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The year was 1941. Tensions were high overseas, but the United States had not yet become directly involved in what would become perhaps the most famous war of the century. But, President Franklin D. Roosevelt acknowledged that the nation must offer aid to its foreign allies already taking the brunt of the conflict.

In March 1941, Congress approved the Lend-Lease Act, a program that remained largely secretive in comparison to other World War II efforts but provided aid in the form of supplies — ammunition, tanks, airplanes, trucks and food — that eventually helped turn the war around. On Oct. 23, 1941, 67 years ago this month, the U.S. Senate passed the $5.98 billion supplemental Lend-Lease bill, “bringing the U.S. one step closer to direct involvement in WWII,” according to the U.S. Library of Congress. The program commissioned the permitted the nation to design, construct and ship warplanes, often stocked with supplies, to its European allies. Initially intended to aid Great Britain, the Library of Congress notes that within six months the Lend-Lease program was expanded to include China and the Soviet Union. By the end of the war, the U.S. had extended $49.1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to more than 40 nations, with the agreement that the lending would be repaid to an extent after the war.

It was the shift of focus to Russia, then the Soviet Union, that became vital to Alaska, and specifically Fairbanks. That element of history — the connection Fairbanks now has with Russia thanks to this program — captured the attention of a Juneau-based organization, the Alaska-Siberia Research Center. Through that organization, it also caught the attention of Alaska artist R.T. “Skip” Wallen, resulting in the creation of a monument Fairbanksans and Russians can be proud of.

That monument, which now stands in Griffin Park in Fairbanks, was the topic of an award-winning PBS documentary, “Sanibel to Siberia,” that has aired this week on Juneau PBS station KTOO and is scheduled for another airing on that station at noon today. A DVD of the film is available at www.wgcu.org/artseditionprime.

Wallen’s vision

and work

“I wanted this sculpture to take peoples’ minds back more than half a century ago to when these planes were circling the tundra, bound to the war front half a world away,” artist Wallen said of his goals as he set out on the major task of creating, as the Alaska-Siberia Research Center commissioned him to, a bronze sculpture to honor the pilots involved in the transfer of warplanes during the four years the Lend-Lease program was in operation.

Wallen is no stranger to high-profile sculpting jobs: He has pieces at the World Bank, the World Health Organization, the Carter Presidential Center and, in front of the Alaska capital building in Juneau, a piece created to honor the 25th anniversary of statehood. His Alaska-Siberia Lend-Lease Memorial, now standing in Griffin Park in Fairbanks, was the first project to put him on the national TV screen.

“During the time I was working (in Sanibel, Florida) on the early stages of the sculptures, one of my neighbors came around and said, ‘Someone should be filming this,’” Wallen recalled. “That was how it started.”

Things moved quickly — someone knew someone who knew someone, and one of the someones happened to be a seasoned documentary director who specialized in art and was interested in history — and soon director/producer Joel Banow was side-by-side with Wallen in his Sanibel studio.

The result was the film “Sanibel to Siberia: The Story of a World War II Memorial,” which juxtaposes the story of those historic flights from Fairbanks to Siberia with the creation of Wallen’s sculptures honoring the pilots involved in the flights.

“I decided the creative process needed to be shown as it affected this part of the subject (in the film), but I also wanted to tell the historical background,” Banow explained of his directing approach. “That added large amounts of time to the work. The history being portrayed required acquisition of historic footage.”

In their respective creative processes, both Wallen and Banow dove into research in their approach to their separate projects. Wallen had begun his research in 2002 after representatives from Alaska-Siberia Research Project contacted him about creating the memorial. He visited museums, tracked down former pilots and executive military leaders who were involved, read history and became thoroughly familiar with the planes themselves and the stories—down to the details of the uniforms worn by both U.S. and Russian pilots. He spent near three years, he said, simply gathering information.

Banow followed similar steps but focused more specifically on the planes themselves and the logistics of the program’s operation.

“Female pilots involved in the WASP (Women Air Force Service Pilots) flew the planes from all over the U.S. (the cities they were constructed in) to Great Falls, Montana,” Banow explained. “The females weren’t allowed to fly over uncharted territory, or overseas.”

The planes were further prepped, and American male pilots took over, flying the planes to what was then Ladd Field, now Fort Wainwright, in Fairbanks. They were flying over uncharted territory, landing in small emergency airfields to refuel as needed. Banow noted the important and largely unknown elements of history involved.

“Often the red stars, Russia’s insignia, were painted on the planes before the flight to Alaska, so there were these planes with the red stars flying over the U.S.,” he said.

Another important historical element was the resulting connection of Alaska to the Lower 48: To create and maintain the airfields, Banow said, an access road was necessary along the route. Thus the Alaska Highway was commissioned.

Both Wallen and Banow noted the connection to the highway, acknowledging, however, there were other reasons involved, such as the government’s general interest in gaining access to the territory.

