From the interview with Edward E. Claplanhoo of Neah Bay, WA conducted by Richard Martinez at the Fort Worden History Center on May 10, 2002. Mr. Claplanhoo, an elder of the Makah Nation, died on March 14, 2010. He had served in the U.S. Army 369th Engineer Amphibious Support Regiment from 1950 to 1952. Here he discusses being shipped to Thule, Greenland:

“I got inducted in the Army in November and February I was shipped to Coronado, California…and I took training there on boats. I came back to (Fort Worden) and they were forming A Company to go to Thule…then we shipped down to San Pedro and finished training there. After about eight weeks, they put us on a troop train and went to Norfolk. About the first of June, we got on Navy ships and headed for the North Pole. The ice didn’t break up early enough for us to get into Thule when we were scheduled to arrive, somewhere between the 15th of June and the 20th. We got up between Greenland and Canada in Baffin Bay and we drifted around Baffin Bay for almost a month before the ice flows inside the harbor broke up. We were able to go in the 10th of July and we ended up unloading 45 cargo ships in 30 days.”