821st air base group

Fletcher, Harry R. (1989) Air Force Bases Volume II, Active Air Force Bases outside the United States of America on 17 September 1982. Thule Air Base is also home to the 821st Air Base Group and is responsible for air base support within the Thule Defense Area for the multinational population of "Team Thule". James Saunders's expedition aboard HMS North Star was marooned in North Star Bay 1849–50 and named landmarks. [citation needed]. It would be 1960 before the 28th Wing's 717th and 718th Bombardment Squadrons were transferred from Ellsworth to other bases. Once they moved into the quarters, the ships returned home. Teilstreitkraft USAF (AC) Hierarchie... - Gegenwart 21st Space Wing. Many other sites were set up, but BW-6, isolated in the far North, was then of very minor importance.[5]. This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/. The base hosts the 12th Space Warning Squadron (21st Operations Group, 21st Space Wing), a Ballistic Missile Early Warning Site designed to detect and track ICBMs launched against North America. Summer temperatures normally range from 30 to 44 degrees with the highest recorded reading being a tepid 68 degrees. [20] In 2009, the assertions of the BBC were refuted by a Danish report after a review of the available declassifed documentation.[24]. The treaty, denounced by the Danish government, allowed the United States to operate military bases in Greenland "for as long as there is agreement" that the threat to North America existed. [18] After these changes to the division's missile units, its composition remained stable until it was inactivated. He called the site "Thule" after classical ultima Thule; the Inuit called it Umanaq ("heart-shaped"), and the site is commonly called "Dundas" today. [1], Although the 44th wing was initially assigned Titan I missiles, it was designed as a LGM-30A Minuteman I wing and began to add Minuteman squadrons in the summer of 1962, although none became operational until 1963. In 1946, a combined Danish-American radio and weather station was established in the area near what is known today as Thule. Thule Air Base is the US Armed Forces' northernmost installation. Denmark assumed control of the village in 1937. The permanent population of the base was 235 as of 1 January 2005. The base host unit was discontinued. Missile warning and space surveillance information flows to NORAD command centers located at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. To replace the agreement entered into during World War II between the US and Denmark, a new agreement with respect to Greenland was ratified on 27 April 1951 (effective on 8 June 1951). 202, 420. James Saunders's expedition aboard HMS North Star was marooned in North Star Bay 1849–50 and named landmarks. Thule became a key point in American nuclear retaliation strategy. The pact specified that the two nations would arrange for the use of facilities in Greenland by NATO forces in defense of the NATO area known as the Greenland Defense Area. Thule became an Air Force Space Command base in 1982. Thule AB was constructed in secret under the code name Operation Blue Jay, but the project was made public in September 1952. The 821st ABG operates and maintains the air base in support of missile warning, space surveillance, and satellite command and control operations and missions. A board of Air Force officers headed by Gordon P. Saville made a recommendation to pursue a base at Thule in November 1950. It also was essential in the construction and resupply of High Arctic weather stations, including CFS Alert (Alert Airport) and Station Nord. Finally, Thule is home to the northernmost deep water port in the world. However, the 1951 air base site is a few miles inland from the original 1946 airstrip and across the bay from the historical Thule settlement, to which it is connected by an ice road. [21][22][23], The Pentagon maintained that all four weapons had been destroyed. Two days later 1/8 of the division's B-52s were placed on airborne alert. The US sends one heavy supply ship each summer in what is called Operation Pacer Goose. [7] Carved into the ice, and powered by a nuclear reactor, PM-2A Camp Century was officially a scientific research base, but in reality was the site of the top secret Project Iceworm. Mission A cluster of huts known as Pituffik ("the place the dogs are tied") stood on the wide plain where the base was built in 1951. [3] Robert Peary built a support station by a protected harbor at the foot of iconic Mount Dundas in 1892. By the outbreak of the Korean War next year, the USAF embarked on a global program of base-building in which Thule (at the time) would be considered the crown jewel owing to its location across the Pole from the USSR, as well as its merit of being the northernmost port to be reliably resupplied by ship. The group provides security, communications, civil engineering, personnel, services, logistics and medical support to remote active duty units in a combined U.S., Canadian, Danish and Greenlandic environment of approximately 550 military, civilian and contractor personnel. The USAF only used that site for about a decade, and it has since returned to civilian use. [8] As their squadrons became combat ready, one third of each wing's