Joseph Otis Fletcher was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Air Force pilot

Aviator

An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

 and polar explorer.

Biography

Born outside of Ryegate, Montana

Ryegate, Montana

Ryegate is a town in and the county seat of Golden Valley County, Montana, United States. The population was 268 at the 2000 census. Ryegate is situated on the north bank of the Musselshell River.-Geography:Ryegate is located at ....

, the family moved to Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 during the Dust Bowl

Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936...

. Fletcher started studying at the University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...

 and then continued his studies in meteorology

Meteorology

Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...

 at the MIT. After graduation, he entered the U.S. Army Air Corps and eventually became the commander of a weather squadron stationed in Alaska in the late 1940s. On March 19, 1952, his team landed with a C-47

C-47 Skytrain

The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota is a military transport aircraft that was developed from the Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in front line operations through the 1950s with a few remaining in operation to this day.-Design and...

 aircraft modified to have both wheels and skis on a tabular iceberg

Iceberg

An iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice...

 and established a weather station there, which remained manned for 22 years before that iceberg broke up. The station was initially known just as "T-3", but soon renamed "Fletcher's Ice Island

Fletcher's Ice Island

Fletcher's Ice Island or T-3 was an iceberg discovered by U.S. Air Force Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher. Between 1952 and 1978 it was used as a manned scientific research station that included huts, a power plant, and a runway for wheeled aircraft. The iceberg was a thick tabular sheet of glacial ice...

". On May 3, 1952, pilot William P. Benedict and Fletcher as co-pilot flew that plane to the North Pole

North Pole

The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...

, becoming the first humans to land there and the first humans (together with scientist Albert P. Crary

Albert P. Crary

Albert Paddock Crary , was a pioneer polar geophysicist and glaciologist. He made it to the North and then to the South Pole on February 12, 1961 as the leader of a team of eight. The south pole expedition had set out from McMurdo Station on December 10, 1960, using three Snowcats with trailers...

, who flew with them) to set foot on the exact geographical North Pole. (However, some sources credit this achievement instead to a Soviet Union expedition that landed there on 23 April 1948.)

Fletcher left the Air Force in 1963. In later years, he held various management positions in meteorological institutions, including a post as director of the NOAA's Ocean and Atmosphere Research Labs (OAR). He retired in 1993. In 2005, he was awarded the honorary membership of the American Meteorological Society

American Meteorological Society

The American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...

. He died in 2008 in Sequim, Washington

Sequim, Washington

Sequim is a city in Clallam County, Washington, United States. The 2010 US Census counted a population of 6,606. Sequim is located along the Dungeness River near the base of the Olympic Mountains...

.

Literature

• Compton, Charles B.: Born to Fly: Some Life Sketches of Lieutenant Colonel William P. Benedict, self-published 2002, revised 2006.

External links

• Short biography, with image.
• Image of Fletcher and Benedict before their flight to the North Pole.
• Image of Fletcher and Benedict's modified C-47 aircraft.
• Transscript of a 1997 interview with Fletcher.
• Fletcher's Ice Island T-3.
• The American Floating Islands, in French.