[Granville-Hough] 8 Dec 2009 - Icecap Engineering R&D Station

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:51:09 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Icecap Engineering R&D Station-8 Dec 2009

Everything went well today, and I gave thought to my trip out to see the
Greenland icecap Army Engineers R&D Station.  Two or three years later,
one of my West Point company mates was the Commander there; and I could
probably refresh my memory if I asked him for a rundown.
        Anyway I wanted to see the place in daylight, so I got enough people
to fill a helicopter and went out for a look. The whole idea of this
station was to get to the center of the icecap and learn all one could
about the ice, the land forms, and how to live there.  So it was some
distance out, perhaps 25 miles or so.  I cannot remember how far it was,
but we did get to see the supply train on our way out.  The supply train
took all the food and other items out; and brought back the ice cores,
all the garbage, etc.  The supply train was composed of snow tractors or
snow tanks.  They were light weight vehicles with wide steel treads like
a tank.  They could carry quite a load, and it seems there were about
ten or twelve of them in line.  They did not sink into the snow or ice
crystal as did trucks.  I suppose their speed was five to ten miles per
hour.  In talking later to the soldiers who ran the supply train
operation; they said the exposure to the cold caused profound body
changes.  They soon learned to take with them the most fatty or greasy
food they could find.  About the third day out, that is what they
craved, pure butter, half-cooked bacon, or high-fat beef.  They stayed
on this high fat diet until they got back to Thule and warmed up a day
or two.  (This probably explains how or why the Eskimos  liked seal
blubber and narwhal so much.  Fish was for dogs, as it did not have
enough fat to satisfy humans.)
	I do not remember how the supply trains navigated out to the R&D  base.
     If they used an ordinary compass, it would have shown magnetic North
to be somewhere in Canada to our Southwest.  I suppose you could use
such a compass, but you would have to follow some strange directions.
In fact, I have forgotten how the planes got around if they lost radar
contact.
        There were markers on the ice telling us we were at the Engineering
Station; but the helicopter pilot said we could only visit for one hour,
as he had to keep his engine running.  (If he cut it off, he did not
think he could get it started again.)  So we got the quick one-hour
tour.  I only recall four things about the tour, though we must have
learned more.  One, everything was under the ice, connected by
reinforced ice corridors.  I think the supply train, when it arrived
simply went into a long corridor under the ice until it could be
unloaded.  I believe there were vents for blowing out carbon monoxide.
Second, the electrical system of generators and other equipment were not
well-grounded, as there was nothing to ground to.  I am not sure, but I
think the attempted solution was to make a big isolated dump of
discarded equipment, tie the pieces together electrically, and use it as
the ground for the whole installation.  Third, the corridors got smaller
and smaller as the moisture in the breath of humans or exhausts of
vehicles froze to the walls.  The engineers had developed a special
piece of equipment for periodically shaving the walls back to normal
size.  It reminded me of a mowing machine with a vertical cutter.
Fourth, I learned about the
ice cores and how they were obtained, stored, and shipped back to the
colleges and universities studying the climate changes through the
years.  I cannot remember how far back they could get, but the figure
10,000 years comes to mind.
        Well, our hour was soon up, and we made our way back to our nervous
helicopter pilot.  Soon we were back at Thule Air Base, with no envy
whatsoever for the fellows out at the Engineering Station.  Love to all,
Grampa