In this episode of America’s Veteran Stories, Kim Monson welcomes Colonel Bill Rutledge to delve into the life and legacy of Bert Balkan, an extraordinary aviator from Norway. Discover the compelling narratives of Balkan’s early love for aviation, his complex relationship with Admiral Richard Byrd, and his unparalleled contributions during WWII. Journey through history as we explore Balkan’s navigation feats and pioneering role in commercial aviation across Scandinavia during and after the war.
SPEAKER 07 :
World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and our other wars and conflicts. America’s fighting men and women strapped on their boots and picked up their guns to fight tyranny and stand for liberty. We must never forget them. Welcome to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. These stories will touch your heart, inspire you, and give you courage. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Here’s Kim Monson.
SPEAKER 06 :
And welcome to America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteranStories.com. And the show comes to you because of a trip that I took in 2016 with a group that accompanied four D-Day veterans to Normandy, France for the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day landings. And then returned stateside realizing we need to know these stories and keep them alive and broadcast them and archive them so that we know our history. And pleased to have on the line with me Colonel Bill Rutledge. He’s 97 years young, has this amazing curiosity about people and places in history, and has shared so many different stories with us so that we can gain perspective on really our society, our history, and I really appreciate it. And Colonel Rutledge reached out and he said, Kim, I got this book about Burnt Balkan and never really knew that much about him. Colonel Rutledge actually met him. We’ll talk about that in this hour. But really an amazing guy. He was an aviator and a navigator. And we decided, OK, let’s do a show about it. Well, there’s so much information that we’re doing a part one and part two. And this is part two. And Bert Balken was born in Norway, and his father was a country doctor, and he had two younger sisters, and his parents divorced when he was young, because his father was gone a lot, being a country doctor, making house calls, and his wife, Bert’s mother, really missed kind of a more cosmopolitan lifestyle. And so she left the family, and he was raised by his father and a teenage nanny. And then he ended up having a real love for flying, and we talked about his experience with – Robert Byrd, and Byrd going to, or he’s saying that he flew over the North Pole, and then he and Byrd’s lives were intertwined quite a bit. And so what else should we know about that synopsis, Colonel Rutledge? Welcome to the show.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, good morning, and a continuation. This was the first meeting, of course. Bird and Balkan. And it was in 1926 when Bird was aspiring to be the first person to fly over the North Pole with his pilot would be Mr. Bennett. So they did meet there and went on to afterwards, they went back to New York, they had a big ticker tag parade. Bird was a self-proclaimed hero, and went to Washington and received all sorts of decorations. And later on, he actually received the Medal of Honor from Congress a few years later. And so then they made a flight the next year in 1927 in a plane that was built by Mr. Fokker, who had brought his business from the Netherlands to New Jersey. And the plane had America painted on the outside. And there were four people on the plane. And Mr. Bennett, Mr. Fokker, and also the Mr. Bird, I see Mr. Bird. And of course, Balkan was a third one of the four people aboard. And they were going to be the first flight directly from New York to Paris. This was in April of 1927. But they kept vacillating. Mr. Fokker kept saying, the airplane’s great, it’s time to fly. But Byrd kept delaying, delaying, And while the delaying was going on, Charles Lindbergh was in the same area, so he took off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, and he made his flight and became world famous. So during the next month, in June of 1927, they did take off, and their destination was to be Paris. Unfortunately, They got into bad weather, and they also had strong winds from the north that drove them about 300 to 400 miles south of their destination. So they had to make adjustments, and they actually had to turn over control of the aircraft to Balkan because he knew how to handle large aircraft like that. And he also wanted to be sure that they didn’t have a crash landing because the visibility was so poor. So he dropped down to very low elevation and decided to make a pancake landing that is very flat so they wouldn’t have any too much damage or injury. And the irony was that he crash landed the plane flat. in the water, just off the coast of what was to later become one of our landing beaches in Normandy in 1944. Omaha Beach was the name that later was given for military identification. So they were still considered heroes. So they came back to America, and… Again, because of the notoriety, Byrd took advantage of it to start developing money and gaining money from very political and very influential individuals like Ford and the banking industry and others so that he would go to the South Pole because he claimed that he’d been to the North Pole. I know that he wanted to go to the South Pole and be the first person to do both of those So that’s about where we concluded on the first session.
