Thule Air Base
, or /Pituffik Airport (IATA: THU, ICAO: BGTL), is the United States Air Force’s northernmost base, located 1,207 (750 north of the Arctic Circle and 1,524 (947 from the North Pole on the northwest side of the island of Greenland.
Thule Air Base is the US Armed Forces’ northernmost installation. Thule’s arctic environment includes icebergs in North Star Bay, two islands (Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Island), a polar ice sheet, and Wolstenholme Fjord the only place on Earth where four active glaciers join together.
is home to the 21st Space Wing’s global network of sensors providing missile warning, space surveillance and space control to North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Air Force Canada Goose Parka Space Command (AFSPC).
is also home to the 821st Air Base Group and is responsible for air base support within the Thule Defense Area for the multinational population of “Team Thule”. The base hosts the 12th Space Canada Goose Jackets Warning canada goose black friday sale Squadron (12 SWS) which operates a Ballistic Missile Early Warning jacket System (BMEWS) designed to detect and track ICBMs launched against North America. Thule is also host to Detachment 1 of the 23rd Space Operations Squadron, part of the 50th Space Wing’s global satellite control network. The airfield’s 10,000 foot (3,000 runway handles more than 3,000 US and international flights per year. Finally, Thule is home to the northernmost deep water port in the world.[2] Thule is the only Air Force Base with an assigned tugboat. The tugboat is used to assist ship movements in the harbor during the summer and is hauled onto shore during the winter season. The tugboat is also used for daily sightseeing tours of Northstar Bay during the summer. Additionally, for a fee, there is a Danish tour boat that runs in the summer.
Thule Air Base has served as the regional hub for nearby installations, including Cape Atholl (LORAN station), Camp Century (Ice Cap Camp), Camp TUTO (Ice Cap Approach Ramp and Airstrip), Sites 1 and 2 (Ice Cap Radar Stations), P Mountain (radar and communications site), J Site (BMEWS), North and South Mountains (research sites), and a research rocket firing site. It also was essential in the construction and resupply of High Arctic weather stations, including CFS Alert (Alert Airport) and Station Nord.
In 1818, Sir John Ross’s expedition made first contact with nomadic Inuktun (Polar Eskimos) in the area. James Saunders’s expedition aboard HMS North Star was marooned in North Star Bay 1849 50 and named landmarks.[3] Robert Peary built a support station canada goose uk black friday by a protected harbor at the foot of iconic Mount Dundas in 1892. It served as canada goose clearance sale a base camp for his expeditions and attracted a permanent population. In 1910 explorer Knud Rasmussen established a missionary and trading post there. He called the site “Thule” after classical Ultima Thule; the Inuit called it Umanaq (“heart shaped”), and the site is commonly called “Dundas” today. The United States abandoned its territorial claims in the area in 1917 in connection with the purchase of the Virgin Islands. Denmark assumed control of the village in 1937.
A cluster of huts known as Pituffik (“the place the dogs are tied”) stood on the wide plain where the base was built in 1951. (A main base street was named Pituffik Boulevard.) The affected locals moved to Thule. However, in 1953 the USAF planned to construct an air defense site near that village, and in order to prevent unhealthy contact with soldiers, the Danish government relocated “Old Thule” with about 130 inhabitants to a newly constructed, modern village 60 miles (97 north, known as Qaanaaq, or “New Thule”. In a Danish Supreme Court judgment of 28 November 2003 the move was considered an expropriative intervention. During the proceedings it was recognized by the Danish government that the movement was a serious interference and an unlawful act against the local population. The Thule tribe was awarded damages of 500,000 kroner, and the individual members of the tribe who had been exposed to the transfer were granted compensation of 15,000 https://www.canadagoosejacketsaleca.com or 25,000 each. A Danish radio station continued to operate at Dundas, and the abandoned houses remained. The USAF only used that site for about a decade, and it has since returned to civilian use.
Knud Rasmussen was the first to recognize the Pituffik plain as ideal for an airport. USAAF Colonel Bernt Balchen, who built Sondrestrom Air Base, knew Rasmussen and his idea. Balchen led a flight of two Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boats to Thule on 24 August 1942 and then sent a report advocating an air base to USAAF chief Henry “Hap” Arnold. However, the 1951 air base site is a few miles inland from the original 1946 airstrip and across the bay from the historical Thule settlement, to which it is connected by an ice road. on the symbolically chosen date of 9 April 1941. The treaty, denounced by the Danish government, allowed the United States to operate military bases in Greenland “for as long as there is agreement” that the threat to North America existed. Beginning in the summer of 1941, the US Coast Guard and the War Department established weather and radio stations at Narsarsuaq Airport (Bluie West 1), canada goose uk shop Sondrestrom Air Base (Bluie West 8), Ikateq (Bluie East Two), and Gronnedal (Bluie West 9). In 1943 the Army Air Forces set up weather stations Scoresbysund (Bluie East 3) on the east coast around the southern tip of Greenland, and Thule (Bluie West 6) to be operated by Danish personnel. Many other sites were set up, but BW 6, isolated in the far North, was then of very minor importance.[5]After liberation, Denmark ratified the Kauffmann treaty but began efforts to take over US installations. Nonetheless, in summer 1946, the radio and weather station was enhanced with a gravel airstrip and an upper air (balloon) observatory. This was part of an American Canadian initiative to construct joint weather stations canada goose factory sale in the High Arctic. buy canada goose jacket This station was under joint US Danish operation. The location changed from the civilian village at Thule (Dundas) to mainland Pittufik. In 1946 1951, the airstrip played an important role in Arctic resupply, aerial mapping, research, Canada Goose sale and search and rescue.
