Oral History Interview Control Form
Name of Interviewee: Mr. Dale R. Reed (Age 67)
Name of Interviewer: Brian Shoemaker
Date of Interview: 6 May 2002
Place of Interview: Reed home, Seattle, WA
Number of Tapes: 2 (3 sides)
Restrictions: No
Cataloged: No
Transcribed: No
Abstract of Contents:
Born: Lakewood, Colorado on June 7 1935.
BS Electrical Engineering (57) and MS Electrical Engineering (65), University of Colorado, Boulder.
Father was mentor – influenced him to become an engineer.
Employed (57) by National Bureau of Standards(NBS) Boulder.
First tour(Deep Freeze III) 1957 – 1959, Ellsworth Station, Filchner Ice Shelf, Weddell Sea.
Sailed November 1957 from Norfolk, Virginia on AKA-92 USS. Wyandot. Precision Depth Recordings Mid Atlantic Ridge for Lamont Laboratories of Columbia University.
Traveled to Antarctica with Cdr. Schlossbach USN(Ret)
Relieved the Finn Ronne party which had spent first winter at Ellsworth.
Lt. Paul Tidd station Commanding Officer.
Isolated under the ice with 40 other intrepid explorers.
Cosmic Ray studies for Dr. Robert B. Brode, UC Berkeley and Ionospheric Studies for NBS.
Slept in Jamesway science hut with ‘clicking cosmic ray counters.”
Communications with families via Amateur Radio(KC4USW) was very important morale booster.
In summer of 1959 Argentines arrived aboard icebreaker General Belgrano,
One month on the USCGC Edisto traveling from Ellsworth to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Studied geology at the University of Colorado for two months before driving red MGA to Alaska.
Second tour(Operation Deep Freeze) Byrd Station 1959–1961.
Conducted Ionospheric and Radio Noise research for NBS at Boulder.
Very Low Frequency(VLF) research(Whistlers West) for Dr. Robert Helliwell of Stanford University.
Daily walks along a rope safety line to the buried Radio Noise and VLF research facilities.
Old Byrd Station being crushed as New Byrd was being built.
Airborne VLF tent traverse with
co-scientists Neil Brice and Oliver Cromwell Morse III.
Honored for his Antarctic work by the naming
of Reed Ridge in the Thiel Mountains.
Conducted(NBS Boulder) scale model antenna
location studies for future installation on the USNS Eltanin Antarctic research
vessel.
Mr. Reed concluded that the quality of the research data he collected was marginal. He eventually returned to the University of Colorado to teach and earn his Masters in Electrical Engineering followed by thirty years in Electromagnetic Engineering at Boeing – a very rewarding career that was jump-started in Antarctica.