Greenland: "Operation Lead Dog" 1961 US Army; The Big Picture TV-494

more at http://quickfound.net/

'THE BIG PICTURE takes viewers to the most northern body of land in the world to view the activities of Operation Lead Dog. A combined services effort conducted in cooperation with the Danish government and commanded by the Army Transportation Corps, Operation Lead Dog started in May of 1960. First, the Army explorers spanned the icecap from coast-to-coast before moving north beyond the areas covered by Peary's travels. The 65-day journey was designed to give the Transportation Corps a good opportunity for a rigid test of their polar vehicles for endurance and mobility. Other technical services made extensive equipment tests and gathered detailed data on the previously untouched polar regions. Archaeologists accompanying the expedition discovered the remains of a Paleo Eskimo camp, believed to be over four-thousand years old. Signal Corps photographers have dramatically filmed 20th century man's re-entry into the land where men fished and hunted more than two-thousand years ago.'

Originally a public domain film from the National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/263548.pdf

FINAL REPORT

PROJECT LEAD DOG 60 TCB- 60- 023-EQ

A TRAVERSE OF NORTH GREENLAND AND AN AERIAL AND SURFACE EXPLORATION OF PEARY LAND AND CROWN PRINCE CHRISTIAN LAND CONDUCTED BY THE US ARMY TRANSPORTATION CORPS MAY-JULY 1960

The assigned mission Project Lead Dog 60, was accomplished, and resulting conclusions are described. Descent routes from the icecap to Centrum Lake and Bronlunds Fjord exist and are negotiable by tracked, low-ground- pressure vehicles. The ability of a tractor-train to travel long distances over the icecap and then to support other military activities at the terminus was demonstrated for the first time. Icecap navigation and trail operations procedures, have been refined to a point of extreme reliability. The use of helicopters greatly facilitates detailed investigations of areas inaccessible to other means of transportation. The current W System Crevasse Detector is not sufficiently reliable for icecap operations. A more reliable detector is necessary for surface operations in marginal zones. Future exploratory operations of this nature should make maximum utilization of mutually supporting surface-aviation parties. A high speed prime mover should be developed to make maximum utilization of the wheeled equipment. At present, there are no vehicles in the supply system which can be effectively mated with the 10 Ton Off-Road Trailers...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_Air_Base

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Thule Air Base, or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport (IATA: THU, ICAO: BGTL), is the United States Air Force's northernmost base, located 1,207 km (750 mi) north of the Arctic Circle and 1,524 km (947 mi) from the North Pole on the northwest coast of the island of Greenland.

Thule Air Base is the US Armed Forces' northernmost installation. Thule's arctic environment includes icebergs in North Star Bay, two islands (Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Island), a polar ice sheet, and Wolstenholme Fjord – the only place on Earth where four active glaciers join together.

Thule Air Base is home to the 21st Space Wing's global network of sensors providing missile warning, space surveillance and space control to North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Air Force Space Command (AFSPC).

Thule Air Base is also home to the 821st Air Base Group and is responsible for air base support within the Thule Defense Area for the multinational population of "Team Thule". The base hosts the 12th Space Warning Squadron (12 SWS) which operates a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) designed to detect and track ICBMs launched against North America. Thule is also host to Detachment 1 of the 23rd Space Operations Squadron, part of the 50th Space Wing's global satellite control network. The airfield's 10,000-foot (3,000 m) runway handles more than 3,000 US and international flights per year. Finally, Thule is home to the northernmost deep water port in the world...