SPEAKER 06 :
And I needed to make a correction. I referred to Admiral Byrd as Robert. That was his brother, who was a U.S. senator, I think it was. They were brothers, but it was Admiral Richard Byrd, so I needed to make sure that I got that right.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes, that’s correct. And his brother… was not only the senator, but he had also been governor of Virginia, and he was very strong politically. And later, during the latter part of Balkan’s military career, when he was nominated to become a brigadier general, Bird’s brother, who was in the Senate, blocked that promotion seven different times.
SPEAKER 06 :
And we’ll probably talk about that, but why? Why did he do that?
SPEAKER 08 :
Because there was great animosity between Bird and Balkan. Now, Balkan didn’t sense this. He didn’t even feel it. And he had done nothing that was detrimental or critical of publicly about Bird, but Bird was very insecure. He needed to be praised. He was an unusual guy. He was a very good organizer, and he was a good fundraiser, but he was not a good pilot or a navigator. So he needed expert people with him. Therefore, as he started planning to go to the South Pole on his first trip in 1927-28, he wanted to be sure that Balkan came along because, after all, Balkan had been the chief engineer, mechanic, in preparing his plane for the flight to the North Pole when he fixed the skis and built new skis to go on the aircraft. So he was a good, like a flight mechanic and a flight technician. But in addition to that, he had thousands of hours of flying in cold weather and in the Arctic from northern part of Norway. So it was very appropriate that he be invited to be a part of the staff. that was going to the South Pole.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. And that’s where we are beginning with Byrd. He wants to raise this money to go to the South Pole. And he is smart enough, at least, to have Balkan with him on this endeavor.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes. And they did that. And what we have to recognize, we have to flash all the way back to that era and realize that the aircraft didn’t fly very far. Today, we are so accustomed to aircraft flying all the way across the ocean and around the world. But in those days, to go somewhere like that, what they did, they took the airplane apart. They took the wings off and put the airplane on the deck of a ship. And the ship then would go down to the South Island of New Zealand. And therefore, that would be sort of the base from which they would go on to the South Pole. That procedure is still followed today. I have been to the air terminal in Christchurch, South Island in New Zealand, and they have a museum there. And still, when people go down to do science and research at Little America in New the South Pole area, Antarctica. They go to the South Island of New Zealand as a point of departure.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay, I think we’re going to go to break because this next question is going to take a little bit of time to answer. Before we do that, though, I did want to mention the USMC Memorial Foundation. They do such great work to remember and honor those that have given their lives, been willing to give their lives for our freedom, and make a tax-deductible contribution and support the memorial because it is so important that we do remember and honor. And all this happens because of our wonderful sponsors.
SPEAKER 05 :
A house protects from the rain, but a home shelters from the storms of life. Additionally, home ownership has helped Americans create wealth for themselves and their families. The Colorado Metro real estate market is ever changing and is presenting new opportunities for home buyers that we have not seen in quite some time. If you are thinking of buying a new home or selling your home, RE-MAX REALTOR® Karen Levine can help you successfully navigate the complexities of real estate transactions. Call Karen Levine today at 303-877-7516. That’s 303-877-7516. You want Karen Levine on your side of the table.
