the Follow Me car at Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, in 1954
has me wondering, who was Harold Gillam? Why did someone put his name on that airliner?
So, here's the research:
About a 100 years ago (will anyone look us up in 100 years to learn who we were?) he was a young pilot in the search for missing Alaskan rescue expedition pilot, Colonel Carl Eielson in 1929
Eielson was not only his friend but also one of his flight mentors, whom Harold Gillam seemed to idolize. Gillam's desire was so sincere and ardent, and his persistence so resolute, that he was eventually assigned a Stearman C2B and allowed to participate in the search.
He was the 1st pilot in the history of world aviation to fly during the polar night, but he didn't have a pilots license, they weren't so adamant about licenses of any kind in 1929/1930
January 26, 1930, at 9:30 a.m., Gillam took off and headed for Alaska, and shortly after noon, returned with the sad news and pieces of the crashed plane's skin. "As we all suspected, the wrecked plane was found just a stone's throw from the hut of the Russian trappers, who were the first to report hearing the sound of an engine,"
The rescuers' attention was drawn to the glint of the sun on the tip of a wing—the only thing protruding from the snow. The wrecked plane's interior was intact, but the cockpit had been completely torn away.
Now it was the turn of the Soviet pilots and sailors to show heroism. It was primarily through their efforts, amidst a series of terrifying snowstorms and incredible frosts reaching -50°C, that they managed to saw and dig through two-meter-thick layers of compacted snow crust over an area the size of a football field and, at the cost of numerous frostbites, to find the bodies of the fallen aviators.
Everything about the events of that ice epic is astounding. But the most astonishing thing is that, Harold Gillam, who was not yet a pilot, dared to fly during the polar night. At the time, he didn't have a pilot's license and had only 40 hours of flight time. His courage is astounding, and his heroic life deserves a detailed account.
Harold Gillam was born in 1903 in Illinois, and his family later moved to Nebraska, where he grew up. At 16, Harold ran away from home and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. The destroyer on which he served patrolled the Pacific Ocean.
Demobilized in 1923, Gillam found himself ashore without a profession or a job – the United States was gripped by the first "post-war depression." He got a job as a worker in a construction company operating in Alaska.
Harold Gillam was attractive to charming young women and after a few years in construction, he started his own road construction business in Fairbanks. One day, fate brought him to the local airfield, where he found both his calling and his love. Harold fell in love with airplanes and a female pilot—the charming Marvel Crosson, sister of the famous aviator Joe Crosson.
In August 1929, fate dealt Gillam a terrible blow. His beloved died while participating in the Santa Monica-Cleveland Women's Air Derby.
In 1930, Gillam finally received his pilot's license and decided to start his own airline business, Gillam Airways, Inc
World War II doubled the workload for the bush pilots in Alaska, they were called on to patrol the Alaskan coast to search for Japanese submarines.
But their primary missions were servicing mineral extraction and processing facilities, so essential to the war-oriented American industry. Gillam was under contract to the Morrison-Knudsen construction company, then one of the most sought-after contractors.
On the morning of January 5, 1943, he was preparing to pick up cargo and passengers at Boeing Airfield in Seattle and fly them to Anchorage. He chose the new Annette Island military base, under construction southwest of Ketchikan, as a refueling stop en route.
In accordance with wartime regulations, Gebo flew the plane in complete radio silence. Having reached the northwestern foothills of the mountains above the clouds, he began a cautious descent, always maintaining the course indicated by his radio compass. However, the instrument he had so relied on was already leading him away from the airfield. To confuse Japanese aircraft, whose presence in Alaska had been anticipated throughout the war, the Americans periodically activated false radio beacons.
And engine failed, they crashed, heading in the wrong direction, location unknown, and weren't found for 33 days, in February, in Alaska.
Gillam tried to snowshoe out for help, fell through river ice, and while trying to dry out his clothes, died of hypothermia in his sleep.
His son lived in Fairbanks the vast majority of his life and enjoyed a career in local politics spanning approximately 30 years. Gillam served as mayor of both the city of Fairbanks (1972–1978) and the surrounding Fairbanks North Star Borough (1966–1968), the only person to have done so. He was also the youngest borough mayor for over a half century.