The ratification of the treaty in 1951 did not change much, except that the Danish national flag must be side by side with the US national flag on the base.[citation needed]
Modern air base[edit]
In 1949, Denmark canadian goose jacket joined NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and abandoned its attempt to remove the United States bases. By the outbreak of the Korean War next year, the USAF embarked on a global program of base building in which Thule (at the time) would be considered the crown jewel owing to its location across the Pole from the USSR, as well as its merit of being the northernmost port to be reliably resupplied by ship. Thule became a key point in American nuclear retaliation strategy. Strategic Air Command (SAC) bombers flying over the Arctic presented less canada goose risk of early warning than using bases in the United Kingdom. Defensively, Thule could serve as a base for intercepting bomber attacks along the northeastern approaches to Canada and the US.
A board of Air Force officers headed by Gordon P. Saville made a recommendation to pursue a base at Thule in November 1950. It was subsequently supported by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and approved by President Truman. To replace the agreement entered into during World War II between the US and Denmark, a new agreement with respect cheap Canada Goose to Greenland was ratified on 27 April 1951 (effective on 8 June 1951). At the request of NATO, the agreement became a part of the NATO defense canada goose coats on sale program. The pact specified that the two nations would arrange canada goose coats for the use of facilities in Greenland by NATO forces in defense of the NATO area known as the Greenland Defense Area.
Thule AB was constructed in secret under the code name Operation Blue Jay, Canada Goose Coats On Sale but the project was made public in September 1952. Construction for Thule AB began in 1951 and was completed in 1953. The construction of Thule is said[by whom?] to have been comparable in scale to canada goose clearance the enormous effort required to build the Panama Canal. The United States Navy transported the bulk of men, supplies, and equipment from the naval shipyards in Norfolk, Virginia. On 6 June 1951 an armada of 120 shipments sailed from Naval Station Norfolk. On board were 12,000 men and 300,000 tons of cargo. They arrived at Thule on 9 July 1951. Construction, aided by continuous daylight in summer, took place around the clock. The canada goose store workers lived on board the ships until quarters were built. Once they moved into the quarters, the ships returned home.
On June 16, 1951, the base was accidently discovered by French cultural anthropologist and geographer Jean Malaurie and his Inuit friend Kutikitsoq, on their way back from the geomagnetic North Pole.[6]Originally established as a Strategic Air Command installation, Thule would periodically serve as a dispersal base for B 36 Peacemaker and B 47 Stratojet aircraft during the 1950s, as well as providing an ideal site to test the operability and maintainability of these weapon systems in extreme cold weather. Similar operations were also conducted with B 52 Stratofortress aircraft uk canada goose outlet in the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1954, the 378 (1,240 Globecom Tower, a tower for military radio communication, was built at Northmountain. At the time of its completion it was the third tallest man made structure on earth[citation needed] and the tallest structure north of the Arctic Circle in the Western hemisphere.
In the winter of 1956/57 three KC 97 tankers and alternately one of two RB 47H aircraft made polar flights to inspect Soviet defenses. Five KC 97s prepared for flight with engines running in temperatures of 50 (46 in Canada Goose Outlet order to ensure three could achieve airborne status. After a two hour head start, a B 47 would catch Canada Goose Online up with them at the northeast coastline of Greenland where two would offload fuel to top off the B 47’s tanks (the third was an air spare). The B 47 would then fly seven hours of reconnaissance, while the tankers would return to Thule, refuel, and three would again fly to rendezvous with the returning B 47 at northeast Greenland. The B 47 averaged ten hours and 4,500 (2,800 in the air, unless unpredictable weather closed Thule. In that case the three tankers and the B 47 had to additionally fly to one of three equidistant alternates: England, Alaska, or Labrador. All of this in sometimes moonless, 24 hour Arctic darkness, December through February. These flights demonstrated the capabilities of the US Strategic Air Command to Soviet Anti Air Defense. The camp operated from 1959 until 1967.
In the late 1950s, the DEW 1 to 4 were built as “weather stations”. buy canada goose jacket cheap would act as a Canada Goose online supply station for the DYE bases.[citation needed]In 1957 construction began on 4 Nike Missile sites around the base, and they and their radar systems were operational by the end of 1958.
In 1961, a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) radar was constructed at “J Site,” 21 (13 northeast of main base. BMEWS was developed by canada goose uk outlet the RCA Corporation in order to provide North America warning of a transpolar missile attack from the Russian mainland and submarine launched missiles from the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans. At this time, Thule was at its peak with a population of about 10,000. Starting in July 1965, there was a general downsizing of activities at Thule. The base host unit was discontinued. By January 1968, the population of Thule was down to 3,370. On 21 January 1968, a uk canada goose B 52G bomber carrying four nuclear weapons cheap canada goose uk crashed just outside Thule see below.