SPEAKER 06 :
Welcome back to America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Monson. and also through the stories of Medal of Honor recipients. The center is co-founded by Drew Dix and Brad Padula. Drew Dix is a Medal of Honor recipient for actions he took during the Vietnam War. And so check out their website, get their hours. You can do that by going to AmericanValueCenter.org. That’s AmericanValueCenter.org. We’re talking with Colonel Bill Rutledge. He is retired United States Air Force, and he is 97 years young and focuses on, he just has this great curiosity about people, places, and history. And we’re talking about Bert Balkan and Admiral Richard Byrd wants to fly over the South Pole. He’s been raising money for that. So then what happens, Colonel Rutledge?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, they made the first expedition, and this is in the winter of 27, 28. And when I say the winter, actually, it was when it was daylight down there. You have a reverse situation. You have three months of darkness and three months of bright, never—the sun is always over— So the South Pole is just exactly reverse of what you experience at the North Pole, because I experienced that when I was in Greenland. So they went down. They found the remnants of where Amundsen had been back in 1911. And they developed the area because it was well protected. And then they renamed it Little America. And they still carry that name and still do that. as a research center today. But the problem was, when they got down there, the ship that brought them, they were experiencing difficulties as far as ice developing around the ship. So they didn’t stay as long as they had planned. They stayed a few months. They took a Ford tri-motor as their principal aircraft, but they also took a small, very small aircraft that was going to be used in conjunction with their research. It turned out it got damaged and was useless, so they just left it there. And on the tri-motor, they would go out and fly various distances to try to locate where they might best get to the south pole because there’s lots of mountains down there and they never succeeded in the time that they had allotted so they left the aircraft there and returned aboard their ship and came on back but bird was not satisfied so this was by the 27 28 So he almost immediately started preparing for another trip down there. And he did, in fact, make a second trip in the early 1930s. But when they got back to the States in 28, then Balkan had to find employment. So he had been offered an opportunity to work directly there. with Mr. Fokker at his plant in New Jersey as a test pilot and also as a construction engineer because he was extremely versatile. He was probably the best-known person in the aircraft industry that combined an ability to work on building and creating as well as flying. So he became very interested in the early 30s. But right about that time, in 1932, Amelia Earhart appeared on the scene. She had flown across the Atlantic as a part of another crew, but she had not flown on a solo flight, and she aspired to do that in 1932. But her navigation experience was very limited because she flew mostly in a daylight time, which most pilots did in the early 30s, and they would follow railroad tracks or signs on top of big buildings or barns. So she was not experienced for night flying, and she was not qualified for navigation. So she selected Balkan to teach her navigation, and he spent a lot of time with her. He found that she was a good pilot. She was a quick learner, and so he felt that she was prepared to make her flight. So in May of 1932, exactly five years to the day from when Lindbergh had made his flight, she departed from America to go over there and actually followed his route. Most of the way she flew up to St. John’s, Newfoundland, and that was her point of departure to go over. And her initial aspirations were also to go to Paris, but she encountered some very bad weather going over, and she actually lost control of her aircraft at one time, and it got into a spin and was losing altitude. And she was finally able to clear out of the fog and clouds just above the water. And thank goodness for the navigational instructions and the flying instructions that she’d received from Balkan. She adjusted her flight plan and she flew in to the northern part of Ireland. So she actually landed near Londonderry out in an open field. And it was immediately broadcast all around the world that she had made it an accomplished flight to Europe. It wasn’t to Paris. It was to Ireland. But nevertheless, it was a great achievement. But she owed her survival, frankly, to Balkan’s education and training for her to deal with with things which could not be predicted, and also because of the navigational guidance.
SPEAKER 06 :
So that next question, because for young people and even for me, it’s taken a while for me to understand how important navigation was before we have a phone where we can put in an address and it’ll tell us how to get there. They didn’t have that back when they were initially flying World War II. Explain navigation to our listeners who may not understand it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, well, the key on the navigation was it’s somewhat parallels air flight today. I mean, you either have regulations where you fly on instruments or you fly visibly because the visibility is good. It was more closely parallel to being aboard ship navigation where the captain and He sometime had his first mate as a navigator also. But aboard ship was the best example of navigation. And it was limited to visibility. And it got cloudy or overcast and so forth. It really restricted it because they were looking at the stars. They knew that’s why they call a lot of colors called solar navigation. And that was the key to their success. But when you got into aircraft and you would go through various levels, altitude, there would be blankets of clouds or anything that might obstruct the use of that type of navigation. So there were just a variety. But people basically had been dependent upon visibility. There was no radar until 1940. So there were all sorts of things, technology, that were developed in the next decade that transitioned onto what we have today. So it was very, very important to have visibility. And if you didn’t have that, then you also had to have plan B as to what to do. And that’s what she had to go to.
SPEAKER 06 :
And you said in the piece that you had sent over in preparation, and you mentioned that it was very likely that this training helped to save her life.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes, and she wrote to him after she’d made her successful flight and gave him some of the information. It was personal, but mostly to give her appreciation to him because she realized that she… could never have successfully made the flight without his instructions.
