Swedish cartographer Olaus Magnus was an artist with a fertile mind. In 1539 AD he produced a map of the world as he knew it, illustrated with images of sailing ships, ocean currents and various imaginary sea creatures.
The land mass ("Islandia") in the northwest corner of the Magnus map may have been today's Greenland, the largest island in the world. If you wonder why an island with extreme winter weather most of the year is known as "green land," look no farther than the real-estate sales tactics of Erid the Red, a Norseman who was exiled from Iceland for manslaughter in 980 AD; he sailed west with his family and their servants, found inhabitable property on the island's east coast and settled there. Eric called his new home "Greenland" with hopes that a pleasant name would attract more settlers (a precursor of the Florida land boom in the 1920s?).
Greenland measures 1640 miles from top to bottom and is 700 miles wide at its broadest point. The island is virtually covered (about 80%) with an ice cap that begins near sea level and tops out at almost 9,000 feet. This gigantic pile of ice and snow had been in existence for 18 million years (give or take a million) and its stupendous weight has created depressions beneath the ice cap, some of which are nearly 1000 feet below sea level...proof that gravity will not be denied.
There were some finishing touches remaining but after two years of challenging work in the arctic climate Thule was considered complete in 1953.
In the summer of 1958 the 306th Air Refueling Squadron at MacDill AFB in Tampa, Florida was "invited" for a 90-day tour at Thule as part of Operation Reflex, a program that would provide aerial refueling support for Strategic Air Command (SAC) bombers over-flying Greenland on their way to targets in Russia. Our mission (I was serving with the 306th at the time) was to rendezvous with B-47s coming from SAC bases in the U.S. and top them off...even if it meant emptying all the fuel tanks in our KC-97s. Were we expendable? Yes.
The Cold War was still warm enough in the winter of 1956/57 for modified B-47s to monitor what if anything the Soviets were doing offensively. These airplanes (designated RB-47H) were configured with electronic reconnaissance pods in their bellies instead of bombs; the pods were manned by three technicians whose job was to locate and analyze Russian communications and radar emissions.
On a typical mission these RBs would depart Thule and fly a route over the northern reaches of the USSR, looking and listening electronically. The average flight time was about 10 hours and the circuit required two refuelings from Thule-based KC-97s.
To assure there would be three tankers at the rendezvous, five KC-97s were cranked up and sat on the Thule ramp with engines running until takeoff time; the outside air temperature was often -50F and the R-4360 engines (each with hundreds of moving parts) were not happy campers in such extreme cold.
Two hours after the tankers took off the RB-47 would catch up with them over the northeastern corner of Greenland where two of the KC-97s would top off the bomber's tanks...the third tanker was an air spare. The tankers would then return to Thule, take on another load of jet fuel and fly back to the rendezvous for the second refueling.
This was a difficult and dangerous mission for the bomber crews, but one that resulted in a wealth of intelligence data and helped to keep the Russian bear at arm's length.
Thule Air Base in the modern era
After a long tenure as the United States' gate keeper in the far north, SAC turned Thule over to the Air Force Space Command in 1982. The civilian side of the shared facility, known as Pituffik Airport, continues in operation with more than 3,000 national and international flights each year.
From its inception in 1953 to the present, Thule Air Base served the U.S. well in a difficult, unique role...hats off to all those who made it happen.
Surface temperatures in Greenland range from the 50s in the short summer to minus 50 or lower in the winter...to say nothing of the wind-chill factor. A severe storm that lashed the northern part of the island in1972 produced the highest surface winds ever recorded on planet Earth...the anemometer was blown away when the wind velocity reached 207 mph.
The Unites States' military presence in Greenland began in the summer of 1941. With the drums of World War Two beating in the background the U.S. built several weather and radio stations on coastal sites in southern Greenland. The station at Narsarsuaq (on the southern tip of the island) grew into a full-fledged army air base during the war; the PBYs and B-25s stationed there provided air-sea rescue services, escorted allied ship convoys and preyed upon German "wolf pack" submarines.
As the air war in Europe progressed and military aircraft were ferried by the thousands across the North Atlantic, the Narsarsuaq airport and Sondrestrom Air Base became vital fueling stops and weather alternates.
Speaking of Greenland and its weather problems...in July1942 two B-17s and six P-38s enroute to England encountered solid cloud cover over the island. The pilots became disoriented, decided a descent was in order and broke out of the clouds over Greenland's east coast. Far from any airport and almost out of fuel the only reasonable option was to land on the ice cap. The first P-38 touched down with landing gear extended...and promptly flipped upside down. The remaining airplanes made successful belly landings and all the crews were eventually rescued.
Forty-six years later a recovery team using ground-penetrating radar found the airplanes; they had migrated two miles from the crash site (the ice cap is a gathering of glaciers that move slowly and continuously toward the sea) and were buried under 269 feet of snow and ice. The team dug a shaft with steam and hot water and managed to get all the pieces of one P-38 to the surface; the wreckage was shipped to the U.S. and restored to flyable condition. Christened "Glacier Girl," the airplane is now an exhibit in the Lost Squadron Museum in Middlesboro, Kentucky.
