Harold June
Sitting in the co-pilot's seat with supplemental radio duties, he flew with Byrd, pilot Bernt Balchen, and photographer Ashley McKinley over the South Pole on November 29, 1929.In May 1918 June transferred to the Herreshoff yard in Bristol, Rhode Island as senior inspector in charge of repairs and new work for vessels built for the U.S. Navy.The expedition, well-equipped with supplies purchased from donations from some of the principal U.S. magnates of the Roaring Twenties, was eager to explore the above-sea-level sectors of Antarctica that bordered the ice shelf.On March 8 June, Balchen, and geologist Larry Gould, aboard the expedition's Fokker Universal, flew from Little America to land as close as possible to the Rockefeller range to collect geological specimens.While this was to be the first penetration by an aircraft over the Antarctic Plateau, the route itself was generally familiar to Byrd and his men, because they flew close to the pathway used by Roald Amundsen in his successful ground-level expedition to the South Pole in late 1911.[1][4] After the Tri-Motor's triumphant landing later on November 29, June accompanied Byrd as co-pilot on additional exploration flying work across an adjacent area of Antarctica.The flights charted the Edsel Ford Range and Sulzberger Bay, geographic features named for additional key financial donors to the expedition.As the Antarctic winter approached, the expedition closed their Little America base and their ship sailed north from the Ross Ice Shelf on February 7, 1930.[7] From September 27 to October 20, 1934 June led four men on an exploration mission in a snow tractor which discovered a large plateau in the Edsel Ford Range with an elevation of 2,160 feet.[9] On November 22 he piloted the biplane William Horlick on a long range reconnaissance mission into the unexplored area to the southeast of Little America which covered 1,150 miles.