SPEAKER 06 :
Pretty remarkable. After the South Pole, well, actually, I have another question, and that is, what are the concerns regarding flying at these low, low temperatures over the South Pole and the North Pole?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, there were limitations, of course, because Most of the aircrafts weren’t properly heated. They weren’t insulated too well, and they didn’t have oxygen for the pilot and crews, so you could only go up to a certain altitude. In the South Pole, this presented a real problem because it was mostly mountainous, and it would be about like trying to fly in Colorado. If you started saying, well, I’m going to fly over the 14ers, that would have been absolutely impossible in those days because you wouldn’t have enough oxygen. You probably wouldn’t have enough power. And there’s just been so many gains in the technology that we’re capable to do things like now. But it’s going way back in time. to the early 30s when things were really just developing and technology was coming along. And unfortunately, wars generate greater, greater research. So that from 1939 on to the end of World War II, there was probably more progress made from 1939 to 1945 than there had been since the Wright Brothers.
SPEAKER 06 :
Wow. Next question, then. You mentioned that they have this tri-motor plane. What is a tri-motor?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, a tri-motor was the main big engine was in the fuselage, right in front, dead center. And then there was an engine motor on either wing. And one of the ironies was that Ford got into that building and They were still using a four-tri-motor back in the 1960s and 70s to fly out of Cleveland out to one or more of the little islands out in Lake Erie. And it was done sort of like an outing for people just to go out and fly in something that was so old. But they kept it in great shape. I doubt if they do that anymore, that would be not likely. But for many, many years, it was a recreational trip for people to go out. And it paralleled something like in the 1920s when they did their so-called barnstorming. That was the first exposure of many, many people all over America were People would take, the pilots would use aircraft that had been used for training in World War I. And I personally had a flight like that when I was five years old, 1933, on a barnstorming flight by sitting in my father’s lap, and it cost $2 to fly up over the Ohio River. So the transition in aviation was huge. and it was expedited as the war came along. But after he spent time teaching Amelia Earhart, he also, during that early decade of the 30s, he became very interested in commercial aviation and the prospect of developing Scandinavian air service.
SPEAKER 06 :
Colonel Rutledge, let’s keep that as our cliffhanger and go to break. I’m talking with Colonel Bill Rutledge, and we’re talking about Burnt Balkan and his life, a fascinating life, and we’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 02 :
In these tumultuous times, it is necessary that we each have a freedom library to know and understand our history. Bury Him! A Memoir of the Vietnam War by Captain Doug Chamberlain is a must for your personal library. In this honest and gripping memoir, Captain Chamberlain recounts the chilling events that took place during his command of a company of young Marines at the height of the Vietnam War. Chamberlain painfully recalls the unspeakable order he and his Marines were forced to obey and the cover-up which followed. Purchase the book at marinedougchamberlain.com. That’s marinedougchamberlain.com so that you gain perspective on this time in our history.
SPEAKER 01 :
All Kim’s sponsors are in inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Monson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmonson.com. That’s Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 1 :
God bless.
