Edith "Jackie" Ronne

America's "First Lady" in Antarctica

RONNE ANTARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION, 1946-1948

A Feature Story for Patriot Outlaws Radio
March 7, 2020

Portions of this segment were based on a 2019 lecture by Karen Ronne Tupek

for the Ohio State University, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, Columbus, OH.

Karen Ronne Tupek: Edith "Jackie" Ronne: A Pioneer in Antarctic Exploration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WksxLpUEO_s

An audio clip and screenshots of images shown in that lecture were used with the permission of Karen Ronne Tupek.

Corrections were made to this blogpost after consulting Karen Ronne Tupek following the airing of this segment and will be included in any future production of a video.

Intro: Mack Wood

Gunner:

You never know where an investigation will take you.

But sometimes chasing down leads and falling into rabbit holes is worth it. And this is how I found this story while investigating Operation Highjump: It was the claim there was a British base on the peninsula that led me to investigate -

When explorers refer to a "base" it is not a military base! In this case "the bases" were home to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Station E and the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition, and was the base of operations for many historic Antarctic Peninsula surveying missions in the 1940s. Station E was occupied until 23 February 1975 and the main building was known as Trepassey House, it was cleaned up and repaired in 1992. The "huts" are protected under the Antarctic Treaty.

Edith "Jackie" Ronne

RECALL THE CLIP OF BYRD ?: He was WRONG!

Edith Anna Maslin: Born: October 13, 1919, Baltimore, MD
Died: June 14, 2009. Bethesda, MD (aged 89)
Burial: Arlington National Cemetery

- Raised in a poor, conservative family
- Graduated HS at age 16
- Attended Wooster College (Ohio) and George Washington University (1939) History Major
- Worked for National Geographic Society and US State Department Office of Foreign Affairs
- Met Comdr. Finn Ronne in DC, 1942
- Married in 1944

Married into the family of explorers

Finn Ronne: Born in 1899 - Died in 1980 (same way Byrd died) age 80

- Twice to Antarctica (promised not to go again but secretly planned another expedition someday).

- He was the son of Martin Ronne who, as a sailmaker on the schooner "Fram", had accompanied famed explorer Ronald Amundsen to Antarctica, and served with him for twenty years. Martin also took part in Byrd Antarctic Expedition I (1928-1930).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fram

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_R%C3%B8nne

NOTE: The hands of Martin Ronne (above); Sewing machine and Sled dogs on deck! (below)

Schooner Fram

Martin Ronne and Ronald Amundsen aboard the Fram (1910)

- Father turned Byrd down twice for exped in 1928-30 but agreed the third time because Byrd offered him a lot of money so he came out of retirement at age 67.

- Fascinated with exploration (father)
- Athlete/Skier
- Horton Tech College - Naval Engineering
- Immigrated to the U.S. in 1923 and gained citizenship in 1929.
- Worked for Bethlehem Steel and Westinghouse
- Served as an Officer in the US Navy Reserve in WW2

Commander (later Captain) Finn Ronne, USNR, led the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition (RARE) of 1947-48. This was “the last large private expedition to Antarctica. It explored both coasts of the Antarctic Peninsula and the Weddell Sea’s southern coast, both on the ground and with three ski-equipped aircraft loaned by the U.S. Army Air Force.

Finn was a veteran of two prior Antarctic expeditions, including the second Byrd expedition and the U.S. Antarctic Service Expedition. And was chosen because Byrd new his father so well.

The first indication of problems with Byrd:

As soon as WWII ended, Finn began planning another expedition. Admiral Richard E. Byrd, a friend of Finn’s at the time, who lived only a block away, urged Finn to join forces with him for Operation Highjump, but Finn insisted on his own independent, private operation.

Although Finn and Byrd had served together on the United States Antarctic Service Expedition, 1939-41, (Ronne was Byrds second in command and Byrd never went because he was recalled to active duty).

Byrd did his utmost to torpedo Finn’s plans for his independent venture. Byrd even demanded that Finn give him all of his detailed plans, which reluctantly Finn did. Byrd then presented them as his own plans for an expedition; not even the wording of the proposal was changed. It seemed clear that Finn’s erstwhile friend, Admiral Byrd, had “double-crossed” him.

Despite Byrd’s strong opposition, there were still many offers of help to Finn, including Sir George Hubert Wilkins, General Curtis LeMay, Ed Sweeney, a long-time friend, the Office of Naval Research, and Allen Scaife, of the wealthy Mellon family of Pittsburgh. Although Byrd’s fierce opposition failed to stop Finn’s expedition, it did succeed in limiting necessary funding.

