Playing under the ice…
Did this a couple of times, but from the air side. It’s frikkin COLD up there this time of year!!!
-40 to -60 ambient, -160 or lower at altitude… Note the ‘guard’ with the rifle. Polar bears DO consider us ‘crunchy’ lunch…
And a short on Thule…
at the 3:30 mark, one can see some of the original barracks built in 1953, that are still heated and in use!
Brrrrrr.
I spent the last months of my enlistment at Minot AFB, North Dakota. Friendly wonderful people and cold cold cold. I believe that the coldest place on earth is a far north flight line in the very early morning.
During my time in the USAF (60’s) we told people if they screwed up they’d be shipped to Cutbank, MT. If they really screwed up it would be Thule !!
We flew some supplies up there one hot August day. The next morning preflighting the jet I thought my nose was going to fall off.
My father was stationed (sentenced) for a year at Goose Bay, Labrador. After he returned we moved to Texas because he never wanted to see snow again.
It’s Air Force and no golf course? Oh the pain. At least you know there are not ranking officers there.
Roger- Actually landing on the ice at 89 North is a ‘bit’ chillier…
Ed- LOL, if you weren’t wearing a mask, it could have!
Tim- Heh… And Goose Bay really doesn’t get ‘cold’!
CP- Actually they have a 3 hole course on the glacier. 5 iron, 3 red golf balls, and a piece of astroturf. The backswing is a ‘bit’ limited by the parkas, and so is the follow through…LOL
My son (the SCPO) was on the Hartford.
He’s come up under the ice like that. I wonder if he was in there.
I’ll have to ask, next time he comes up for air.
Places like that make me fondly remember the temperate clime of Adak. 🙂
Must be fun hunting subs under the ice. What are the sonar conditions under the ice (assuming you could get a probe there)?
Polar Bears are well camouflaged and one should never underestimate their speed over ice when hungry and in search of a meal.
My Uncle John helped build Thule/DEW Line sites as a civilian contractor.
They recruited a lot of workers from the northern tier of Minn., Wis., the Dakotas …
I loved the look on the sailor’s face, the one who came up from under the hatch for a split second, in a short sleeved or rolled up sleeve shirt. He had an ‘oh shit it’s cold’ look on his face as he almost immediately went back below.
I got frostbite just watching the video 🙂
Interesting, never been to a place that cold.
Spent some time up above 70* doing radar builds. Stayed over in Goose Bay on the way out to Resolution Island the second time. Actually worked my way from Prince Edmond Sound out to Res. Isl. Interesting time.