Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, historic American icon famous for his explorations of the Earth’s polar extremities, was widely regarded during his lifetime as a pioneer and hero. A decorated naval officer, Admiral Byrd even received the Medal of Honor in 1926 for his alleged flight to the North Pole (although the legitimacy of this claim was later disputed). However, there are also a number of fringe beliefs associated with Admiral Byrd’s exploits, which spin off in a variety of strange directions, all of which seem to belong more in the realm of science fiction than historical fact. Among these, some accounts have claimed that while visiting the polar regions, the famous explorer actually discovered entrances to a vast “Hollow Earth,” in which lost civilizations with advanced UFO flying craft existed. Admiral Byrd in 1955, eight years after the conclusion of Operation Highjump. One book dealing with this notion, The Hollow Earth: The Greatest Geographical Discovery in History Made by Admiral Richard E. Byrd in the Mysterious Land Beyond the Poles, was published in 1964 by Raymond W. Bernard (a pseudonym for a man named Walter Siegmeister). Bernard’s name would appear again on a “secret diary” attributed to Byrd, allegedly authored in February of 1947, for which Bernard contributed an introduction. Though the claims made within the document would have coincided with the abrupt closure of Byrd’s famous Antarctic expedition “Operation Highjump” (which was curiously terminated six months earlier than expected), the testimony included within the supposed diary is outlandish at best. Below is an excerpt, dated February 19, 1947, describing Byrd’s arrival over the polar extremities at 1000 Hours: We are crossing over the small mountain range and still proceeding northward as best as can be ascertained. Beyond the mountain range is what appears to be a valley with a small river or stream running through the center portion. There should be no green valley below! Something is definitely wrong and abnormal here! We should be over Ice and Snow! To the portside are great forests growing on the mountain slopes. Our navigation Instruments are still spinning, the gyroscope is oscillating back and forth! This narrative, according to proponents of a Hollow Earth theory, indicates Byrd’s astonishment at finding a cavernous opening over the pole, where a lush valley existed, heated by a sun found within the planet’s interior. “Admiral Byrd” continues, writing that he can see animals in the valley, among them a living specimen of a woolly mammoth. Eventually, after landing, the admiral and his company are confronted by several men, who take him before an entity known as “the Master.” It is in the presence of this individual that we begin to see striking similarities to the kinds of reports made by contactees and alien abductees from over the decades: We shall not long delay your mission, and you will be safely escorted back to the surface and for a distance beyond. But now, Admiral, I shall tell you why you have been summoned here. Our interest rightly begins just after your race exploded the first atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. It was at that alarm ing time we sent our flying machines, the “Flugelrads”, to your surface world to investigate what your race had done. That is, of course, past history now, my dear Admiral, but I must continue on. You see, we have never interfered before in your race’s wars, and barbarity, but now we must, for you have learned to tamper with a certain power that is not for man, namely, that of atomic energy. Our emissaries have already delivered messages to the powers of your world, and yet they do not heed. Now you have been chosen to be witness here that our world does exist. Thus, Admiral Byrd, according to this esoteric document, was made a sort of emissary to the world above. He goes on to brief the President the following month at the Pentagon, after which he is ordered not to speak of his experience as a sort of security measure, hence explaining his strange silence on this incredible matter during the remainder of his lifetime. Had anything so extraordinary ever really happened, could it truly have been kept secret for so long? Interestingly, my own introduction to allegations of Byrd meeting strange beings while visiting the Antarctic came from an odd story shared with me by a friend, rather than any alleged secret diaries or other fabled texts. According to the story my friend told, a family member of his who had known a member of Byrd’s expedition had told stories of “blue-skinned people from underground” that were encountered by Byrd and his company. This odd tale remains somewhat in keeping with the aforementioned account of an underground race of beings led by an esoteric “Master”; on the other hand, it differs greatly from the sort of theories held by some UFO buffs, who allege that none other than escaped Nazis had taken refuge at the Southern Pole, along with their...