"Glacier Girl" in flight, alive and well.
From Russia...without love
Following the end of WW Two the Cold War erupted; no shots were fired but threats and counter-threats flew back and forth between Russia and the United States. Threats were not the only things flying...bombers from both sides armed with nuclear weapons were in the air 24/7. You might think Russian aircraft bound for the U.S. would fly due west to reach America's east coast, but not so...the great-circle route across the top of the world was considerably shorter and was the route the Reds would most likely use.
The almost-great-circle route
Greenland's location near the halfway point on those routes made it a strong candidate for long-range radar installations that could provide early detection of Russian aircraft heading for the United States; also, an air force base in Greenland would be a key point in American nuclear retaliation strategy (what a horrible standoff that would have been). With those considerations in mind a site was selected and the construction of Thule Air Base got underway.
A fleet of U.S. Navy ships arrived at Thule in July 1951 with 112,000 workers and 300,000 tons of cargo including enough supplies to last through the coming winter plus all the machinery and other equpment required to build an air base from scratch. Workers made the most of the 24 hours of daylight (in mid-summer the sun orbits in a small circle directly overhead) but the payback came in the winter when Thule existed in total darkness for several months.
I spent the summer of 1958 at Thule and took this photograph at midnight on 31 August. At the bottom of its orbit the sun cruised briefly just below the horizon then climbed back into the sky; the days would then get progressively shorter until every day was 24 hours of darkness, a condition that existed from December through February.
A non-friendly environment
Thule construction crews were plagued by four natural phenomena; total darkness, low temperatures, high winds and permafrost, the last of which was probably the most troublesome.
Thule construction crews were plagued by four natural phenomena; total darkness, low temperatures, high winds and permafrost, the last of which was probably the most troublesome.
Permafrost (perma[nent]+frost) is soil that never thaws except for a shallow top layer that may turn into a quagmire in the summer. To prevent settling into the permafrost, Thule buildings were placed well above the ground so cold air could circulate beneath the structure and prevent the permafrost from thawing.
Typical barracks on wood footers - 1958
The hangar floors were large areas of concrete that required ground-level access for moving airplanes in and out; the problem of heating and settling was solved by pouring extra-thick floors with cold air circulating through large ducts imbedded in the concrete.
The rock-hard permafrost denied the use of trenches or tunnels for utilities at Thule; heating ducts, water pipes and other utilities that would normally be buried were placed on the surface. When it was necessary to cross a road the ducts, etc. were carried across on an arch.
There were some finishing touches remaining but after two years of challenging work in the arctic climate Thule was considered complete in 1953.
Thule Air Base, on the shore of North Star Bay - 2005
Flight operations at Thule
The Cold War was not getting any warmer in 1953 and the U.S. was still concerned about Russian bombers using polar routes to attack targets in America. This called for defensive measures and the most appropriate aircraft at that time was the Lockheed F-84 Starfire (a derivative of the T-33 jet trainer), followed shortly by the Northrop F-89 Scorpion, both of which were fighter-interceptors.
F-89s at Thule
In the summer of 1958 the 306th Air Refueling Squadron at MacDill AFB in Tampa, Florida was "invited" for a 90-day tour at Thule as part of Operation Reflex, a program that would provide aerial refueling support for Strategic Air Command (SAC) bombers over-flying Greenland on their way to targets in Russia. Our mission (I was serving with the 306th at the time) was to rendezvous with B-47s coming from SAC bases in the U.S. and top them off...even if it meant emptying all the fuel tanks in our KC-97s. Were we expendable? Yes.
At the end of a "fill 'er up" fuel transfer (50,000-pound offloads were not uncommon) a B-47 would be more difficult to control because of its weight and the low airspeed to which the tankers were limited in level flight. If push came to shove a tanker would start a slow descent--at the bomber pilot's request--to provide a few more knots.
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| B-47 pilot..."Faster, faster! KC-97 pilot..."I'm flying as fast as I can!" |
The Cold War was still warm enough in the winter of 1956/57 for modified B-47s to monitor what if anything the Soviets were doing offensively. These airplanes (designated RB-47H) were configured with electronic reconnaissance pods in their bellies instead of bombs; the pods were manned by three technicians whose job was to locate and analyze Russian communications and radar emissions.
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| RB-47H at Thule
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| Typical RB-47H route
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Two hours after the tankers took off the RB-47 would catch up with them over the northeastern corner of Greenland where two of the KC-97s would top off the bomber's tanks...the third tanker was an air spare. The tankers would then return to Thule, take on another load of jet fuel and fly back to the rendezvous for the second refueling.
This was a difficult and dangerous mission for the bomber crews, but one that resulted in a wealth of intelligence data and helped to keep the Russian bear at arm's length.
Thule Air Base in the modern era
After a long tenure as the United States' gate keeper in the far north, SAC turned Thule over to the Air Force Space Command in 1982. The civilian side of the shared facility, known as Pituffik Airport, continues in operation with more than 3,000 national and international flights each year.
From its inception in 1953 to the present, Thule Air Base served the U.S. well in a difficult, unique role...hats off to all those who made it happen.
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