'Been a bit slow this afternoon; 'may be time for another Sondy Tale:
KULUSUK
By Wilton Strickland
In late August of 1978, while I was Director of Engineering at Sondrestrom,
Air Base, Greenland, I needed to go across Greenland to do a final
inspection of a drainage improvement project at an airfield on the small
island of Kulusuk off the east coast of Greenland. I called the dispatch
office at the local Greenland Air office (a small airline flying a couple of
DC-6's and several helicopters to ferry passengers between many small
villages around Greenland). One of the pilots answered, and I asked him if
they had a DC-6 flight going to Kulusuk any time soon. He asked when I
needed to go. "As soon as possible," I replied. He continued, "How about
tomorrow at 0900 at the Greenland Air hanger? Is that soon enough?" "That's
great; I'll be there," I responded.
Kulusuk Airfield has a 4,000 feet-long, fine, compacted gravel runway and
was constructed in the late '50's and early '60's by the US Air Force to
support a RADAR site (DYE-4) on top of a mountain 5 miles by curving
mountain road south-southwest of the airfield. (Parts of the road are
visible now in the snow and ice on Google Earth - Kulusuk, Greenland.)
DYE-4 was part of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line across northern
Canada, southern Greenland and Iceland to provide early warning of any
attack on North America across the polar area by the Soviet Union. I
visited there in early summer of '78 on an informal facilities inspection
and orientation that a civilian official at HQ in Colorado Springs had asked
me to do; 'wrote a report that I sent to HQ. 'Never heard any more about
the report or the discrepancies I noted and recommendations I made. The
site was closed and abandoned in 1991.
The runway runs east-west just below the base of a mountain immediately
south of the runway. The mid-point of the runway crosses a natural drainage
swale that drains from the mountain and to the northeast diagonally beneath
the mid-point of the runway. Original culverts beneath the runway were
often inadequate to handle the heavy flow of water from the mountain in
spring. The culverts would often get blocked by ice and cause water to
flood across the runway. (I also did an orientation visit there in early
summer.) My project was to install additional and larger culverts and
enlarge and improve a catch basin on the upslope, south side of the runway
and clear and improve the drainage ditch and natural swale on the down-slope
side to the ocean.
I arrived at the aircraft the next morning to find it nearly ready with a
significant load of supplies and several Greenlander and Danish passengers.
The flight across Greenland is about 500 miles at this latitude, and was
usually flown at about 2000 feet above the highest part of the ice cap at
this latitude - 10,000 feet MSL. Our flight was in the clear all the way.
I was able to study the many bright, aqua blue (the color of laundry bluing)
rivers and lakes on the ice cap in detail along the entire route. It is
most interesting to see a rushing river completely disappear into a hole (a
Moulin) in the ice.
The manager of the grading and drainage project met me at the Kulusuk
terminal, and we immediately went out onto the runway and the adjoining
newly graded areas. The contractors had done a beautiful and very
professional job; I found no problem whatsoever and complimented them on
their outstanding work. The work they did that summer is still visible on
Google Earth on each side at about the mid-point of the runway. (Also on
Google Earth, click on the two photo icons at the catch basin on south side
of the runway to view photos of the DC-6 sitting at the Kulusuk terminal.
The mountain on south side of runway also visible behind the DC-6.)
After walking the area of the project in detail for 30 minutes or more and
taking several photos for record, including some of the fantastic
surrounding scenery, we retired to a snack bar in the terminal. The
Greenland Air DC-6 pilots soon came in and I asked them when they planned to
leave for the return trip to Sondy. The pilot was quick to remind me, "It's
up to you; this is your flight; we came for you; you tell US when you're
ready to go." I replied, "Well, I've been wondering if I might have time to
walk to the nearby village of Kulusuk (then called by its Danish name, Kap
Dan). He said, "By all means; indeed, you should go. It's not far. Go
ahead. Take your time; we're here for you and will not leave without you."
The Danish ticket agent overheard us and joined in, "Just follow those blue
barrels (50-gallon steel drums) out the door and to the right up the hill.
