22. Why Trump Wants Greenland: Secret Bases, The Arctic Circle, and Project Iceworm (Ep 1)

Summary

The Rest Is Classified: Episode 22 - Why Trump Wants Greenland: Secret Bases, The Arctic Circle, and Project Iceworm (Ep 1)
Release Date: February 24, 2025
Hosts: David McCloskey and Gordon Corera

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Introduction: Trump’s Greenland Ambition

In the inaugural episode of The Rest Is Classified, hosts David McCloskey and Gordon Corera delve into the enigmatic interest former President Donald Trump has shown in Greenland. They unpack the strategic significance of Greenland, exploring its historical and contemporary relevance to U.S. national security and global geopolitics.

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Historical Context and Strategic Geography

David McCloskey introduces Greenland's pivotal role in global strategy, emphasizing its geographical position:

“Greenland is kind of the Alaska of the Atlantic. It’s a beachhead that sticks way up north into the Arctic and provides hemispheric defense for our eastern seaboard.”
[06:29]

Gordon Corera adds to this by comparing Greenland to other strategic locations, highlighting its overlooked importance:

“Diego Garcia, the Chagos Islands, are another example of a place which seems incredibly remote but is actually strategically important.”
[06:55]

They discuss how the warming Arctic has opened new shipping lanes and made Greenland’s natural resources more accessible, intensifying global interest and competition, particularly from Russia and China.

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Cold War Significance: The Thule Air Base

The conversation shifts to the Cold War era, where Greenland emerged as a critical location for U.S. military strategy.

David McCloskey explains the establishment of the Thule Air Base:

“In 1951, the U.S. signed a deal to build a base in Tula (Thule), placing it at the very top of the world.”
[12:21]

Gordon Corera elaborates on the base's purpose in the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS):

“In 1961, the U.S. built a huge radar at Thule to detect Soviet missile launches and bombers, part of the BMEWS designed to provide early warning of World War III threats.”
[14:11]

They highlight how Thule was integral to the Iron Triangle, alongside radar sites in Alaska and Yorkshire, forming a comprehensive surveillance network against Soviet threats.

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Project Iceworm and the Broken Arrow Incident

One of the episode’s focal points is the clandestine Project Iceworm and the subsequent Broken Arrow incident involving a B-52 crash.

Gordon Corera narrates the construction and eventual abandonment of Camp Century:

“In 1959, the U.S. built Camp Century, an under-ice base designed to house a secret network of nuclear missiles, but it was abandoned in 1966 due to the ice crushing the structures.”
[21:35]

The hosts then recount the 1968 Junkie 14 mission, a high-stakes Cold War operation that ended in disaster.

David McCloskey sets the scene of the mission:

“On January 21, 1968, Junkie 14, a B-52 on a Chrome Dome mission, encountered severe technical failures over Greenland.”
[28:36]

Gordon Corera provides a vivid account of the mission’s breakdown:

“The autopilot wasn’t working, leading to manual refueling that drenched the pilots in sweat. A fire broke out from a combustible seat cushion near a heating vent, engulfing the lower deck and forcing an emergency bailout.”
[30:47]

The incident culminated in the crash of the plane carrying four hydrogen bombs, marking one of the Cold War’s most perilous Broken Arrow events.

David McCloskey reflects on the aftermath:

“A Broken Arrow incident like this raises profound nuclear safety concerns and underscores Greenland's strategic volatility.”
[36:14]

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Connecting the Past to Present-Day Geopolitics

The hosts bridge historical events to current geopolitical dynamics, particularly Trump’s interest in Greenland.

David McCloskey posits that Trump’s push to purchase Greenland isn’t merely an eccentric bid but rooted in deep strategic imperatives:

“By scratching below the surface of Trump’s proposal, we uncover significant strategic interests the U.S. and allied nations have in Greenland, especially concerning Arctic sovereignty and resource acquisition.”
[05:02]

Gordon Corera reinforces the ongoing strategic value of Greenland amid rising Arctic interests:

“With climate change making the Arctic more accessible, Greenland’s critical minerals and strategic position make it a coveted asset for global powers like the U.S., Russia, and China.”
[06:55]

They suggest that understanding Greenland's historical military significance provides clarity on why it remains a focal point in contemporary international relations.

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Closing Thoughts and Teaser for Next Episode

As the episode concludes, McCloskey and Corera tease the exploration of the mysterious fate of the missing nuclear weapons from the 1968 crash, promising to unravel how this incident continues to influence geopolitical strategies today.

