Talk:Pituffik Space Base

Forced Migration

Was it the US or Denmark that carried out the 1953 relocation of natives to expand the base? -24.149.203.34 (talk) 01:31, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Good question, and this deserves greater exploration and citations as yet another possible incident of US colonialistic human rights abuses. Of course, there have been other similar "relocations:" the trail of tears during the (general) Jackson Administration, Japanese internment during WWII. I'm at the beginning of my research on this topic.Critical Chris (talk) 13:15, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

It was the danish government that forced the inhabitants out in 1953. The prime minister at the time (Poul Nyrup Rasmussen), gave an official apology. Uusaqqak Qujaukitsoq, a spokesperson for the Thule case died in 2018. Danish news article on the matter: . I don't know enough about the history, to provide a proper section on it. 93.184.203.250 (talk) 18:25, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

References

greenland

This entry needs to be linked to Greenland, and vice versa. Searching the Greenland entry on Wikipedia provides no link, or information on, Thule. Nor is there a link within the Thule entry, to Greenland.

I feel the entire entry needs a good re-edit . . . it contains useful but incomplete information and is written in a tone that can be hard to follow and seems not in keeping with Wikipedia's standards. I will be happy to work on it but would the primary authors of it like to address it first?--Mike 05:30, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

This article must talk more about the history of the Thule Airbasse, as well as what it's fuctions. the fact that the Inughuit living at Qaanaaq (Thule) were displaced after the base was built.

With only a few days notice, the local Inuit community was forced to move away from their ancient hunting grounds in May 1953 and resettle in Qaanaaq, north of Thule. They were not awarded compensation until 1999.

The Danish and Greenlanders have a policy barring nuclear weapons within their borders, but in 1995 the U.S. military informed them that nuclear surface-to-air and other warheads had been stored at the Thule air base. In 2001, the U.S. government unclassified documents reveling that, in 1968, a B-52 bomber laden with four nuclear bombs had crashed twelve miles from the Thule air base. Greenlanders had long suspected that an unexploded hydrogen bomb had been lost off the northeast coast of their territory in the accident. In the report on the incident released over thirty years after the event, the Pentagon contended that all four bombs had been accounted for although a pound of plutonium had been released into the environment. Reports of cancer and other illnesses began surfacing among Danish and Greenlandic Thule air base employeesin the eighties and nineties. Some 1,700 workers were exposed to radiation after the plane crash. The Danish government acknowledged the accident and paid the workers a $15.5 million settlement in 1995 (Cappoza, 2001).

I too belive that this article should mention the 1968 plane crash, as also mentioned in List of nuclear accidents. -- G. Gearloose (?!) 11:33, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

I've added a small section. The source I found only talked about 700 people, not 1700, and doesn't mention the Danish government compensation. Could someone with more time on their hands supplement what I've written, please? --RenniePet (talk) 13:23, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Origins of the name?

does anybody know from what the name Thule is derived from? skimming over this disambiguation page reveals a few possible leads (It is in an indigenous Inuit region; Greenland is a Scandinavian country; it was founded during the Nazi era) and i was curious if somebody knew whether or not there was any precise reason it was given this name. Perhaps it was named after some military figure or geographical region/marker? popefauve 03:48, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)

See Thule (myth). David.Monniaux 17:20, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

yes thats important. Maybe has something to do with Thule Society — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.164.52.89 (talk) 17:39, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

See also Peter Freuchen, Danish explorer who named the region in 1910 (after establishing a trading post there) after the mythical Thule. RobDuch (talk) 06:07, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

Air emergencies

I saw it mentioned that Thule Air Force Base is one of the few place where airliners can do an emergency landing if they have problems on routes going near the pole (such is the case of many flights from Europe to the US or Canada). I'd be happy to hear about it. David.Monniaux 17:20, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Fastest surface wind speed?

Is it Thule or Mount Washington? See [1].

• Not likely Thule and in this era of extreme weather events I'm not sure this is notable anymore.
• Should remove or edit this 'historic fact' List_of_weather_records#Wind_speedYakbutterT (talk) 20:38, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

1956 Reconnaissance

Routine, periodic air reconnaissance was conducted by RB-47H aircraft from Thule Air Base over the Pole to Russian defended airspace near the Barents Sea. These top secret missions, 12 hours long, requiring five KC-97 tankers, and four 20,000 pound off-loads, stretched the state of aviation art at that time. I was shot at, noted near the end of the B-47 Article. --plumalley —Preceding unsigned comment added by Plumalley (talk • contribs) 23. mar 2006 kl. 16:00

Tugboat

The tugboat is NOT used to move icebergs out of the flight path. First of all icebergs do not interfere with the flight path and second the tugboat would not be powerfull enough to push any sizable iceberg. The tugboat is launched at the beginning of the port season (usually beginning of July when the bay becomes icefree) and is used to assist ships visiting the port. It is also used to push smaller chunks of ice away from the port area. Kpusa 13:16, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

troops

how many troops are stationed there

What are you, some kind of a wise guy? Why would you want to know that? Caveant editores.Dave (talk) 09:20, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

the question is completely legit and relevant;the numbers ought to be added to the article,Here's what I've been able to retreive on the issue, quoting from Business Insider UK " Today, the base typically is used for allied surveillance of the northern polar region and has a stripped-down presence of approximately 400 Danes, 50 Greenlanders, 3 Canadians, and 140 American military and support staff."Flight714 (talk) 13:53, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

NorthCom/EuCom

Is it NORAD only, or also NorthCom? Or is it EuCom?

Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/what-its-like-to-serve-at-thule-air-base-2014-11?r=US#ixzz3aJCDf7HU

Refs

The Agreement relating to the Defense of Greenland in Washington on April 9, 1941 is here: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Dip/PaW/206.html Holger Terp —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.95.237.205 (talk) 15:57, 5 October 2010 (UTC) I know the historical material is taken from a site with no copyrights. Nevertheless some structure is required. Cites please. Looks like some 1940's newspaper articles.Dave (talk) 09:23, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Nice heading. Refs is Norwegian for telling someone off. Maybe it's the same meaning in Danish. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.134.28.194 (talk) 07:06, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

South of the North Pole

Isn't it redundant to say that the base lies South of the North Pole? Isn't everything South of the North Pole. 21 May 2009 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.93.142.231 (talk) 18:34, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Heat and Power

I was very curious how they keep the place heated and powered. The main page mentions a nuclear reactor in the past tense. Searching the Internet I found this article: http://www.powermag.com/o_and_m/The-Heat-Is-On-at-Arctic-Air-Base_3464.html

This article confirms that heat and power are provided by burning fuel, not by nuclear power. In accordance with the Single Fuel Concept of the U.S. military, this is basically jet fuel. The article also has interesting details on how the buildings must be built on stilts, or else heat from the buildings melts the permafrost. Even the generators and such are raised up off the permafrost, and the undersides of the buildings must be insulated.

Since this is an air base, and airplanes need a lot of fuel, and ships can only come a few months out of each year, there must be truly enormous amounts of fuel stored at the base.

Somebody should work some of this material into the main article. I don't have the time now, but if nobody else does anything, I might do it someday. Steveha (talk) 08:38, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

underground facilities

The base is inter-connected with underground tunnels and walkways that travel from building to building. These are open for access year round but are almost exclusively used during the harsh winter months. DEWY CHEATEM AND HOWE (talk) 08:49, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

Not when I was there in 1985, and I doubt the Danes would've allowed such construction. When the weather got bad -- which was often -- we'd hear various alert levels that had specific movement restrictions...up to and including NO ONE moved anywhere, not even emergency personnel. Had we had a system of tunnels, we would not have gotten those warnings.

Plus, an air base, by it's nature, is large to allow for the runway...Building tunnels would be cost prohibitive.

Significance in US military culture?

I can find no independent documentation, and I am not sure how one would go about confirming whether this is an official policy. That having been said, a number of relatives of mine who served in the US Army and US Air Force from the 1950s to the 1990s unanimously agreed that Thule is regarded in the US military as a punishment post, a place where they send soldiers and airmen who have angered someone very powerful through one or more career-limiting or career-ending moves, to serve out the rest of their tours of duty. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.255.16.66 (talk) 14:18, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

That sounds like a tired old meme I(think the Captain at the end of the movie "Stripes.") I was TDY (Temporary duty) to Thule early in my USAF service. Tours were only a year long, as I recall. I was there a month and a half.

The US military has many urban legends and jokes of this nature, the more difficult to verify the better. When I was in the USN circa 1980 the joke was that you'd wind up in "Bum Fuk, Egypt" if somebody didn't like you. Tours in "isolation" bases like Thule are usually one year, and in the Navy counted as double sea duty credit. RobDuch (talk) 06:23, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

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Discovery by a civilian

Anybody willing to at least mention that this secret base was discovered on June 16, 1951 by Jean Malaurie and his Inuit friend Kutikitsoq? I'm not a native English speaker and wouldn't be able to phrase it correctly. Thanks. --Olivier Debre (talk) 13:26, 9 March 2016 (UTC)

Finally, I did it myself.--Olivier Debre (talk) 15:13, 18 January 2018 (UTC)

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Pronunciation?

I've heard it pronounce "Thoole" and "Thoolee". Which is correct? Or are they both wrong?Longinus876 (talk) 14:57, 28 January 2018 (UTC)

When I was there we pronounced it Toolee. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.211.123.228 (talk) 14:16, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

Meters???

This is America! Let’s stop with the stupid kilometers and meters! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.162.136.248 (talk) 00:13, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

Questions about the actual property

I haven't been able to determine how many acres the base covers. Anybody know? Is there some kind of a 99-year lease or is it more of a hand-shake agreement? Thanks

The 1951 Agreement is not a lease, but a permanent territorial concession in perpetuity to the United States, with residual sovereignty retained by Denmark. It is akin to the Guantanamo Bay and Panama Canal Zone concessions, without the lease payments found in those concession treaties.XavierGreen (talk) 13:58, 8 November 2024 (UTC)

"Thule Air Base is home to the 21st Space Wing's global network of sensors"

• The 21st Space Wing is based in Colorado.
• If the sensors are at Thule AB, they are not very global.

Quality control sometimes only requires that you read the article. --84.132.144.123 (talk) 11:09, 21 August 2020 (UTC)

Modern Air Base

The chronology in this section is confusing. The ships to build the base didn't arrive until 9 July 1951, but the secret base was discovered by the civilian 16 Jun 1951. If the dates are correct, he should have only found a weather station at that time frame. ("You see where I'm going here? How could you have been at the meeting at 1620 hrs, if you didn't make it back to your room until 1645 hrs?") SquashEngineer (talk) 16:49, 12 February 2021 (UTC)