The Daily Alaska empire., 1947-02-25

An army medical officer said none was in serious condition.
 Lieut.. Vern Arnett of River side, Calif., pilot of the downed B-29, only crewman to discuss the belly-landing and rescue before all were hospitalized for rest and ob- servation, described Lieut.. Cavnar's landing as wonderful job"
 Permitted tu talk to newsmen for five minutes, Arnet said his { flight. We were not making pho tos"
 Ran Into storm
 The big plane, flying out of Ladd Field, Fairbanks, Alaska, ran into a storm which blew it com pletely off course, he related and added:
 i We were running short of fuel and since We had been flying for IS hours, there was nothing to do but make a belly landing
 We landed on iake and luckily not one was hurt.
 We made regular contact four hours after We crashed. We stay ed on the plane and had plenty | of food
 Other members of the crew were: Lieut.. Russell & Jordan. AL bany. Calf. Second Lieut.. Robert ,Luelke, Los Angeles. Calf. It. John G. Lesman, Keary. N J.. It. Burl Cowan, Grand Island, Neb.; It. Talbert M. Gates, Fen wood, N J.; Master Sgt. Law renee Marlborough, Springfield, Ore, Staff Sgt. Ernest c. Stew art, Birmingham, Ala; Tech. Sgt. Robert Leader, Philadelphia, Staff 1 Sgt. Paul R. McNamara. Geneva. O.; and It. Howard R. Adams, Lebanon, Pa.
 1 It. Cavnar said his plane with seven-man crew left Westover Field at 3s30 a. m (EST) Sun day and flew to Sondrestrom Yard Greenland where emergency sup plies were picked up. { The flight continued to Thule. ''The crew and I figured we could make it." Cavnar said. We were informed there were two to ten inches of smooth snow on the Lake where the B-29 crashed So we loaded supplies and took off,
 HaG l-lre Going 1 We found the aircraft without I difficulty. The men had built a 1, fire with oil from the engine and twhen they saw us they got so ex- cited they tossed a life-raft on the fire"
 1 He said the C-54 cruised the area and dragged" the lake where the crashed plane rested twice be- 1 fore making a landing Tt was sort of tense,' he Said. The B-29 crew lined up on each side of a landing area-a strip about 2,5O0 feet long. We ap- preached over an 800 foot hill and at air speed of l20 miles so we would not bounce in. In case the ice gave, we had sufficient speed to go on
 We were able to stop about 800 1 feet from the B-29 We taxied Lack and forth to smooth the snow, so as to be sure the snow would not stop our wheels when we tried to take off The C-54 unloaded all unneces- sary supplies.
 Weather Below Zero | At the time the weather was 25 to 30 degrees below zero. i eWhen we got the men on board we started off and then , fired the four rockets which gave a 1450- horsepower thrust. The rockets burned only about eight seconds. Then we were off at speed of about 85 miles an hour
 The entire operation took only | 20 minutes, Cavnar said. When Lieut.. Cavnar and his crew stepped from their plane they were greeted by Maj, Gen. William H. Turner, commander of 1 the Atlantic Division of the Army 1 Transport Command. Turner said yesterday he was recommending Cavnar for the Distinguished Fly ing Cross with Oak Leaf Clusters for this and other Arctic rescue i feats.
 In carrying out the rescue, the Army launched one of it's most : intensive efforts since the end of the war, racing against time and weather to save those who crash i ed in the B-29 "Kee Bird Efforts iconverged in a, vast pincer operation from the limits of the North American continent from Ladd Field and northward from the United States into Greenland