April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
NAVY VETERAN
Last survivor of Byrd expedition recalls 1939 Antarctic voyage
When she brought him back to his native New York after the death of his wife, she discovered there was much more to his life story: Mr. Wayne is also the last living crew member of Admiral Richard E. Byrd's famed 1939 expedition to the Antarctic.
In 1933, at the age of 17, Mr. Wayne was working on a farm in Schenectady when he decided to join the Navy. Coming from a military family, he wanted to take the place of his brother, who had recently left the military.
Six years later, Mr. Wayne was chosen to be a part of Admiral Byrd's crew on the U.S. government-sponsored voyage to Antarctica. As a seaman first class, his duties included navigation and care of the upper decks and the masts.
"He chose me because I was from upstate New York; he knew I could handle the cold," boasted Mr. Wayne, now 95 years old.
On the water
That same year, as he was helping to outfit the ship - the USS Bear - for the journey south, Mr. Wayne married his wife, Agnes, in Boston. Shortly afterward, he, Admiral Byrd and 31 other men set off for the South Pole.
Their ship was 100 years old and wooden, but known for its ability in icy waters. Their goal was not just scientific exploration and observation, but to establish two bases on the Antarctic Peninsula.
From Boston, the crew traveled to the Panama Canal and, after enjoying the warmth there, headed for their final destination.
As Mr. Wayne sat in his room at Kingsway Manor in Schenectady on a recent spring morning, he recalled the 80-below-zero temperatures and the snowmobile they used on that famous journey that was the size of a bus.
The parishioner of Our Lady of Fatima Church in Schenectady remembered chasing penguins, the plane they carried with them on the ship and meandering through icebergs.
"Wherever there were breaks in the ice, that's where Admiral Byrd took us. We just kept going until we could reach land," he said.
"For about three or four days, we were stuck between two icebergs and had no idea what would happen. It was a thrill, a terrible excitement, to see all of that - and every bit of it was dangerous."
When the USS Bear arrived, the crew used the plane, snowmobile and dogsleds to set up camps for future expeditions, deposit supplies and study the geology and biology of the Antartic - continuing the mapping and exploration Admiral Byrd had begun nearly a decade before.
Mr. Wayne filmed much of it. Today, he still has his silent films of the South Pole, with clips of his ship enduring rough waves, sea lions and penguins, a dogsled pulling an airplane across a vast plain of ice and a smiling young seaman - himself - standing with his hands in his pockets on the shores of Antarctica.
A year later, Admiral Byrd's crew returned to the States and Mr. Wayne, though grateful for the experience, requested not to return on the next expedition.
Shortly afterward, with the start of World War II, he was assigned to the USS San Diego and sailed the Pacific Ocean, engaging in 18 battles without one life lost. The cruiser became the second most decorated ship in U.S. naval history.
After the war, Mr. Wayne continued his Navy career until 1959, even volunteering to be trained as a deep sea diver in 1945 to investigate shipwrecks from the war.
Travels revealed
He finally retired as a chief warrant officer, moving to California with his wife and their daughter, Nancy. But he continued to travel the world, taking them to Germany, France, Italy, Hawaii and the Netherlands. He said that he wanted them to be able to see the world as he did.
The full extent of the great life her uncle lived was made clear when Mrs. Zorichak was helping him unpack his many photographs and medals when he moved back to Schenectady in 2005.
Each photograph came with a memory, she realized - and, eventually, he shared the tales of his Antarctic adventure and his wartime heroism.
Last year, a filmmaker named John Stewart called Mr. Wayne to inform him that he was the last survivor of the 1939 Byrd expedition. Because Mr. Wayne had changed his surname from the original Polish "Kelczewski," it had taken the filmmaker quite a while to find him.
That phone call began a process of interviews and research that eventually became a documentary called "The Last Man," the story of Mr. Wayne and his voyage. The movie used many of the silent films that Mr. Wayne himself took and will be released as soon as music copyrights are settled.
"He's a movie star now," Mrs. Zorichak joked. "He's been getting calls from newspapers and magazines, too. I'm just so proud of him as my uncle. I'm glad people get to hear about all the great things he's done and the person he is."
As Mr. Wayne sat in his quiet room in Schenectady, surrounded by photographs of the ships he sailed on, his deep sea diving suit, images of his wife and daughter and his many medals, he told The Evangelist: "I've had my adventure and I'm tired now.
"But if I had to go back and do it all over again, would I? Absolutely."[[In-content Ad]]
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