What a Trip! (Part 1 of 3)

Thank you for your prayers as I headed out for the “Top of the World! Thule Air Force Base, Greenland!

Here’s a quick, 24-hour tour of one of the great honors I’ve had, in flying and trying to be of encouragement to some of America’s finest airmen and civilian contractors!

8:00AM Phoenix, Arizona…

It started with that long flight from Phoenix, Arizona, to Baltimore, MD airport. I land at 6:00pm. I eat dinner and try to find a place to sleep because we don’t fly out to Thule until 2:00am!

2:00AM We begin our flight to Thule, Air For Base – from where we land, we will be a 25 minute flight to the North Pole!

There is one flight a week to Thule… and one flight out. I’m on the flight in (and the flight out the next morning!). I try to grab some sleep at the airport because my flight doesn’t take off until 2:00am! I was incredibly fortunate on the outbound flight to get one of the two officer's seats in the back of the passenger compartment of a converted cargo plane! We’re given blankets. We need them. It’s freezing when we get up to altitude! 'Little different than leather seats in Southwest Airlines!

10:00AM – Thule, Greenland

Eight hours later, we are landing “on the ice” in Thule, Greenland. We are 800 miles north of the Arctic Circle! The runway itself is built on the permafrost – meaning the runway (and all the buildings there) literally lie (float) on the polar ice!

We’re told over the speaker by the pilot that the winds are significant and our landing will be very challenging. Unlike many airports, there is only one runway. Meaning, you can’t “turn around” and land from another direction when there are cross-winds.

To put our landing into perspective, I am a 3 Million Miler with American Airlines - all domestic flights. Meaning I’ve been on a lot of flights over the past 30 years (and that’s just on American!). Over the years, as you might imagine, there have been times when the flights I’ve been on experienced turbulence – sometimes severe turbulence.

Without question, however, this was the most turbulent decent and most white-knuckle landing that I’ve ever been through in my life. Nothing before was even a close second! The NASA engineer seated next to me has been flying up to Thule for a decade. He says it qualified as the worst landing he’d been through! (Which was comforting as it seemed like a semi-controlled crash to me!).

The first thing I was supposed to do, as soon as we landed, was to speak at a National Prayer Luncheon. Trust me – anyone on that plane with any religious convictions was already praying when we were coming down through the gusting winds and blowing snow!!! Mt. Dundas (above) is the first thing you see as you’re landing – only we could barely see it! Right after we landed the runway was closed, and the wind and snow created a white-out!

10:15am – From Danish Customs to The Top of the World Club!

I was handed a huge parka before the door opened, staggered against the wind as we walked from the plane to the terminal, and went through Danish customs! (Having a Greenland stamp in your passport after that landing was a must!). Lots of very large Air Force security MP’s to greet us. No nonsense until you get out of security. (This is a very secure base as you might imagine with the mission they’re tasked to do). I’m taken right to the Officers Club (The Top of the World Club) where the National Prayer Day Luncheon was ready to take place.

Here are some of America’s finest Airmen (women are called Airmen too) along with some of the base civilians working at the base who were able to come.

My host throughout the trip was Captain David Haltom. Here’s Captain Haltom, below introducing me as I get ready to speak for the luncheon. What an awesome, godly, servant and all around great guy! Dave spent a year dodging IED’s in Iraq as he ministered to the troops there, then was told that he had been selected to go to Greenland. His first child (a precious daughter) was born while he was in Iraq.

He has seen her all of two weeks between deployments before going Greenland. Greenland is considered a combat post, meaning no wives or children – except for one week during your year long deployment. During his wife’s one-week trip, they got pregnant with their second child! (A tremendous answer to prayer for them). They are having a boy, who is due to join the family two weeks after Dave gets home from Greenland! (Pray the baby doesn’t come early! He really wants to be there for this birth!). THINK ABOUT THE SACRIFICE THIS FAMILY HAS MADE. He’s been gone a year to Iraq, gets a few weeks home, then on to Greenland. That’s basically two years apart form your family.

Two great things about being asked to serve in Greenland. First, you’re considered one of the “best of the best” if you get to go to Thule. That’s because the mission is so important, and the base is so small, you have to be great at what you’re doing. Most positions at Thule are “one deep,” meaning, you have to be able to jump right in and do the same job that several people are tasked with doing at a normal base (no back-up person). Dave is a licensed professional counselor, and a pastor to the 280 airmen on the base! He works seven days a week, and loves, encourages and blesses the officers and Airmen. What a guy!

The second great thing about getting to serve at Thule is that – In most cases (not all but 95%) you get your pick of your next posting! So David and his wife are going to an air base in Hawaii after the birth of their second child!

Here’s a picture of what you get to see for a year when you live and serve on Thule! It went down to 8 below with 40 mph winds while I was there – but warmed up to 20 above one afternoon! (And remember, I’m there at a good time of year!).

That's it for today's post. Come back tomorrow to hear about the rest of the adventure...