aircraft were maintained on fifteen-minute alert, fully fueled, armed and ready for combat to reduce vulnerability to a Soviet missile strike. [1], However, the establishment of wings did not immediately disperse the bomber force. [13][note 2] The 341st was in the process of accepting their first flight of missiles from Air Force Systems Command. Source for major commands and major units assigned: NATO Parliamentary Assembly, press release 6 September 2010. [6] Although Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers were assigned earlier, Minot and Glasgow only received their bombers in 1961[7] and the Grand Forks wing only activated its bomber squadron in 1962. Eventually Malmstrom was able to place six missiles on alert for the duration of the crisis. On 6 June 1951 an armada of 120 shipments sailed from Naval Station Norfolk. A Danish radio station continued to operate at Dundas, and the abandoned houses remained. The first US-sponsored installations at Thule were established after the US Secretary of State Cordell Hull and the defected Danish Minister to the United States Henrik Kauffmann signed The Agreement relating to the Defense of Greenland in Washington, D.C. on the symbolically chosen date of 9 April 1941. The B-47 averaged ten hours and 4,500 km (2,800 mi) in the air, unless unpredictable weather closed Thule. On 1 January, the 44th Strategic Missile Wing was activated at Ellsworth and assigned to the 821st. The airfield's 10,000-foot (3,000 m) runway handles more than 3,000 US and international flights per year. Kipp states that the first two missiles did not go on alert until 27 October. [1] In 1965, the 850th Strategic Missile Squadron was inactivated as the Titan I was withdrawn from service and its parent, the 44th Strategic Missile Wing, became an entirely Minuteman equipped unit. During the proceedings it was recognized by the Danish government that the movement was a serious interference and an unlawful act against the local population. Thule Air Base | Grönland. The origin of the 821st Air Base Group dates back to the establishment of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning Site in 1961. In 1943 the Army Air Forces set up weather stations Scoresbysund (Bluie East-3) on the east coast around the southern tip of Greenland, and Thule (Bluie West-6) to be operated by Danish personnel. [1] The 850th Strategic Missile Squadron was assigned to the new wing. to have been comparable in scale to the enormous effort required to build the Panama Canal. As the SAC role at these bases grew, each was eventually transferred from ADC to SAC. 821st Support Squadron. In 1946–1951, the airstrip played an important role in Arctic resupply, aerial mapping, research, and search-and rescue. In addition, the airfield boasts a 3,047 by 42 m (9,997 by 138 ft) asphalt runway, with 3,000 US and international flights per year. In 1910 explorer Knud Rasmussen established a missionary and trading post there. [16] and on 27 November SAC returned to normal ground alert posture. However, in 1953 the USAF planned to construct an air defense site near that village, and in order to limit contact with soldiers, the Danish government relocated "Old Thule" with about 130 inhabitants to a newly constructed, modern village 60 miles (97 km) north, known as Qaanaaq, or "New Thule". The division's units assumed a heightened alert role during the Cuban Missile Crisis, including the first SAC LGM-30A Minuteman I to be put on alert. Systems Command also placed two Minuteman missiles at, List of United States Air Force air divisions, List of USAF Bomb Wings and Wings assigned to Strategic Air Command, List of USAF Strategic Missile Wings assigned to Strategic Air Command, List of USAF Strategic Wings assigned to the Strategic Air Command, List of B-52 Units of the United States Air Force, "Factsheet 821 Strategic Aerospace Division", "Abstract (Unclassified), Vol 1, History of Strategic Air Command, Jan-Jun 1957 (Secret)", "Abstract (Unclassified), History of the Strategic Bomber since 1945 (Top Secret, downgraded to Secret)", "Strategic Air Command Operations in the Cuban Crisis of 1962, SAC Historical Study No. The 821st Strategic Aerospace Division is an inactive United States Air Force organization. [note 3] On 20 October SAC had directed its B-52 wings, including the 28th, to put two additional planes on alert. Md Hussain) The division was activated as the 821st Air Division at Ellsworth in 1959 to command Boeing B-52 Stratofortress units of Strategic Air Command (SAC), which had been dispersed along the northern border of the United States to reduce their vulnerability to Soviet missile attacks. In 1961, a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) radar was constructed at "J-Site," 21 km (13 mi) northeast of main base. These flights demonstrated the capabilities of the US Strategic Air Command to Soviet Anti-Air Defense. Thule Air Base is home to the 21st Space Wing's global network of sensors providing missile warning, space surveillance and space control to North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). [10][11] The same day, the division assumed support responsibility for Ellsworth through its 821st Combat Support Group. The workers lived on board the ships until quarters were built.