Near the mouth of the Mackenzie River in northern Canada is the
tiny community of Tuktoyaktuk, known more simply as "Tuk Tuk" by
many aviators. It was a place that we got to know well, at least
over the radio, back during the days of airborne alert missions
in B-52's.
We flew past that ice-bound hamlet every third day in the Spring
of 1959, from 35,000 feet above the frozen tundra and estuary of
the northward-flowing Mackenzie River. The Arctic Ocean ice pack
tightly gripped the shores until lengthening daylight began the
slow melting process. That was a matter of great concern for the
small group of radar operators and support personnel at the
nearby radar station, part of the vast network of North American
Air Defense Command's Cold War skywatch effort.
The radio operators at Tuk Tuk were always glad to have us check
in with them as we turned on our southbound leg of the flight
path. For a brief period the U.S. was allowed to fly some
airborne alert missions over Canadian airspace, though that
changed quickly when it became a hot political issue. During
that brief period of northern land overflights we became regular
conversational chums with the folks down there on the ground.
We swapped sports news stories, weather reports and, most
importantly to the Tuk Tuk folks, ice pack status reports. From
our lofty view we could see the full expanse of the ice pack in
the area. Far off shore were re-supply boats headed for Tuk Tuk,
their progress impeded by the stubborn ice. Each day that we
passed over the region gave the folks on the ground a report on
ice melt and described channels opened by the shifting mass of
white. Each flight brought news of progress and closer
approaches by those much-awaited supply vessels.
It was easy to appreciate how important those conversations and
ice status reports were to the men stuck down there in the
lonely frozen north. We would be back home in just a matter of
hours, but they were stuck there for months at a time. Though
our visits were but a minor footnote in the grander scheme of
things during the Cold War years, for a brief moment or two we
probably brightened their lives, and they ours.