A trained geographer and naval engineer, Finn Ronne began raising money as soon as the war was over, but it was a struggle. And his former expedition leader, the renowned (and influential) Adm. Richard E. Byrd -- by then a rival -- was not supportive.

"To this day Jackie Ronne holds Byrd accountable for unexpected minefields her husband encountered establishing the expedition, and for its shoestring budget of $50,000".

- Judith Weinraub, Washington Post Staff Writer

Ronne had originally hoped to raise $150,000.

NOTE: Remember my estimated cost of Highjump at 350,000.00?

Less than $50,000 was raised, and many participants were unpaid volunteers. Thanks to General LeMay, several military personnel were “seconded” to the expedition, including the two principal pilots.

The Air Force also donated three planes, equipment, spare parts, and clothing. As Finn worked constantly on planning his expedition, Jackie’s initial role was to edit and type all of his correspondence. At this same time, at the end of 1946, as he was presenting his proposal, Finn also served on the Task Force that created the Thule Air Force Base in Greenland, and he assisted Thor Heyerdahl in planning his 1947 trip across the Pacific on a balsa raft named "Kon Tiki".

"Thule" is named for Ultima Thule (Latin, "farthest Thule"), a medieval name for the land farthest to the north. The name Thule comes from (Greek: Θούλη), a place name dating to the third-century BC for a land believed by the Greeks to lie to the north of Britain. Unlike the Greek pronunciation, however, the airbase is pronounced using the Scandinavian or Latin pronunciation of the initial hard t (Tool) rather than the modern Greek soft th (THool).

Thule AFB Greenland

The Nazi Thule Society identified Ultima Thule as a lost ancient landmass
in the extreme north, near Greenland or Iceland, said by Nazi mystics to
be the capital of ancient Hyperborea.

Thor Heyerdahl

Kon Tiki

The Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition (RARE) departed for Antarctica from Beaumont, Texas, on January 27, 1947. There were three planes – a twin-engine C-45 Beech, a Noordwyn C-64 Norseman, and a Stinson L-5. One of the planes (C-45 Beechcraft) the most important - was damaged beyond repair when a crane cable broke while loading. Ronne had to go to Washington to get Congressional approval for another plane and General Curtiss LeMay replaced it with an exact match.

Two active duty USAF pilots were provided and these were the only paid members of the expedition. The pilots were eager to fly, and did for the entire expedition.

All other expedition participants were volunteers, including Beaumont’s own Arthur Owen, an Eagle Scout who was selected as the second Eagle Scout to go to the South Pole. The first was Paul Siple, who went with Commander Byrd on August 28, 1928. Commander Finn was also part of the Byrd Expedition. and his experience with Siple made him decide to have a Scout accompany his expedition as well.

The 183-foot, 1200-ton, wooden-hulled ship carried 21 explorers, plus Beaumont Eagle Scout Charlie Landry, who traveled with the expedition as far as Panama, and then flew back to Beaumont, 21 crew members, scientific equipment, three airplanes, 30 tons of coal, a hundred 55-gallon drums of gasoline, dogs, food for two years, and innumerable other supplies. The 16,000-mile voyage began in Beaumont and ended in New York City, where New York Scouts were on hand to greet Arthur Owen on his return.

Port of Beaumont

- Wanted Jackie to go but she said "no way"

- Family was horrified and her aunt wrote her saying: "And don't forget, you'll ruin your complexion."

- Convinced Jennie Darlington to go too.

Jennie Darlington (Left) and "Jackie" Ronne

- To avoid becoming the “first and only,” Darlington went as well, but had no official expedition role. They all gathered last-minute supplies in Chile and Jackie resigned from her State Department job.

- Darlington (wife of chief pilot Harry Darlington) joined her husband on the expedition on the spur of moment in Chile. (Darlington was also the first woman to become pregnant in Antarctica).

It has been claimed that she and Jackie did not get along (or didn't speak) for some of the expedition due to issues between their spouses. Karen Ronne Tupek (daughter of Jackie Ronne) says that two women never had any issues with each other - Never.

Darlington later wrote a book, My Antarctic Honeymoon, in which she concluded that "women do not belong in Antarctica."

- Ship was frozen into the Marguerite Bay intentionally for the first time.

- Stonington Island at that time was connected to the Palmer Peninsula - they used the same base that was used during the 1938-41 exped.

- The ship anchored alongside the Antarctic (Palmer) Peninsula right in front of the British base built there during the war.

