U.S. Air Force Seeks Roving Ice Island

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28259, 23 April 1957, Page 6

U.S. Air Force Seeks Roving Ice Island

(From a Reuter Correspondent)

NEWFOUNDLAND. An intensive search is being made for a roving ice island known as T-3, in the Polar Basin, according to reports received from Pepperrell Air Force Base, headquarters of the United States North-east Command. Aircraft operating out of the Thule base in Greenland started the search in the last known location of the island, 200 miles north of Ellesmere Island, off the north-west tip of Greenland. When found, T-3 will be occupied by scientists for 18 months as part of the activities of the International Geophysical Year, which starts officially in July of this year. The United States Air Force has assumed the task of building the ice island station and supporting the scientific party while it occupies the island. Hampered by continual Arctic darkness, the searching aircraft are using radar to locate the island. In a radar scope picture, T-3’s distinct kidney shape would stand out against the Polar ice pack. T-3, which is also known as Fletcher’s Ice Island, was first discovered in 1950 and was originally occupied by the United States Air Force from 1952 to 1954. From June to September, 1955, scientists from the Air Force Cambridge Centre again occupied the island. T-3 is in constant movement. It turns in ah orbit round the North Pole at an average rate of a mile and a half a day. It also rotates on its own axis in a barely perceptible spin, as it grinds through the ice of the Polar sea. It measures four and a half miles by nine miles, and is 160 feet thick. It is frequently subjected to temperatures as low as 70 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The occupation of T-3 is a major project, requiring all the planning and operations normally associated with Arctic expeditions. Faced with a tight time schedule, the North-east Air Command has organised an Arctic aerial task force. The T~3 task force will handle the airlift of initial survey parties, tractors for the construction of an ice runway on the island, and several hundred tons of equipment needed for housing scientists. Seven men will form an initial survey party to be landed on the island in March. This party will find camp and runway sites, and determine the condition of the island. Construction of the main station extensions to the runway to

allow heavy transport aircraft to bring in men and equipment for the permanent camp will be the next step. The runway will further simplify the job of supplying camp and scientists during their 18 months on the island. Occupation of the ice island by the scientists who are to carry out the work of the International Geophysical Year is scheduled for May. Their arrival will terminate the task force’s activities and the responsibility for supplying the island will then pass to the United States Air Force’s northern-most base at Thule. Relics of the two previous expeditions still remain on T-3. Sagging buildings and abandoned equipment dot the island, but the condition of the material is not known. For this reason, plans for the expedition are based on the assumption that there will be no usable equipment on the island.