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Did the US Air Force Lose a Nuclear Bomb in Greenland?
Yes we did.
I knew about Greenland because I was a military kid and grew up on Air Force bases in the 1950s and 1960s. When a serviceman (back then, the service person was always a man) was transferred to Thule Air Force Base, which is 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, it meant he had pissed somebody off or disobeyed an order.
The unfortunate guy would receive murmurs of commiseration because everyone knew the poor sap’s career had stalled on the runway and would never take off. After a tour of duty in Thule, promotions would be nonexistent.
I hadn’t been on a military base in years and was stunned when Donald J. Trump Senior (R-Florida) started making noise about buying Greenland from Denmark. Greenland is a self-governing province of Denmark.
The stories about being stationed on Thule came rushing back. Like most folks, I thought Trump’s proposal was a joke, but unfortunately, it wasn’t.
Thule Air Force Base
Thule was built in 1951 and was a big, though top-secret project.
“The Thule Air Base was constructed in total secrecy by the US military under the code name ‘Blue Jay’ in 1951. An armada of 120 shipments, 12,000 men, and 300,000 tons of cargo arrived in North Star Bay in July…