Mercy Pilot

Joe Crosson, a brave and skilled pilot, became a national hero between the world wars flying mercy missions in the North. He pioneered air routes throughout Alaska and foresaw the future of commercial aviation. Above all else, he loved to fly. In 1929, Crosson generated newspaper headlines worldwide flying a long, dangerous and unprecedented search in the Siberian winter darkness for a lost pilot and friend, Carl Ben Eielson. Crosson made a bitterly cold winter flight in an open-cockpit carrying life-saving serum to Barrow, flying through the uncharted Brooks Range without navigation or communication. He was the first pilot to land on a glacier. He had the sad duty of bringing the bodies Wiley Post and Will Rogers Jr. back from their fatal crash in northern Alaska. Crosson thrived on adversity and overcame tragedy and was influenced by two extraordinary women—his sister, Marvel, a contemporary of Amelia Earhart, and Lillian Osborne, the beautiful and able young woman who became his wife.