Granddaughter of Admiral Byrd to address RI Aviation Hall of Fame dinner

Posted 11/6/18

The Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame will honor famed polar explorer Richard E. Byrd (1888-1957) at its 16th annual dinner and honors ceremony. The event will take place at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in Cranston on Saturday evening, November 17.

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Granddaughter of Admiral Byrd to address RI Aviation Hall of Fame dinner

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The Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame will honor famed polar explorer Richard E. Byrd (1888-1957) at its 16th annual dinner and honors ceremony. The event will take place at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in Cranston on Saturday evening, November 17. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. Tickets cost $60 each and can be obtained by emailing riahof@aol.com, or logging in at www.riahof.org. For further information, call 398-1000 or 831-8696.

Special guest Marie Giossi of Cranston, granddaughter of Admiral Byrd, will present a short audio-visual program on his life. What most people do not know is that when Byrd retired early from the Navy because of an ankle injury, he was assigned to be the Inspector-Instructor of the RIN Naval Militia in 1916. He supervised the Militia's acquisition of its first seaplane, and helped usher this state into military aviation. He then became the Militia's last commander, serving in that capacity until the unit was federalized on April 6, 1917. It was never fully reconstituted after the war. He left Rhode Island and regained active status in the Navy when the US declared war on Germany in April of 1917.

He eventually earned his wings at Pensacola and went on to his spectacular career as a polar explorer and pioneer aviator. His flight to the North Pole in 1926 established him as a public hero. Songs, poems, parades, medals, and other honors followed. He received the Congressional Medal of Honor. More honors and parades followed his flight across the Atlantic in 1927, the third after Charles Lindbergh. For the remaining three decades of his life, Byrd invested his resources and his energies in the exploration of the Antarctic. Additional honorees will be announced shortly.

Honorees are selected by an ad hoc committee representing a number of aviation groups. The committee includes all previous inductees, such as Robert Crandall, former chairman of American Airlines; Jennifer Murray, the first woman to fly a helicopter around the world; and Apollo 8 Astronaut Bill Anders.

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