SPEAKER 06 :
And welcome back to America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteransStories.com. And Hooters in Colorado is your neighborhood wing joint. They’re the home of the world-famous Hooters girls and the craveable wings that make game day legendary. So no matter which sporting event you’re watching or just meeting up with your crew, Hooters is where the energy’s high, the beer is cold, and the wings are always saucy. And on Saturday, it is kids eat free with the purchase of an adult entree. That is all day, every day Saturday. So bring the family, catch the game, and let Hooters handle the food and the cleanup. We’re talking with Colonel Bill Rutledge regarding Bernd Balkan. And as we went to break, you mentioned that Bernd was interested in commercial aviation.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes. He, after he had spent some time with Amelia Earhart, then we’re already into 32, 33, and he said, was a native, of course, of Norway. So he went back to Norway and visited there and also in Sweden and Denmark and Finland. And they were individually trying to do national commercial aviation for each country. And he found that this was just not feasible. They didn’t have enough money, enough population, and there was not a commercial potential there for four different companies. But he got them together and formed the organization which became the Scandinavian Air Service, SAS. And their plan was, of course, to fly from the Scandinavian area and from the various countries of that. And in to have landing stops for fuel and navigation in Iceland and also in Greenland and then on into America. And, of course, this was all theory, but it was in the planning stage when 1939 comes along and World War II starts. So he was in America and now had become an American citizen. So he was back home here realizing that there was no potential for development of commercial aviation in Scandinavia with the onset of the war. Not only that, in the spring of 1940, Germany occupied Denmark and Norway. So that was out of the question until well after the war. So he was still known as a great guy for flying in cold weather and in Arctic area. And we founded in 1940 after Dunkirk, and the British had withdrawn to England. And then the Germans started bombing, and that’s when the Battle of England actually occurred. And they called it the Battle of Britain. in September of 1940, and it continued until time for their invasion in June of 1941 into the USSR. So during that period, the Americans realized that England could not survive without American help. So they passed the Lend-Lease Program, wherein we sent them as much possible support in old obsolete destroyers that they could use for their Navy, but also in aviation. And in order to do that, we needed to develop some of the routes that were later to be used for commercial And the first one was to develop an airport for part of this landings and fueling and also just to protect the pilots and crew going to England. So Hap Arnold recognized the skill of Burt Balkan. So he called him into his office. And since he was now an American citizen, he said, Mr. Balkan, you are now going to be a captain in the Army Air Corps, and I want you to go to Greenland and build an airport where we can be able to stop and refuel and also to be a rescue point. And he said, go downstairs, and by this time they were in the Pentagon, and talk to the Corps of Engineers and tell them what you need. So he did it. And he went down to the engineers, and he got ahold of either a brigadier or a senior colonel and told them what he wanted. And so they thought he was out of his mind. And so he said, Walton said, well, this is what general, chief of staff told me. So they called up directly up to half Arnold and said, General, we’ve got a captain down here. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s asking for all sorts of things. And General Arnold told him, said, give Captain Balkan everything he needs. He is in the process of building an airport for us on the western coast of Greenland. So they gave him full support. So they started before we ever got into World War II. They started in the summer of 1941 to build an airport at the base of one of the deep fjords, Saunders Drom Fjord. And it was to become Saunders Drom Air Base. And he started working on that in 1941. And it was well along its way. when we got into war in December 1941. He had not finished the airport. He had crews up there working with him. But already we were starting to have to think about developing the 8th Air Force going into England and flying our B-24s and B-17s and fighter planes. And the route would be the northern route, which would go over Greenland. So they started those flights, and there were a number of planes that would run out of fuel or get into bad weather, and they would try to come in to Sonderstrand, but it wasn’t ready yet. So some of them crash-landed on the Greenland ice cap, and there were a number of crews that were out there. And there was one squadron of fighter planes that the whole squadron just had to land way out there, and eventually that they were just, those aircraft were abandoned once the people were rescued. Balkan was, because of his skiing ability and his experience as a pilot in the Arctic area, he would lead the rescues from Sonderstrom, even though it was not completed. He would go out there were a couple of occasions where he would go over 100 miles just on skis to rescue people. Wow. Another time, they were even further distant, and he would use dog sleds and go. And it was very dangerous because there were crevasses and all sorts of things. And so much of this territory had never been explored. But he actually saved lives. many hundreds of American pilots and crew members throughout the war. And that was his principal responsibility. He did finish the airport within two years. It became operational and is still operational. I’ve been through there eight times. And Hap Arnold gave him another direction. He said, while you’re over there working on it, I want you to fly over the northern part of Greenland and find a location that would be best for us for a permanent large base. So he did. And the area that he located was Thule. And Thule is way up in the northwestern corner of Greenland. And so he recognized that. He told Arnold this. But there was not enough resources and not enough time to build something that large. So it was not actually constructed until 1951-52. And that was the base where I went to in 56 to 57. And it’s also where I crossed paths with Balkan. And so anyhow, that was a very important part. But his Main responsibility up until 1944 was the construction of Sonderstrand and personally working on rescues. But in 1944, he was called in again by the Army Chief of Staff, I mean the Army Air Corps Chief of Staff, and said, we have a mission that we’d like for you to undertake in Scandinavia. We have got a lot of air crew members that had been bombing over Berlin and other areas in Germany. And they had, when they couldn’t get back to England, many of the aircraft had gone into Sweden and therefore they were there and diplomatically they couldn’t move them.
