[HN Gopher] Newcomer's Welcome Package: Thule Air Base, Greenlan...
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Newcomer's Welcome Package: Thule Air Base, Greenland [pdf]
Author : troydavis
Score : 62 points
Date : 2022-02-20 18:53 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (download.militaryonesource.mil)
(TXT) w3m dump (download.militaryonesource.mil)
| troydavis wrote:
| Here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdU2z4cDJdk
| COGlory wrote:
| I've come to love cold, dry, desolate places. (Such as Montana).
| The downsides aren't nearly what people make them out to be, and
| the upsides are amazing. Cold really isn't that bad, and winter
| hobbies are a lot of fun.
| tonyarkles wrote:
| I'm sitting here in rural Saskatchewan right now, absolutely
| loving life. We got this property dirt cheap ($1 for the lot,
| $300 in gas to move a free mobile home to the lot, ~$4000 to
| trench water and gas). Until last week, the only downside was
| the lack of decent Internet for being able to work from out
| here, but... thank you Starlink! Last week we went from
| tethering to a distance tower, to 250Mbit downlink measured
| this morning.
| phkamp wrote:
| All that info and not a single word about hydrogen bombs ?
| lkramer wrote:
| Probably need a higher clearance to be reminded of that
| embarrassing little story.
|
| But I admit, I was looking for it as well:)
| joshvm wrote:
| Interesting, it reads a lot like the USAP participant [0] and
| field manuals [1]:
|
| [0]
| https://www.usap.gov/USAPgov/travelAndDeployment/documents/P...
|
| [1] https://www.eol.ucar.edu/system/files/usap-field-manual.pdf
|
| You can also find guides for Summit Station (a US/Greenland
| research base) https://geo-summit.org/documents; in fact most of
| these bases have publicly available guides and it's fun comparing
| what facilities are available compared to what you have at your
| own base. I remember watching the Australian WIFFA [2] movie this
| year and thinking that damn, these guys have a _brewery_? Sadly
| it turns out that got banned this year [3].
|
| Though somewhat funny that it recommends finding an interesting
| rock to make a belt buckle or gift, that's an absolute no-no in
| Antaractica.
|
| [2] https://www.wiffa.aq
|
| [3] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-28/antarctica-alcohol-
| cr...
| bacon_waffle wrote:
| I'm surprised to see the winter film festival films posted out
| in the open - my recollection (from 2014 winter, hi!) was that
| those weren't supposed to be shared off-Ice. People are shy,
| unsanctioned stuff goes in to the films, authorities often
| don't take criticism well...
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I have a friend that was stationed there, in the 1970s, or so.
|
| He said that a favorite prank on newcomers, was to completely
| mess with their circadian rhythm, by waking them up at random
| times, and telling them it was time to go on duty.
| droro wrote:
| Last week I watched an old Nova episode[0] about a harrowing
| attempt to restore a B-29 that had been abandoned 50 years prior
| a few hundred miles outside Thule. It turns out that Greenland is
| a difficult place to do basic things, let alone repair a massive
| decaying old warbird.
|
| [0] https://www.pbs.org/video/nova-b-29-frozen-in-time/
| Cupertino95014 wrote:
| When I was in Iceland, I considered a side trip to Greenland,
| just because no one I knew had _ever_ been there.
|
| I thought better of it when I realized it's a 3-hour flight from
| Reykjavik, and very, very little tourist infrastructure.
|
| But I'd love to go to Thule. I bet you could give a talk on
| practically ANY topic, and everyone would show up! What else is
| there to do?
| Cupertino95014 wrote:
| (although on pp. 18-21, I see that maybe everyone would be way
| too busy with all those activities.)
| robinhoodexe wrote:
| >While at Thule, it's recommended that you walk on the left side
| of the road facing oncoming traffic. Although contrary to
| stateside standards, this will enable you to watch for vehicles
| and to get out of the way should they not see you.
|
| I have always found this to make extremely good sense, but I see
| quite few doing it besides me.
| nosianu wrote:
| As a German, I learned this as a rule. Outside of towns when
| there is no sidewalk, always walk on the left side, against
| oncoming traffic.
|
| From the StVO, the law, the road traffic regulations, SS25
| section 1, first paragraph (German):
| https://www.stvo.de/strassenverkehrsordnung/108-25-fussgaeng...
|
| > _ausserhalb geschlossener Ortschaften muss am linken
| Fahrbahnrand gegangen werden_
|
| "Outside of towns pedestrians have to walk on the left side"
|
| Just an aside, while looking at that website, the banner image
| at the top looks clearly seems to be of an American road. On a
| German website about German road laws.
| bouchard wrote:
| I'm pretty sure that's what is recommended here in Quebec,
| Canada when there's no sidewalk.
|
| Seems weird that it wouldn't also be the case in the US.
