"The Wolstanholm Fjord, where Thule Air Force Base is located, is the entrance to the Smith Strait, and we passed through it in the early hours of yesterday morning, but the Wolstanholm Fjord is too far away from our course to see there."
Brian's look showed that he was already a little drunk.
"In fact, it's an Arctic research base that has existed for a long time.
That place used to be an Inuit settlement called Ulanmak, where the Inuit lived for hundreds of years.
Later, the Danish explorer Krudrasmussen turned it into a trading center and forward base during five scientific expeditions to the Arctic between 1912 and 1924. ” "After World War II, a joint Danish weather station was established in the area.
During the Cold War, the U.S. military began to see the Arctic as a front line against the Soviet Union.
During World War II, the Allies had established weather stations in Greenland and Canada, but during the Cold War, the United States wanted an air base to intercept bombers from the northeast to the United States, and also to serve as a refueling point for long-range bombers from the United States, and the Uranmark happened to be halfway between Moscow and New York, so the Uranmark targeted here. ” "At that time, the secret project to build an air base here was codenamed 'Blue Jay', and in July 1951, a fleet of 120 containers, 12,000 people and 300,000 tons of cargo arrived in North Star Bay and immediately began construction of Thule Air Base.
And all the Inuit who lived in Ulanmak were moved, and then the builders spent two years building a huge air base there, which was Thule Air Force Base, where the 821st Regiment of the U.S.
Air Force was stationed, which is also known as the 821st Base. ” Brian drank another glass of wine, shook his head and continued: "In 1961, the U.S. military established the 12th Space Early Warning Squadron, which was called the 12th Missile Early Warning Squadron at that time, and this squadron was also stationed at Thule Air Force Base.
At that time, Thule Air Force Base was successively commanded by the Northeast Air Force Command, the Air Defense Command and the Strategic Air Force Command until 1983, when the Air Space Command took over Thule Air Force Base, and in 1992, the 12th Missile Warning Squadron was reorganized into the 12th Space Early Warning Squadron.
I served there in 2007 and served there for a total of four years. ” Yang Jing asked curiously: "It must be boring to serve there, right?"
” Brian smiled and shook his head, "How can it be boring?"
If it is boring to serve there now, it is for sure, after all, there are only about 200 American soldiers serving there, but when I served, there were more than 2,000 people there.
At its peak, the population at Thule Air Base is said to have numbered more than 10,000 people.
How can it be boring?
” Brian said, stretching out his hand to draw a circle, "You haven't been there, and although it's located 1,207 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, the scenery there is spectacular.
It's the only place on Earth where three active glaciers converge, and Thule is also the northernmost port in the world, with deep docks large enough for the Blue Whale to dock.
In addition, it has a 3,000-kilometer runway with more than 3,000 flights to and from Thule Air Base alone every year.
Thule Air Base is arguably the most important military base of the US government in the Arctic!
Serving there is actually not boring at all. ” Gege asked curiously, "Is there anything else strange there?"
For example, what are you doing there?
Or is there any high-tech radar or anything like that in that base?
” Brian shook his head with a smile and said: "I'm sorry boss, I can't explain these things you consulted, although I have been retired for seven years, I still have to abide by some confidentiality regulations, and I don't want to be hunted down by the U.S. government for the rest of my life for saying something I shouldn't say." ” Carl Morris looked at Gege's somewhat disappointed look and said with a smile: "Boss, you don't have to be disappointed.
Not to mention you, even those of us who spend all day with Brian never told us anything sensitive about that damn base. ” Gege shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, that's something I shouldn't ask, I'm just too curious." ” Because of this sudden snowstorm, except for the crew on duty, everyone came to a lively dinner at noon.
In this kind of boring voyage, it is very necessary to have a dinner party from time to time, which will help to relieve some of the negative emotions caused by the boring voyage of passengers or crew.
However, to Yang Jing's surprise, this snowstorm came and went very quickly.
After everyone had eaten and drunk enough at noon, they suddenly realized that they didn't know when they saw the sun again.
Pushing open the hatch and walking out, people found that the blizzard had stopped, and a black cloud was faintly visible in the sky pressing towards the southeast.
And now in the sky, although there are still a lot of clouds, but they are not as black and scary as just now, and the sun is also playfully showing its head, trying to contribute its own heat to this sea area.
