| Keebirds
Revealed -- The sad story of the B-29 lost for fifty
years on a frozen lake of the Greenland icecap and
the attempt to recover and fly it out was �KEEBIRD,�
shown on national television recently. KEEBIRD, for
that was the bomber�s name, flew out of Ladd
Field, Fairbanks, AK, in the late �40�s.
Disoriented by atmospheric clutter or Russian
chicanery and out of fuel, her crew landed it on the
lake, the only flat place in sight. Located a couple
of days later, they were extracted in a long-range
rescue mission by Col. Bernt Balchen, the famed
Arctic explorer and cold weather expert for 11th
AAF. But the plane sat on that frozen lake for
fifty-odd years. Finally a group of adventuresome
veterans attempted to restore it on site and fly it
out. It would have been one of the very few B-29s
airworthy, had they succeeded. A minor glitch on
taxiing for takeoff -- spilled fuel on a hot
on-board putt-putt generator -- and the whole plane
burned on the ice. Heartbreaking.
***** ***** ***** ***** People keep asking what a Keebird is, so here, copied right from the book, honest, is the definition: viz: Keebird: Rara avis Aleutiensis hallucinatus -- (your high school Latin teacher might translate roughly as a rare birdlike creature indigenous to the Aleutian Island chain between the Bering Sea and the North Pacific Ocean.) Seldom, if ever, seen because of 30-knot fogs, freezing salt spray, shrieking williwaw winds, and occasional volcanic ashfalls that impair visibility, Keebirds inhabit the surging reefs and snowcapped peaks of the Alaska peninsula and Aleutian islands. Keebirds, however, have been heard by hardy WWII veterans of a nearly forgotten military struggle for control of these islands -- Army, Navy, USAAF, RCAF, and perhaps even the Emperor�s troops. Many of these aural witnesses attest the Keebird�s mournful, distinctive, cry, �KEE--KEE--KEE--KEERIST IT�S COLD!� And there you are: just the cold facts. |
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Last Updated: 05 May 2010 15:57
Originally published 19 May 2001