Banow’s research also led him to museums and exhibits of the P-39 planes used in the process. He learned that more than 8,000 P-39s made the trip to Siberia, as well as bomber planes, and while the French and the British also received similar shipments, “the Russians really loved the planes” as a functional war tool.

“These planes had a cannon in the nose of the plane, and the engine was in the rear. The cannon could destroy tanks, so it was a really great ground attack aircraft,” Banow explained. “It really played a major role in the Russian defeat of Germany.”

Banow said the inclusion of the historical information, along with the artistic element of revealing the process of making a bronze sculpture of such magnitude, made the film of interest to varied audiences. It also helped earn a Telly Award, a national and coveted media award, and garnered national air slots throughout the country.

“I’m so glad it has finally made it up there (to Alaska,)” Banow said of the planned airing on the KTOO Juneau PBS station.

Bringing history to life

Wallen’s piece is a detailed statue of two soldiers, one American and one Russian, standing more than 10 feet tall, with an accompanying propeller representing the planes they shared. He paid great attention to the uniforms both men wore, borrowing an actual Russian helmet and talking to American pilots to get to know the texture of material on their boots and the collars of their jackets. He researched the planes thoroughly to accurately create the propellor. He even included a map on the back of the monument’s base that shows the route the pilots flew.

Banow said following Wallen’s creative process, some of which took place in his makeshift studio on Sanibel Island, where Wallen now winters, was involved and challenging.

“When I arrived (in Sanibel) he was near the end of the first phase. Because the sculptures were so big he had cut a hole in the roof of the studio,” Banow recalled, explaining that the first phase was to create clay renditions of the statue.

Those clay pieces were then cut into pieces, depending on how they would be cast. Wallen packed up the pieces and shipped them to the Parks Bronze foundry in Enterprise, Oregon. The next step in the process was to spray the clay model pieces with a latex material, which was then peeled off to make a negative mold. Wax was then applied inside that mold to make a model, Banow said.

“Then you take these long pieces of wax, which are like sprues, that act as channels for the molten material,” he said.

The wax is dipped into liquid ceramic material, creating a hard shell around the piece. That is put into an oven, where the wax melts and drains out through the channels. What remains is put into a furnace with molten bronze and once everything has cooled, the exterior ceramic shell is knocked off.

“Then you go in and fix it, and weld the pieces together,” he said.

Using a welding torch, Wallen added the textured features — the helmet and the details of the boots and clothing — which bring the sculpture to life. The last step is to add color, which is done by again using a torch to heat up the bronze and applying layers of patina, which causes a chemical reaction that colors the bronze. Polish, and it’s done.

“Then he had to put it in a huge crate on a truck and ship it to Fairbanks,” Banow said.

Wallen noted his work was not yet complete at that stage, as a foundation for the statues was needed. He worked from Fairbanks, partnering with engineer Jim Loftus, to design and create the granite base, and the memorial was officially dedicated in a memorable ceremony Aug. 27, 2006.

Wallen said representatives from the five countries involved were present at the ceremony, held to honor the pilots who lived through as well as the those who died in the more than 140 crashes that occurred during the program operation. Then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Sen. Ted Stevens and others represented the U.S., standing alongside more than a dozen Russian dignitaries, led by then-Deputy of the Russian government and Minister of Defense Sergei Ivanov. France, Canada and Great Britian were also involved, including then- U.K. Consul General Peter Broom.

Perhaps more important to Wallen was the presence of former pilots and their family members.

“It was very touching. Some pilots were there, and others put flowers on the monument. Folks were coming up to shakes hands with me and their eyes were misting,” he recalled. “It was quite a proud moment.”

Wallen noted it is important to thank the Alaska-Siberia Research Center, who helped orchestrate the $630,000 project, funded by federal and state appropriations. He said is important because it “helps the public know more about the local involvement in this little-known project.” He also said he is honored to have gained Banow’s interest, which in turn gained support from his station’s executive producer, Barbara Linstrom, who granted the go-ahead for the documentary.

“We love the work Joel (Banow) does for our art series Arts Edition Prime Time, and we love to have a local historical aspect as well. It was, for us, a really appealing program,” Linstrom, who leads WGCU Public Media, in Fort Myers, Fla., said.

Linstrom was also acquainted with Wallen and was aware of his other work. She said the documentary was a valuable project.

“Skip (Wallen) gets so involved in his work. The history behind it created a larger scope,” she said. “To see a documentary produced that gave the behind-the-scenes story added a lot of understanding to both the history and the artistic process.”

The project’s value became apparent, she added, when 65 PBS stations across the country accepted the film.

“Skip’s ability to bring things to life through is his art is just one incredible aspect to this,” she said. “But to understand the whole story of why this piece was commissioned in the first place and the meaning behind it is powerful. I think this was a great medium to share that.”

What: PBS Documentary, "Sanibel to Siberia: The story of a World War II Memorial"

Aired: Station 360 North, teh state-wide public television service provided by KTOO Juneau

Avaiable for purchase: The buy a DVD visit www.wgcu.org/artseditionprime

Contact Features Editor Erica Goff at 459-7523.