Although the sky was clear, but the temperature became very low, Yang Jing looked at the outdoor temperature table, in this short period of three hours, the temperature plummeted from about 10 degrees above zero to 17 degrees below zero "The polar climate is like this, because the updrafts from all over the Northern Hemisphere cool down in the Arctic and then carry a huge amount of cold to the warmer regions at lower latitudes to replenish the air that rises with the warmer regions.
So in the polar regions, you can often encounter this kind of sudden snowstorm.
Don't worry, it's summer after all, and this kind of snowstorm won't have any catastrophic consequences if you pay a little attention.
Standing in the cockpit, Andri whispered to Yang Jing to explain the blizzard.
Yang Jing smiled bitterly: "With you, I'm not worried about any disastrous consequences, I'm just worried about this speed." ” Now the speed of the Blue Whale is the safest 3 knots, that is, more than 5 kilometers per hour, which is about the same speed as a normal human walk, and from here to the northernmost Cape of Colombia on Ellesmere Island, it is still more than 500 kilometers, and if you sail at this speed, it will take at least more than four days.
Andre smiled: "Don't worry, this temperature can't be maintained for a long time.
You haven't been to the polar regions, so there are some situations you may not know.
I go to the South Pole or the North Pole twice a year, so I know a lot about this polar climate.
Rest assured, it won't take more than a day after this cold snap passes, and the temperature will rise immediately.
And I observed just now that the cooling of this cold snap is not so violent, and if it catches up with the violent cooling, it is not uncommon for it to plummet by 40 degrees within a few hours.
This is less than 30 degrees, which is a normal cooling.
Do not worry. ” Well, since everyone said so, Yang Jing could only choose to believe it.
Although this guy has only been the captain of the Blue Whale for a short time, he is an old seaman after all, and he has much more experience in this area than himself.
Things were as Andre judged, and at about nine o'clock in the evening, Yang Jing actually felt that the wind direction had changed.
The north wind, which was the same as the knife just now, quietly turned into a southwest wind after raging for more than ten hours, and the outdoor temperature also rose from minus 17 degrees at noon to minus 6 degrees.
Crucially, the ice has not worsened much, and the Blue Whale has now increased its speed to seven knots.
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Time passed quietly, and two days later, when the Blue Whale drilled out of the northernmost section of the Smith Strait, which was only about 20 kilometers wide, the front suddenly opened up.
"The Arctic Ocean has arrived!"
There was a hint of excitement in Captain Andrei's tone.
Although it is still white, it is undoubtedly more exciting than the narrow strait.
"This is the Arctic Ocean?"
Gege asked Captain Andrei.
"That's right, there's the real Arctic Ocean ahead.
However, the sea temperature is still a bit low, and if you wait until August, the ice will melt and break to reveal the sea. ” "So fast?"
Yang Jing was also a little surprised, "The thickness of the ice here is almost half a meter now, right?"
It takes more than 20 days to melt this half-meter-thick layer of ice?
” "No, not a complete melt."
Captain Andrei smiled and shook his head, "Don't forget that we are at sea now, and the sea under the ice is always moving, and when the thickness of the ice is less than twenty centimeters, there is a high probability that it will break under the strong fluctuations of the sea."
Once the ice breaks, it melts faster. ” Yang Jing nodded in understanding.
Andrei walked to the chart room, looked at the charts, and said, "Let's go, now that we have entered the Arctic Ocean, then we should visit the northernmost settlement of mankind." ” "The northernmost settlement?"
Ge Ge was stunned for a moment, and then said excitedly as if he had thought of something: "Captain Andrei, do you mean Alet?
” Captain Andrei snapped his fingers and laughed, "That's right, it's the northernmost human settlement on this planet. ” Yang Jing asked Gege in a low voice, "Is that Alert famous?"
” Gege nodded and said, "Of course it's famous, this is the northernmost permanent residence in the world.
It is located at 82 degrees 28 minutes north latitude, just over 800 kilometers from the North Pole. ” Yang Jing patted his head and exclaimed, "There are still people living in such a northern place?"
” "It's not a permanent settlement.
Alett is only a permanent settlement, but most of the people who live there are temporary.
More than 10 years ago, there were five permanent settlers there, but since 2011, no one has settled there permanently, but there are people there every year, there is a weather station, a military forward base and an airstrip, so there are still a few people who are on duty there every year. ” Andre praised: "Mr.
Yang, I have to say that your fiancée knows a lot about this.
She was right, Arlett is the northernmost settlement on the coast of the Arctic Ocean.
When we scientific expeditions used to come to the North Pole, whenever we passed by here, we would usually go over to meet and have a meal with the personnel on duty there.
It's really not easy for them. ”