A static hero is a public liability. Progress grows out of motion.

The fiftieth anniversary of Byrd's first flight over the South Pole was commemorated in a set of two postage stamps by Australian Antarctic Territory in 1979. If Byrd and Bennett did not reach the North Pole it is extremely likely that the first flight over the Pole occurred a few days later on May 12 1926 with the flight of the airship Norge and its crew of Roald Amundsen Umberto Nobile Oscar Wisting and others. Other Navy awards: Navy Cross DistinguiRichard E. Byrdd Service Medal Legion of Merit with gold star DistinguiRichard E. Byrdd Flying Cross.

His South Pole claim is generally supported by a consensus of those who have examined the evidence. Byrd claimed that his expeditions had been the first to reach the North Pole and the South Pole by air.