Joseph Otis Fletcher (May 16, 1920 – July 6, 2008) was an American Air Force pilot and

polar explorer This list is for recognised pioneering explorers of the polar regions. It does not include subsequent travelers and expeditions. Polar explorers * Jameson Adams * Stian Aker * Valerian Albanov * Roald Amundsen * Salomon August Andrée * Piotr F ...

Biography

He was born outside of

Ryegate, Montana Ryegate is a town in, and the county seat of, Golden Valley County, Montana, United States. The population was 223 at the 2020 census. Ryegate is situated on the north bank of the Musselshell River. The Milwaukee Road established Ryegate in 1908 ...

on May 16, 1920, to Clarence Bert Fletcher (1884–1944). The family moved to

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

during the Dust Bowl. Fletcher started studying at the University of Oklahoma and then continued his studies in meteorology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduation, he entered the U.S. Army Air Corps and eventually became the deputy commanding officer of the 4th Weather Group, United States Air Force, stationed in Alaska. He married Caroline Sisco Howard on October 15, 1949. On March 19, 1952, his team landed with a

C-47 The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (Royal Air Force, RAF, Royal Australian Air Force, RAAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, RCAF, Royal New Zealand Air Force, RNZAF, and South African Air Force, SAAF designation) is a airlift, military transport ai ...

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

iceberg An iceberg is a piece of freshwater ice more than 15 m long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open (salt) water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially-derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". The ...

in the Arctic Ocean and established a weather station there, which remained manned for 22 years before the iceberg broke up. The station was initially known just as "T-3", but soon renamed " Fletcher's Ice Island". On May 3, 1952, pilot

William P. Benedict William Pershing Benedict (July 20, 1918 – Aug 31, 1974) was an American pilot who was born in Ruth, Nevada and raised in California. He was a highly decorated World War II fighter pilot who served in both the RCAF and the U.S. Army Air Force ...

and Fletcher as co-pilot flew that plane to the North Pole, along with scientist

Albert P. Crary Albert Paddock Crary (July 25, 1911 – October 29, 1987), was a pioneer polar geophysicist and glaciologist. He was the first person to have set foot on both the North and South Poles, having made it to the North Pole on May 3, 1952 (with Joseph ...

, to become the first Americans to land and set foot on the exact geographic North Pole. Unknown to Fletcher and his team, a Soviet expedition had previously landed three Lisunov Li-2s at the pole on April 23, 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 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) is a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). OAR is also referred to as NOAA Research. NOAA Research is the research and development arm of NOAA and is the driving force beh ...

(OAR). He received a doctorate from

University of Alaska The University of Alaska System is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Alaska. It was created in 1917 and comprises three separately accredited universities on 19 campuses. The system serves nearly 30,000 full- and part-time stud ...

in 1979. He retired in 1993. In 2005, he was awarded the honorary membership of the American Meteorological Society. The

Fletcher Ice Rise Fletcher Ice Rise (), or Fletcher Promontory, is a large ice rise, long and wide, at the southwest side of the Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica. The feature is completely ice covered and rises between Rutford Ice Stream and Carlson Inlet. The ice rise ...

in Antarctica was named for him. He died on July 6, 2008, in Sequim, Washington at age 88. He was buried in Resthaven Memorial Park in Shawnee, Oklahoma.

References

External links

*
Fletcher's Ice Island T-3
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Joseph O. Explorers of the Arctic 1920 births 2008 deaths United States Army Air Forces officers United States Air Force officers American Polar Society honorary members People from Golden Valley County, Montana United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni University of Oklahoma alumni University of Alaska alumni