SPEAKER 06 :
So was Sweden under Nazi control?
SPEAKER 08 :
No. Well, Sweden was never a part of the war except they were neutral, but they had to be very careful so that the Germans would not come in there. But Sweden was providing iron ore, which was very important to the war. So they were contributing to the Nazi needs in order to be independent and to survive. And we did another show years ago where we talked about a gentleman who crashed. I mean, he’d bailed out over Berlin, and he’d gone across the Baltic, and he was one of the people who was up there in the embassy and eventually had gotten back to England. But that was the mission that was assigned to him in early 1944. because we were having hundreds of air crew members that would end up in Sweden, and we needed to get them back to England so they could be back as a part of the war effort. But it also included rescuing young men who would be put into the German army from Norway and Germany. And so therefore, Sweden became a safe haven for those people. But he had to organize them and get them out of Norway and into Sweden. And then eventually, because of his working with the Swedes, they got hundreds and hundreds of people from both Norway and Americans who had been into Sweden. Sweden for safe haven got them back to to London and that was a huge huge job and then of course it’s 44 transition into 45 then the Germans realized they had to start taking a lot of the troops from Norway and bring them back to Germany for the defense of the homeland which they did And so during that process, again, Balkan was very instrumental in moving young men in Norway for safe havens because they would have been taken back to Germany and made to be forced labor.
SPEAKER 06 :
Wow. Okay, Colonel Rutledge, we’re going to go to break. We’re talking with Colonel Bill Rutledge regarding Bernt Balkan. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 03 :
Many seniors are feeling squeezed because of inflation, higher property taxes, and increasing costs of living. If you’re 62 or older, a reverse mortgage may be the solution. Reverse mortgages can be complicated, so it’s important that you understand the process and work with a trusted professional. Mortgage expert Lauren Levy will help you craft solutions for your unique circumstances, whether a reverse mortgage, first mortgage, or a second mortgage. Call now. From the mountains.
SPEAKER 06 :
And welcome back to America’s Veterans Stories. Be sure and check out the website. That is AmericasVeteransStories.com. And I’m talking with Colonel Bill Rutledge, retired United States Air Force, about Bert Balkan. And he was an aviator, a navigator. He was a creator. And we’re now to spring 1945. The Germans were removing their troops in Norway to go back and defend the homeland. And Balkan… had found that the Germans had been using thousands of Russian POWs working in Norway. And so he was very involved in negotiations regarding that. Just finish that up. I was a little fuzzy on exactly what he did on that.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, Russia actually has a very small area that loops around territory that they control. and it was a part of the Soviet Union and is a part of Russia now. And it goes over the top of Finland and Sweden, and it touches Norway way up on the Arctic area. So what they had done, the Germans had captured thousands and thousands of Russians early in the war, and they had sent them to Russia. work as laborers in Norway to build a railroad that would go all up the coast of Norway. And so consequently, when the war ended, all of these Russian soldiers that had been out working, they were anticipating And we, all the allies, were hoping that they would go home. They just wanted to get rid of them. So the Russians sent one of their senior officers over there to see who was there, how many soldiers were there. And so Balkan was negotiating with them. And he said, well, we want to do the best we can to expedite the movement of these young men back to their homeland. And the Russian commander who was there, he says, we will not take one of them. And this came as a true shock to Balkan and everybody else. And the Russian attitude was that if they were not willing to have given their lives for their motherland, we don’t want them back. Well, that was part of the story. But the real gut story was that it wasn’t just those Russians. It was other Russians throughout Western Europe that had become prisoners. And the Russians didn’t want them back because even though they were doing labor and things in the West, they saw freedom in the West, and the Russians did not want them to come back with any of their recollections of what they had learned. They felt that that would be very difficult to deal with. So their policy was not only Norway, but also all along Western Europe. Most of the Russians who were prisoners never went back to Russia. And the few that did go back were often persecuted, and many of them were sent on to Siberia. I don’t know. There probably were a few even executed because they were considered traitors to the motherland.