The expedition's Main Base was set up on Stonington Island, Marguerite Bay, in the buildings used as East Base during Byrd's 3rd Antarctic expedition. This vicinity was also home to the Falkland Islands Dependencies "Base E" campsite, under the command of Major K. S. Pierce-Butler. A very good relationship was established between the men and as a consequence, some scientific work was shared between the groups.

NOTE: RARE arrived at Marguerite Bay in the Antarctic on March12, 1947:

There were only 3 Highjump ships in the Antarctic on Feb 26, 1947, and two were in the Weddell Sea heading for the South Atlantic - So they would not have had any contact with Highjump vessels.

"East Base" Stonington Island

- The "Ronne Hut" was 12 x 12: I don't know about you guys, but MY bedroom is 12 x 12 and I can't imagine living in there for whole year - I would definitely go nuts!

Jackie wrote articles for the North American Newspaper Alliance: reports sent several times a week via teletype.

-Knitting and cooking: knitting is on display at the US Naval Museum

Cooking in the "Ronne Hut"

- Jackie cared for Huskies and pups.

Caring for the Huskies

The dreaded cliff-side outhouse

- Mapping began in Antarctic Spring of 1948: (November to February)

Her daughter Karen (Ronne Tupek) made a presentation about her mother for the Ohio State University, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, Columbus, OH, October 17, 2019

She narrates about the photo mapping and aircraft etc in this:

CLIP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WksxLpUEO_s (24:48 - 26:31)
2 minutes 19 seconds

Achievements

Ronne covered 3,600 miles by ski and dog sled—more than any other explorer in history!

To put that in perspective, it is anywhere from 2,400 to 3,500 miles coast to coast across the U.S

A flag was created for the expedition and was flown on the return trip:

• Jim Bettersworth, of the Bettersworth-Bordages Display company designed (blocked-out) the flag.

• Mrs. M. E. Mills and her mother Mrs. N. E. Newman of 1205 Filmore Street, acquired the materials and sewed the flag.

The flag is that of the Explorers Club -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Explorers_Club
(1927 – Roald Amundsen, 1937 – Richard E. Byrd)

Jackie and Finn Ronne, were both members of the Explorers Club.
.

Ronne Expedition Flag (rare photo)

Stamps and Mail:

Mail was dispatched at Magallanes, Chile during the trip south and later processed on the shipboard post office of the USS Edisto.

• January 3, 1947, the US Post Office decided not to issue a stamp to commemorate the expedition since it was not an official government venture, although it had the sanction and support of some government agencies.

I found a references to this on the Ronne Expedition site:

http://www.ronneantarcticexplorers.com/antarctica.htm

From a stamp collectors website:

https://www.qsl.net/kg0yh/oleona.htm

https://www.qsl.net/kg0yh/polar.htm

Curious note: "A Secret U.S. Post Office operated by Ronne in Antarctica 1947-1948 caused speculation about the real reason behind two concurrent U.S. expeditions...Highjump and the Ronne Expedition"

From Segment 2:

"More recently an article by Eric J. Choron, in 2003 titled "How high can you jump? Operation Highjump and the UFO connection" claimed that40 ships were involved and included 1,400 armed sailors. Choron was the first to claim Highjump was met with heavy resistance from UFOs and had to retreat".

According to conspiracy theorist and Neo-Nazi Eric J. Choron:

"Secrecy seems to be in no scarcity as it relates to several Antarctic expeditions; perhaps in no small way due to a continued concern that the Nazis had a remnant left in Antarctica from their infamous 1938-9 "New Schwabenland" colonization of Antarctica.

The web is abundant with sites setting forth information about suspected and actual German involvement in Antarctica possibly dating back even to the late 1800's. It does make one wonder if there were in fact, covert or as they say today, "black-ops" reasons for one or more of the Byrd Expeditions including Operation Highjump as well as the private expedition of Captain Ronne. "

Writing in his book entitled "Antarctic Conquest", Ronne stated:

"Although no one knew it, I had been operating a United States Post office too, but for reasons of state (emphasis added) had been compelled to keep it secret."

NOTE: I contacted Karen Ronne Tupek (Jackie's daughter) and I asked her about this. She said Finn Ronne was authorized by the US Postmaster General to be the Postmaster 4th Class of Oleona Base as "insurance" for a potential US claim.

Ronne canceled about 25 covers as souvenirs on the opening and closing dates of the expedition.

https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/2278/

There was a geopolitical issue with land claims in Antarctica at the time and so the US State Department decided that public disclosure of an operational US Post Office there might be considered to be a land claim by the US to the existing British claim and this is why Ronne was sworn to secrecy.

Not because it had anything to do with Highjump or secret Nazi bases.

