And the night never ends . . .
I can't say that
I enjoyed the winter season much. Here is a noon time snapshot of our Christmas
"tree" in front of the base headquarters.
Since the tallest tree in this
area is about knee high, this "tree" was made from welded iron pipes. It
officially marked the beginning of our dark season from November 22 to February
10. Our tree stayed lit all during that period and provided a bright spot
on the base and some emotional warmth.
We still operated on a daytime 8 to 5 schedule but it really didn't make much difference. It always looked like midnight -- and I was always sleepy during the winter.
When the personnel replacement plane landed each week, the people arriving were shocked to find out that they had not landed at 2 a.m. in the morning. It was really 2 p.m., the temperature periodically was -30 F (-34 C.)., and both the temperature and the sun would not be coming up for months!
Once a week a C130 aircraft came from the U.S. with fresh vegetables and salad greens, the latest movies, and magazines. Even in the dark of winter we had a big and beautiful salad bar in the dining hall every day. The Danish cooks were excellent and took pride in their work. Good meals were one of the biggest morale boosters we had, as we lived and worked in the gloom of total darkness and sub-zero temperatures.
It really wasn't too bad of a life, if you made the
most of it. We had well equipped hobby shops, clubs, a gym, and a general
merchandise store. Shown at the right is our dinning room that served excellent food by the Danish staff.
However, the milk was reconstituted from powdered milk and was not very good. I became a coffee drinker instead.
On the base there were approximately 60 U.S. military officers, 300 enlisted men, and 2000 Danish civilian workers. There was plenty of routine work that had to be done. After the routine duties were completed, there were many interesting things to do indoors and keep busy with until the sun started coming up in February!
My room was private, warm, and quiet.
However, I spent very little time in it because there
were so many exciting and interesting things do other places. The buildings were built to
withstand extremely high winds and sub zero temperatures so I could never estimate what the
weather was like outside. But that wasn't really important because it was always cold and
we always dressed for the worst --which was often the case.
There were even college courses conducted on the base. The University of Maryland sent instructors to Thule Air Base for several months at a time. I wonder if that was used as a "threat" to keep the instructors motivated on the main campus down in Maryland?
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-- Smilla's Sense of Snow
-- The Frozen Echo: Greenland and the Exploration of North America.
-- Greenland's Icy Fury.
-- Greenlanders, Whales, and Whaling:
-- Lonely Planet Iceland, Greenland & the Faroe Islands.
-- An African in Greenland.
-- Arctic Homeland: Kinship, Community and Development in Northwest Greenland.
-- Greenland (World Bibliographical Series)
-- Knud Rasmussen's Posthumous Notes on the Life and Doings of the East Greenlanders
-- North Pole Legacy: Black, White & Eskimo
-- Northwest Greenland: A History
-- The Arctic: Endangered People and Places.
-- Arctic Adventure: Inuit Life in the 1800s
-- Arctic Foxes
-- Ancient People of the Arctic.
-- Arctic Son.
-- Arctic Folktales.
-- Greenland & The Arctic.
-- Seven Seasons in Greenland.
-- Greenland Expedition:
-- Building the Greenland Kayak:
-- The First Crossing of Greenland.
-- Eskimo Poems from Canada and Greenland.
-- Greenland: Island at the Top of the World.
-- The battle for Greenland.
-- Arctic Clothing of North America - Alaska, Canada, Greenland.
-- Leaves from a Greenland diary.
-- Driving to Greenland.
-- The Greenland Seal Hunter.
-- The Greenland Ice Cap.
-- The Flora of Greenland.
-- The Arctic Promise:
-- Greenland and Iceland.
-- Greenland: Past and Present.
-- Greenland Ventures.
-- Arctic Homeland:
-- Greenland Saga:
-- New Greenland.
-- Greenland Lies North
-- The ice-capped island: Greenland
-- Coast Guard to Greenland.
-- Greenland's 25 years of indigenous self-rule.
-- FROM GREENLAND'S ICY MOUNTAINS
-- The Greenland Mummies
-- Danish Greenland
-- Northwest Greenland: A History
-- Living With the Eskimos In Greenland
-- Those Greenland days
-- THE PEREGRINE FALCON IN GREENLAND
-- Greenland: a dream at the top of the world.
-- This is Greenland.
-- David Goes to Greenland
-- The Art of Greenland:
-- Hunting the Greenland Narwhal
-- Doctors Wife in Greenland.
-- Greenland in Story and Pictures.
-- THE LAST KINGS OF THULE, A year among the polar Eskimos of Greenland.
© 2007 Larry Rodrigues. All rights reserved.