Materials are arranged in the order created during the interview process, with the final folder containing correspondence following up on the interview after its completion.
Accession No. PA.2000.0059: Joseph O. Fletcher, 1997 January
[identification of item], Joseph O. Fletcher Oral History, SPEC.PA.56.0077, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Ohio State University
Contains audiocassettes.
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Processed by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2020 October; Finding aid written by: Audrey Wimbiscus, Sam Devereaux, 2020 November
Colonel Joseph Otis Fletcher (1920-2008) was a United States Air Force (USAF) pilot and polar researcher who focused on meteorological studies. He enrolled at the University of Oklahoma in 1936 and joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program. In 1941, Fletcher received his Master’s Degree in Meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was called into active service with the USAF. When his active duty ended in 1942, Fletcher remained in the USAF. He was assigned to meteorological research laboratories at MIT and the Ohio State University. During this time, Fletcher helped develop the use of microwave radar for meteorological observation, set up a world-wide system for collecting meteorological observations, and designed configurations for various aircraft. He received a Master’s Degree in Physics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1947 and became the head of the Air Force Geophysical Laboratories at MIT’s Cambridge Research Laboratories.
In 1948, Fletcher took command of an aircraft squadron in Alaska. His group flew across the Arctic to complete weather reconnaissance and radar development, while testing various airplanes and equipment in polar weather conditions. During this time, Fletcher discovered the ice islands T-2 and T-3. In 1951, Fletcher stayed on T-3 in the Arctic to test the efficiency of an emergency response team and measure the thickness of the ice. Later that year, he returned to the United States and the Air Force began construction of a Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line to detect enemy bombers coming over the North Pole. Fletcher was the Air Force Project Officer and spent most of his time from 1951-1953 in Point Barrow, Alaska, as the primary contact for the construction of the DEW Line. In May 1952, he was part of the USAF team that made the first American airplane landing to set foot on the geographical North Pole. Following his time in Alaska, Fletcher was assigned to the Air War College in Alabama to lecture about air operations in the Arctic. From 1957-1958, he worked at the Navy War College in Rhode Island and helped develop Alpha and Beta, two drifting stations in the Arctic, during International Geophysical Year.
Fletcher retired from the Air Force in 1963 and began working with the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, California, researching environmental topics. He wrote about climate change in the Arctic and Antarctic, then studied climate change at the Equator. After that, Fletcher took a sabbatical at the University of Washington and began planning the Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment (AIDJEX), a study of sea ice in the Arctic, with Norbert Untersteiner. He became Head of the Division of Polar Programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1971 and helped establish NSF’s Global Atmospheric Research Program. In 1974, Fletcher became Director of the Polar Program and advocated for NSF’s support of AIDJEX. Later that year, he began working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Fletcher continued researching climate change and the global circulation of the atmosphere, until he retired from NOAA in 1992.
The Joseph O. Fletcher Oral History, dated 1997 and 2001, contains audio recordings and transcripts of the interview between Fletcher and Brian Shoemaker of the American Polar Society conducted on January 23, 1997, as well as correspondence from 2001. Major topics discussed include Fletcher's time in the United States Air Force (USAF) as part of the 58th Weather Squadron, the T-3 field station on an iceberg that he helped establish (this iceberg was later renamed Fletcher's Ice Island, though it is thought to have melted sometime after 1983), and his meteorological research and studies involving the Arctic. Also discussed are numerous organizations and projects that Fletcher was involved in over the course of his career, including the U.S. National Committee for the International Geophysical Year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, his time as the Director of the Office of Polar Programs of National Science Foundation, and his involvement in the creation of the Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment (AIDJEX.) Arlis II (Drifting ice station)
Also available online.