Mrs. Tupek said that no mail could even be sent out from the base until the following spring due to the harsh winter conditions and the other members of the expedition had no idea Ronne had kept the potential post office a secret until after the expedition.

She may or may not be listening right now but I am certain she will correct me if I have made any mistakes about that.

NOTE: She did indeed correct the information I provided during the live segment. So I have edited this blog of my previous version.

Karen even sent me never before published photos and documents related to the "secret" Post Office.

So, Choron links the RARE to Highjump by pointing out that Ronne did not allow any mail to be sent home during the expedition.

"While the United States did not then, and does not now, recognize any country as having specific territorial claims upon Antarctica, for Ronne to have allowed his expedition members to have open mailing of letters from Oleana Base would have served a similar purpose as with Port Lockroy, but for some reason, he would not allow that to be done. Why?"

He also claims: "Some mail did escape, and other mail from members of the Ronne Expedition is known to have been posted from nearby British bases."

I would like to see his sources of evidence for that claim. If mail had been posted at the British base (200 meters away) it still would not have left until the next spring and would then have first been taken to England to be sent to the USA.

The posting of mail often serves a geopolitical purpose in addition to the simple fact it carries mail back home to loved ones; and it is a great curiosity to many polar stamp collectors and followers of Antarctic history that it was not done in this instance."

"Is there perhaps a larger reason why this post office was kept secret? The full story about the existence of the post office (as well as even greater secrets?) may have passed with Captain Ronne."

I have to agree that considering the harsh environment and the long period of isolation, lack of incoming mail would normally have been a serious blow to morale. But apparently the members of RARE understood that outgoing mail was impossible during the winter and for most of the time they were there.

And quite a contrast to Highjump. Maybe it was because the "post office" during Highjump was actually the USS Mount Olympus. They did postmark covers at "Little America 4" also.

Obviously, Mr. Choron did not know the reason, but I do. Unfortunately, this seems to be the basis for his linking the RARE to Operation Highjump. He never mentioned the mail and public interest in Highjump. In fact, he was one of the first to falsely claim it was top secret.

The Ronne Expedition (RARE) "Covers" are now "rare" collectibles:

At least one is valued at approximately 2,500.00

The "Holy Grail" of Antarctic Covers

The little tidbit mentioned above that Ronne forked us in his book, only begins to tell us why the Oleana Base, Antarctica postmark is one of the rarest polar cancels that exist. With this being the first American post office established on the Antarctic continent, it is a shame that the cancel was not used more often.

In this instance, the cover illustrated above is extraordinary in that it is on a printed envelope from the Byrd II Antarctic Expedition, postmarked with the less common hand cancellation from that mission; then repost marked at Oleana Base in 1947, with the addition of Captain Ronne's "corner card" and the IGY Ellsworth Station octagonal cachet, and the best part of all, Ronne's signature in which he adds the word "Postmaster", rounding it out to make a splendid cover!

A cover like this would fare extremely well in a polar auction. I would go so far to term it as the "Holy Grail" of a polar collection; only very few covers I can think of would be more collectible, in my opinion."

NOTE: One sold at auction for 450 pounds!

"Rescue" of the Ronne Expedition

In January 1948, preliminary preparations were made to bring the expedition to an end.

The Ronne Port of Belmont was evacuated from the ice by a Windclass icebreaker arriving for Operation Windmill in March 1948:

The USS EDISTO entered the area on December 27, 1947, to set ground controls for flights by Highjump planes and provided support to the Ronne Expedition.

Mail was handled in the shipboard post office.

http://www.south-pole.com/aspp108.htm

While in the Antarctic on this deployment, Edisto also trained sailors and tested cold-weather equipment, as well as investigating installations and equipment left by Operation Highjump the previous year.

USS Edisto AGB-2

NY Harbor Master salute

I may have read these and never knew she wrote them!

They did have problems and she addresses those in her book. These were due mainly to the extended period of isolation and tensions within the crew.

There were several accidents but luckily no casualties. They accomplished the mission and "Jackie" Ronne never regretted being part of it.

So if these "conspiracy theorists" and pseudo-historians want to claim Byrd was "silenced" after Operation Highjump - Maybe it was because he was too proud to admit that the Ronne Expedition was a success and his efforts to sabotage it had failed -

There is almost no mention of the Ronne Expedition or Operation Windmill - Or that Edith "Jackie" Ronne was the first American woman to set foot on Antarctica and that she and Jennie Darlington were the first women ever to be in an Antarctic expedition over the winter.

It's a shame the true story is buried under all the fictional revisions of history. Hopefully, this will change over time.

