From the interview with Ted Anstensen of Anacortes, WA conducted by Hazel Hatfield at the Fort Worden History Center on May 17, 2002.  Mr. Anstensen served in the US Army 369th Engineer Amphibious Support Regiment at Fort Worden during the Korean War era.  He was among the troops sent to Thule, Greenland to build the Thule air base.  Here he talks about his duties and what it was like at Thule:

“Our mission was to unload a lot of ships of all kinds.  After the ice broke up more, there were a lot of ships coming in—tugboats with huge sections of docks, thousands of tons of asphalt for the runway.  My next job was to run the taxi boat for the contractor that was building the dock.  If the wind blew from the right direction, it would blow all the icebergs into the bay, so the ships would take off.  If you happened to be on the shore when they left, you were stuck.  Your ship would be gone.  You had to wait until the wind changed.  In just a few hours, the wind would change and the ships would be back, but you’d have missed your bit in the bunk and the food.”