Memories of the cold war from Barrow to the Arctic Ocean ice islands

November 25th 5:34 pm | Earl Finkler    

The recent Veterans Day made me think of some military developments in the high Alaska Arctic back in the 1960s. I first flew from Anchorage to Barrow in 1969. The cold war with the USSR was a major concern, and in the Anchorage and Fairbanks areas one could often hear fighter jets going overhead.

In Barrow, I thought it would be a lot quieter, but early in my visit several military jets flew over.

"Those are the Russians," a local person told me. "They fly over just to test our defenses. Later you'll likely see U.S. jets from the Alaska bases responding."

Sure enough — the U.S. fighters did come by. Both sides just testing each other.

But it took much longer to hear about a secret mission (Project Coldfeet) to a hastily abandoned deteriorating Soviet ice station (or drift station) in the Arctic Ocean back in 1962. It involved two U.S. intelligence officers parachuting into the station because the airstrip had broken up.

Their job was to collect data on the Soviet facility, equipment and technology. They were flown out to the drift station in a B-17.

Barrow people told me there were a number of such ice islands drifting in a circular pattern around the Arctic Ocean and North Pole. Some of the larger ones could accommodate an ice strip for planes and room for a science research facility.

Both the U.S. and Russian governments were then seeing the Arctic as a major military resource. Submarines from both countries were traveling under the ice and needed to be tracked. More information was needed on the Arctic weather conditions, ocean currents, etc.

There was the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory just north of Barrow. It was a base for scientists and also had its small "air force" to go and service outposts on such islands.

It is very interesting to read about what the U.S. intelligence officers found when they landed on the Arctic ice drift station and folded up their parachutes. (See an excellent book on the mission "Project Coldfeet — Secret Mission to a Soviet Ice Station" by William Leary and Leonard LeSchack.)

According to the book, the Soviets on the island had fairly good research technology -some superior to that of the U.S. But the sleeping and eating areas had lots of debris and odors. The intelligence officers found about 20 movies, mostly newsreels, to provide recreation for the Soviet crew. But one featured a young lady in love with her tractor.

According to Wikipedia, "Operation Coldfeet was a success." It provided information on Soviet Arctic research and valuable information on topics like submarine detection.

Such an operation over the ocean icepack was risky, but apparently quite productive. It also put Barrow and the Alaskan Arctic on kind of a James Bond mission.

Some readers might have one more question — if the two men parachuted on to the ice island, how on earth did they get back after their five days out there?

They used the Fulton Skyhook. The inventor's name was Robert Edison Fulton, possibly named after two famous inventors.

The Fulton Skyhook system was placed on the left wing of the B-17. It involved a line held into the sky by a weather balloon and a hook, winch and pull system to get each man off the surface and back up to the plane. And thank goodness it worked out there by the Soviet ice island station.

Earl Finkler is a former Barrow resident and was the morning host of KBRW before moving to Medford, Wisc. in 2008. More information is available in the book "Fifty More Years Below Zero" regarding the 50th anniversary of the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory in 1997. David W. Norton, Editor.

 

---

Contact us about this article at editor@thearcticsounder.com