I recommend watching the 30 min video on YouTube

Karen Ronne Tupek: Edith "Jackie" Ronne: A Pioneer in Antarctic Exploration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WksxLpUEO_s

I did request permission from Karen Ronne Tupek to use the clip we aired tonight and for the use of photos etc. which she granted and she seemed very appreciative of my efforts to put the story out there.

End of Segment

Daughter Karen Ronne Tupek:
http://www.karentupek.com/index.htm

Architect, Historic Preservation Officer

Department of Veterans Affairs

1974 - 2006

Karen Ronne Tupek, an architectural graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, was the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Historic Preservation Officer, located within the Veterans Health Administration’s Office of Facilities Management. She retired in the Spring of 2006. She was responsible for all department-wide Cultural Resource Management Programs, establishing departmental policy and implementing a nationwide program to preserve resources consisting of over 75 medical center historic districts, 28 single historic buildings, 31 archeological sites, and over 90 national cemeteries.

In her thirty-two year career with VA, Karen spent 25 years in the preservation office, learning preservation from the ground - up, before there were formal university programs. Early on, she served on the interagency committee at the National Park Service to develop today's preservation design standards. She also worked with medical facility design, handicapped accessibility issues, and state-owned veterans nursing homes.

As the VA’s preservation advocate, she advised on preservation planning, design, and compliance review requirements in program and construction activities affecting historic properties. Specifically, she had been closely involved in every aspect of the program in the facilities arena: identifying, evaluating and nominating eligible VA properties to the National Register of Historic Places; suggesting specific design details on construction projects; contracting archeologists; writing and reviewing historic assessments; directing compliance with Section 106 and writing agreement documents; providing training on preservation requirements to field and central office personnel; lecturing on VA history and architecture, preservation design and cultural resource management; and writing VA-wide policy and guidance.

Expedition Members:

Comdr. Finn Ronne, U.S.N.R., Expedition Leader

Comdr. Isaac Schlossbach, U.S.N. (Ret.), Second in Command (Ike) Skipper of Ship

Dr. Robert L. Nichols, Geologist and Senior Scientist Trail Man (Bob or Nich)

Harris-Clichy Peterson, Physicist (Harcly or Pete)

Andrew A. Thompson, Geophysicist (Andy)

Edith “Jackie” (Mrs. Finn) Ronne, Recorder

Capt. James W. Lassiter, U.S.A.F., Pilot (Jim or Jimmy)

Lieut. Charles J. Adams, U.S.A.F., Pilot (Chuck)

Harry Darlington, Pilot (Harry)

Jennie (Mrs. Harry) Darlington

James B. Robertson, Aviation Mechanic (Jimmy)

Charles Hassage, Ship’s Chief Engineer (Chuck)

William R. Latady, Photographer (Bill)

C. O. Fiske, Climatologist, (Larry)

Walter Smith, Ship’s Mate, Navigator and Trail Man (Smitty)

Nelson McClary, Ship’s Mate (Mac)

Sigmund Gutenko, Chief Commissary Steward, U.S.N., on furlough with expedition (Sig)

Lawrence Kelsey, Radio Operator (Kelsey)

Robert H. T. Dodson, Asst. Geologist, Surveyor amd Trail Man (Bob)

Donald McLean, Medical Officer (Don)

Ernest A. Wood, Ship’s Engineer (Woody)

Arthur Owen, Boy Scout and Trail Man (Art)

Jorge de Giorgio Valdes, Mess Cook (Chilean) (George)

Ellsworth Station was built by United States Navy Seabees under the command of Captain Finn Ronne,^[2] with the support of theicebreakers USS Staten Island and USS Wyandot, captained by Francis Gambacorta.^[3]^[4] The originally planned site for the station wasCape Adams, but when the terrain proved impractical due to huge ice cliffs, an alternate location on Gould Bay was selected,^[3] on the western coast of the Weddell Sea over the Filchner Ice Shelf, and close to the Argentinean Belgrano I Base.^[5]

It was shut down in 1962 over safety concerns due to it being built on increasingly unstable ice, which produced fast deterioration of its superstructures and endangered both personnel and equipment.^[1]

Sources:

http://www.ronneantarcticexplorers.com/ronne_antarctic_research_expedition.htm

http://www.ronneantarcticexplorers.com/book.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WksxLpUEO_s

https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/1808/

https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/antarctica/antartica11.htm

http://greyfalcon.us/

Mail http://www.south-pole.com/aspp108.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_Society

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennie_Darlington

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finn_Ronne

https://beechrestorations.wordpress.com/the-ronne-antarctic-expedition/