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On January 2, 1929, fliers Wop May and Vic Horner took off in an open-cockpit biplane to bring an anti-toxin to the remote communities of Little Red River and Fort Vermilion, which were stricken with an outbreak of diphtheria. The media rallied a crowd of ten thousand Edmontonians at Blatchford Field to greet them on their return January 6. In thousands we gathered in the light and the dark, shivering to speed the heroes' return. No one knew, in nineteen twenty-nine, how long it took to fly five hundred miles and back; whether two airmen with open cockpit could last that long at thirty-three below; whether low-grade fuel taken on at stops would gel or burn; nor even whether a mission to bring to a stricken village a cure for diphtheria could be done in time. But we stood there in the cold to wait because there had to be an arm to the bold, intrepid hand that was these men.