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| It's what I was taught in the US as well, if you're on foot
| you should be going opposite traffic
| Jtsummers wrote:
| It is the case in the US (or has been since I was a child in
| the 80s) so I find the quote weird. You are supposed to walk
| opposite traffic for the reason described. It is standard
| guidance every I have lived (a large chunk of the US).
| ImprovedSilence wrote:
| Yeah, in the US I learned walk/run opposing traffic, and
| ride your bike with traffic.
| wk_end wrote:
| FWIW - growing up in Ontario, Canada I was always told to
| walk in the direction of traffic. It seemed odd to me to
| turn my back to danger, but that's what they taught us.
| Ekaros wrote:
| In Finland it depends, with sidewalk and in populated
| areas the normal right side traffic is to be followed. At
| highways it is recommended to use left side specially
| during dark.
| alksjdalkj wrote:
| I grew up in the states and was always taught to walk against
| traffic. Not sure where they're teaching people the opposite.
| aaaaaaaaata wrote:
| Places where people think being right/having the right of way
| triumphs being alive.
| core-utility wrote:
| FWIW, I knew a guy who was riding his bicycle on the
| sidewalk, technically going the "wrong" direction. He crossed
| a commercial business park driveway and got hit by a car who
| didn't see him, and got a lot of hassle from insurance
| because he was going the "wrong" way for that side of the
| street.
|
| Looking back, that may have been the insurance company
| looking to skirt responsibility.
| throwthere wrote:
| I think they're talking about walking. Riding a bike is
| different-- for one, it's illegal in a lot of places to
| ride on the sidewalk in a business district. For another,
| the transfer of momentum is appreciably less in a same-
| direction collision between a car/bike compared to head-on.
| jkaptur wrote:
| The sly humor really makes this document readable. I love the
| list of what the base does NOT have, including "spiders or
| snakes!"
| samatman wrote:
| A rare opportunity to indulge a question I've harboured for some
| time: how do the servicemembers assigned to Thule Air Base
| pronounce it?
|
| I was educated by Anthroposophists so when I read that noun my
| inner voice pronounces it, er, Bavarian. I've never had a chance
| to ask someone who would know how USAF says it, but I'd guess it
| isn't that.
| troydavis wrote:
| "Too-lee" (https://www.peterson.spaceforce.mil/Thule-AB-
| Greenland/).
| ineedasername wrote:
| A family member that was in the USAF talks about this base* and
| pronounces it _/ 'tuli/_ (like "duly" in _" duly noted"_.)
|
| *Also that getting posted there was idiomatic for pissing off
| the wrong person. As in, "Don't piss them off or you'll end up
| in Thule Greenland". It wasn't considered a desirable posting,
| at least not by many. Enough so that it provided what these
| days is called "assignment incentive pay".
| vba616 wrote:
| >pronounces it /'tuli/
|
| https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/50967/20-towns-named-
| oth...
| newsclues wrote:
| Just hear about the big crater nearby!
|
| https://www.science.org/content/article/massive-crater-under...
| malkia wrote:
| From the pdf, page 3 at the bottom:
|
| "Simply put, Thule exists today in order to support the operation
| of the solid-state phased-array radar located at the Ballistic
| Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS), Site I. The BMEWS site is
| located approximately 11 miles northwest of the main base.
|
| It provides early warning detection of intercontinental ballistic
| missile (ICBM) launches from the Russian land mass and submarine-
| launched ballistic missile (SLBM) launches from the North
| Atlantic and Arctic Oceans against North America. Additionally,
| BMEWS keeps track of polar orbiting satellites. "
| na85 wrote:
| It also serves as a convenient staging point for Operation
| Boxtop, the resupply of Eureka and Alert.
|
| Alert in particular plays a very important role, and the
| intelligence it collects is vital.
| malkia wrote:
| Thanks! I wasn't aware, and not sure why kept on reading that
| pdf... I've actually did not know what donning and doffing
| means (it was about donning and doffing your arctic gear),
| and with this pandemic I should've known, but found quick
| video on youtube about it
| -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCzwH7d4Ags
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(page generated 2022-02-20 23:00 UTC)