By the time you get to the last barrel you can see, you'll see another
barrel - just follow the blue barrels to the village." I said with a smile,
"Just follow the blue-barrel road, huh?" The agent responded, "Yes,
Dorothy. The Wizard of Oz will meet you there." We were all still having a
good laugh as I rushed out the door and off on the blue-barrel road - really
no road - just a foot path. (On Google Earth, a vehicle road of sorts from
the airport to the village is now clearly visible, but is more circuitous.
The route I walked, also visible on Google Earth by zooming in a bit, is a
little over a mile long and a more direct route westward from the terminal
shop building and straight across the hills.)
En route along the path, I passed a Skidoo snowmobile sitting with the
summer's grass grown up around it. On a hill near the village, I passed a
graveyard, obviously, with the bodies laid out on the rock surface with rows
of rocks covering them; each one also marked with a Christian cross. (The
grave yard/cemetery is also visible on Google Earth; 'has been expanded and
now has a rectangular, rock wall around it immediately north of the vehicle
road and just east of a large lake (or inlet) SE of the village.)
At the edge of the village, a Greenlander man greeted me in Danish,
"Velkommen," and something else I did not understand but quickly realized he
was directing me on down the "street" toward a group of European tourists
who had arrived via Iceland and were about to enjoy a traditional
Greenlandic Drum Dance at a rocky point (visible on Google Earth at the NE
corner of the village) and overlooking the ocean. (I was tempted to try to
ask the Greenlander man if he were the Wizard, but I let it go.)
As the Drum Dance was finished, and I was turning to walk back to the
airport, a Dutch or German woman tourist, obviously recognizing my flight
suit and jacket, approached me and asked, "What is an American Air Force
officer doing in Greenland?" I answered, "Just trying to keep the world at
peace, Mam." She quickly replied, "And I thank you, thank you." As she and
I and some others in her group ambled leisurely along the blue-barrel road
back toward the airfield, we chatted about the beauty of the surroundings
and the brilliantly clear sunlight.
On the flight back to Sondy, there were several Greenlander teenagers. Soon
after takeoff, one of the teenagers, a beautiful (a mix of northern European
and Inuit ancestry and appearing to be European with slight Inuit/Oriental
features), young Greenlander woman of about 16 or 17 years, stuck her face
up close to the upper right corner of my seat and close by the side of the
aircraft and said, "Are you an American?" "Yes," I replied. She quickly
went on to ask, "May I, please, talk English with you." I turned to the
right in the seat to more easily talk to her and responded, "Well, of
course, you may. Where are you going?" "To Kobenhavn (Copenhagen) for my
last year in high school. We've been at home for the summer," she replied.
Are all of you from Cap Dan/Kulusuk? How long have you been in school in
Denmark?" I asked. She answered, "Yes, our homes are here on Kulusuk. I've
been in school in Denmark four years. I want to go to university next
year." "Well, you seem to be doing very well with the schooling. You
speak English beautifully" (with a slight British accent), I responded. She
repeated slowly, "Beau - ti - ful- ly?" "Yes, it means pretty - like you -
beautiful. Beautiful-ly describes how you speak - it's an adverb. You
speak English very well." With a little giggle, "Oh yes, many adverbs end
in l - y. Thank you." She enjoyed discussing the bright blue streams and
small lakes on the ice cap, and as we neared the west coast and Sondrestrom,
we saw a glacier making its way around a hill or small mountain that was too
high for it to flow over. Because the glacier could not flow over it, it
split at the upslope side of the mountain, flowed tightly around it with the
two parts of the glacier re-joining on the down-slope side of the hill and
carrying much of the hill with it in the form of rocks, dirt, debris, etc.,
(moraine) that it had broken or worn away from the hill. This moraine
caught between the two re-joined parts of the glacier forms a line curving
down-slope from the hill and, from above, appears to be a highway on the
ice. The Greenlander girl said to me, "See the way?" It took me a second
to realize what she was talking about, then, "Oh, yes, a HIGHway - a road -
it does look like a highway - a road, doesn't it?" She responded, "Yes, it
looks like a highway on the ice." As we departed the plane at Sondy, I
turned to her and said, "Good luck to you in school. Promise me you'll go
on to university." "Oh, I will, I will, thank you," she said with
determination. I never saw her again. I hope she has done well.
Wilton
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