SPEAKER 06 :
Wow. Well, once the war was over, then after that, what happened with Burt Bonkin?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, after the war was over, the army… now needed to use his talent, so they sent him to Alaska. And he went to Alaska and developed a squadron there of air-sea rescue for the Arctic area. And they were not restricted just to military use, but they also formed the nucleus of what would today be Alaska’s capability for people who went out and got lost or they might have an airplane crash or there might be any number of circumstances where you’d have to have expert people in rescuing. So he developed this whole concept of going out and finding people and bringing them back and also he developed a manual for the Air Force to use in their training for survival in the Arctic area. And that was still in use when I went up there and may still be in use. Because I remember we were briefed the day before we left New York on our way to Greenland. We saw a short clip on movies on how to build survival things if you’re in a snowy or icy area, and how to be properly dressed, and how to even some places just dig a big hole in the ground to get out of the wind. But he was the authority on that. So he loved doing that work. It was very productive. And he was getting to be a senior, rather senior, full colonel, in the Air Force and they wanted to keep him so he was nominated to become a Brigadier General because if he didn’t get promoted there’s a regulation that a full colonel has to be promoted to general within a certain period of time or he has to be retired so he was nominated seven different times and seven different times because of the political influence of Admiral Byrd’s brother and his contact in Congress, they just would be vetoed. And that isn’t unique. It’s been done several times since then. It was actually done two years ago by the senator from Alabama when some people were nominated for promotion that shouldn’t have been, and he blocked them. And then later on, when there’s a change of administration, it changed.
SPEAKER 06 :
And that was Senator Robert Byrd, who was the brother of Richard Byrd.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right. And of course, we’re dating back 70 years, so this has long since been not the problem, but The mechanics are still there, and it is still a practice that they have to have senatorial confirmation for promotion to general officer.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. And how is it that just one senator could veto that?
SPEAKER 08 :
How could they? I really don’t know all the reasons how they can do it, but they can. Wow. Because the senator from Alabama said, very specifically did exactly that. Now, there was one time back when I was still on active duty that I knew a general, and he was like the Mad Hatter. I mean, he was not good. And he was recommended for additional star. And I wrote to Congress, and I said, look, you’ve blocked his promotions. I said, that’s fine. You have made a good decision. Because I said, this guy, he was known as the mad bomber when he was in Vietnam because he was bombing over in Cambodia where he wasn’t supposed to be. And then when he came back, he was stationed in Lowry. He was a commander of Lowry for a while. And then he was vice commander of the Air Training Command. That’s where I got to know him. And I went to a meeting with him one time. And he was not a good leader. So they used that procedure then to block his promotion. And of course, I saw the actual experience firsthand. So sometimes it’s used very favorably for good purposes. Other times it’s just revenge for somebody.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. Colonel Rutledge, we have about a minute left. And you said that you did meet Bernd Balken in 1956. What was your impression?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I didn’t have any impression other than the fact that I had been told that he was a very experienced man, and he was the assistant to the commander of the Northeast Air Command. So I just saw them. I introduced myself because I was going to be an escort under some of the areas that I was responsible for. And so I never really got to know him at all. It was just I’m being an escort for VIPs.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. Well, and to button this up, he died in 1973. He’d been diagnosed with bone cancer. And you said he died on his birthday. He’s buried in Arlington Cemetery.
SPEAKER 08 :
He’s buried on the day that he would have… Yes, he was buried on the 23rd of October, which would have been his birthday. He had died about a week before. Okay. And they had about three different kinds of cemetery… funerals, different locations, but he was actually interred. And one of the ironies when he was interred in Arlington, he was buried right next to Admiral Byrd. Oh, my gosh.
SPEAKER 06 :
Colonel Rutledge, this has been fascinating. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, thank you for the opportunity.
SPEAKER 06 :
And indeed, my friends, we do stand on the shoulders of giants. God bless you, and God bless America.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you for listening to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure to tune in again next Sunday, 3 to 4 p.m. here on KLZ 560 and KLZ 100.7.
SPEAKER 04 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
