Air Corps.