Airman Mike

... received a few boxes of old 35mm slides from uncle 'Airman Mike' a few months ago with the request to scan them to digital disc format... said no problem... he was a long time USAF 'Airman' (long since retired) and had quite a few slides of his early deployment to 'Thule Air Base' in Greenland and later 'Vietnam'... quite a few places thereafter - no slides in the boxes so figured that he had lots of prints of those at home...

... said that there was no rush so I was takin' my time with them (many "civilian" shots as well)... unfortunately, he passed away a few weeks back before I could complete them all...

... here's a few from his 'Thule Air Base' collection as a short tribute to him and all those who keep us free to do lots of dumb, useless stuff like climb rocks, nearly drown themselves in whitewater rivers and post moronic on the internet (guilty on all counts) as well as all those (too many) who could care less and think that electricity comes out of a switch on the wall as well...

... first a quick geography lesson...

(internet photo)

... Greenland's 'Thule Air Base' from the sky - don't know what they call the large offshore island but the small "arctic butte-looking" formation just off shore in called 'Mt. Dundas' - the body of water is 'North Star Bay'... the airbase is the US Armed Forces northernmost installation located 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle and provides "... missle warning, space surveillance and space control..." to all the good guys...

... posing in front of a transport helicopter - 'Airman Mike' on the right...

... photos are from 1959 - here's some type of radar installation we guess...

... appeared to be a lot of new construction goin' on...

... looks like fun...

... more radar and construction... personal note - while working for a testing company a while back we strength tested one of the hoisting rings they used to lift those large white radar canopies in place... at least that's what they told us it was...

... looks like some kind of 'Navy' reconnaissance plane...

... aerial photo of some warehouses and lots of above ground storage tanks...

... USAF transport plane...

... some surrounding wilderness...

... the frozen bay and what looks like some large trapped icebergs...

... some frozen rugged terrain - sorry for the quality of some of the photos but many of the old slides were scratched and faded...

...'Mt Dundas' and a small hut...

... frozen bay and shoreline...

... defense missle - pretty cool...

... emerging from the base "club" we bet... wonder what he's hidin' in that left pocket?...

... sled dog puppy - no matter who ya' are - if you got a camera in your hand you gotta' like dogs...

... and sunsets...

... fighter jet...

... with bad-ass pilot...

... and bad-ass 'Airman Mike'... Rest-in-Peace our friend...

... personal note...

... while visiting around Christmas-time 1963 he personally awarded to me these Air Force pins as promotion to (L-R) 'Senior Pilot', 'Missle Man' and 'Command Pilot'!! - a bit tarnished but still got 'em...

... as well as transfer of command of this missle train!!!...

... the train has long since been "decommissioned" - but that "exploding" target boxcar was tons of fun and the 'Switcher Diesel Engine' was sweet... the sub went on many successful bathtub missions as well...

... he had a lot of confidence in a six year old kid....

... a final quote... while visiting a few years back we got to talkin' and he made this comment... "I ask myself... if I had to do it all over again would I do anything different?... Naa!... You haven't lived until a coconut comes flying thru your tent at 60mph during a monsoon!..." ...

... our kind of guy...