“Join us next time as we uncover what happened to these bombs and how this 1960s incident illuminates Trump’s modern-day obsession with Greenland.”
[37:28]

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• David McCloskey: “Greenland is kind of the Alaska of the Atlantic. It’s a beachhead that sticks way up north into the Arctic and provides hemispheric defense for our eastern seaboard.”
  [06:29]

• Gordon Corera: “Diego Garcia, the Chagos Islands, are another example of a place which seems incredibly remote but is actually strategically important.”
  [06:55]

• David McCloskey: “By scratching below the surface of Trump’s proposal, we uncover significant strategic interests the U.S. and allied nations have in Greenland, especially concerning Arctic sovereignty and resource acquisition.”
  [05:02]

• Gordon Corera: “In 1961, the U.S. built a huge radar at Thule to detect Soviet missile launches and bombers, part of the BMEWS designed to provide early warning of World War III threats.”
  [14:11]

• David McCloskey: “A Broken Arrow incident like this raises profound nuclear safety concerns and underscores Greenland's strategic volatility.”
  [36:14]

---

Conclusion

Episode 22 of The Rest Is Classified masterfully interweaves historical espionage, Cold War tensions, and modern geopolitical strategies to shed light on why Greenland remains a coveted asset on the global stage. Through engaging narratives and expert insights, McCloskey and Corera provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the clandestine forces shaping international relations.

Transcript

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[David McCloskey]

Well, we need Greenland for national security purposes. I've been told that for a long time, long before I even ran. I mean, people have been talking about it for a long time. You have approximately 45,000 people there. People don't really even know if Denmark has any legal right to it. But if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security. That's for the free world. I'm talking about protecting the free world. You don't even need binoculars. Look outside. You have China ships all over the place. You have Russian ships all over the place. We're not letting that happen. We're not letting it happen. And if Denmark wants to get to a conclusion, but nobody knows that they have any right, title or interest, the people are going to probably vote for independence or to come into the United States. But if they did do that, then I would tear off Denmark at a very high level. Well, welcome to the Rest is classified. I'm David McCloskey.

[Gordon Carrera]

And I'm Gordon Carrera.

[David McCloskey]

And that very unsurprisingly was U.S. president Donald Trump, then President elect Trump speaking to reporters before his inauguration about Gordon, his desire for the ultimate deal, to buy the largest island in the world, an ice planet known as Greenland.

[Gordon Carrera]

That's right. You didn't quite do the full Trump accent. I was slightly disappointed.

[David McCloskey]

I have a terrible track record of accents on this show, and Trump is not in my repertoire, my very limited repertoire.

[Gordon Carrera]

And I should also say that if anyone who might be watching, they'll notice David is in a thick coat. Even though you're in Texas.

[David McCloskey]

I am.

[Gordon Carrera]

Because it is Greenlandic in Texas, where you are right now. Is that right?

[David McCloskey]

It's Greenlandic in Texas. It is 15 degrees Fahrenheit, Gordon. It is snowing outside in Texas, and I'm in my small studio, which does not have very powerful heat. And it is Greenlandic in here, Gordon. The temperature, it is like the Arctic Circle. So I'm, I'm fully in character for today's episode.

[Gordon Carrera]

Yeah, well, perfect, because what we're doing is we're going to have a look at Greenland, and Greenland has been in the news recently thanks to Donald Trump, perhaps, perhaps in a way it hasn't normally been talked about. One of the questions is why is Donald Trump talking about it? And obviously there's lots of theories and we're going to look at some of that, but we're also going to give the rest is classified take on why Greenland matters, why Trump might have it in his eye for a deal. And by looking at the kind of slightly secret history of Greenland, including stories of secret under ice bases and nuclear weapons crashes, I think we can probably shed a quite interesting light on. On actually why Greenland is in the news and why it's actually a lot more interesting and important than people might realize.

[David McCloskey]

Well, and Gordon, you have a personal history on Greenland, is that right? You have scouted out your, your second home on Greenland before, you know, the Americans could go settle it, isn't that right?

[Gordon Carrera]

Yeah, that's right before Don Jr. Turned up in his jet, as he did a few weeks ago in Greenland.

[David McCloskey]

Trump Force One. Gordon landing in Greenland to go scout out the new frontier.

[Gordon Carrera]

I ahead of them. I was ahead of them looking at the place.

[David McCloskey]

It's the advance party.

[Gordon Carrera]

Yeah. Not for the Trump deals. So I went about a decade and a half ago specifically looking at a US Military base which is right at the top of the world. And we're going to tell a story about some of the amazing things that have happened there which are relevant to why Greenland is important today and why you hear Donald Trump Kind of talk in quite vague terms about the national security importance of it and its role, securing the free world. And I think, you know, the backstory is fascinating and really explains that, because there has been a bit of confusion, hasn't there, about why Greenland's in the news and why is it. Why is it in the sights of President Trump?

[David McCloskey]

I guess, the news, it's kind of this classic Trumpian thing, right, where I guess the headlines essentially are, this guy wants to buy Greenland right now. There's a long history of which we'll talk about, of trying to buy Greenland. So he's not. And a lot of other properties in the Arctic. So he's not, you know, sort of not ahistorical. But it sounds completely sort of mad, I think, in our modern context. But it. It does, if you kind of scratch below the surface of why is he talking about this? And. And by the way, he first proposed this in his first term. So this is kind of. This is an idea that's got some legs in Trump world. But as you dig into it, there are really, I think, important strategic interests that the US has, the broader kind of, you know, west has in Greenland, which are very fascinating, and there's a bunch of layers to this. But I guess we could start with maybe the geography, which is as the Arctic has gotten warmer, Greenland, more and more of the sea around it is open for, you know, longer periods of the year. And you actually have shipping lanes that 25 years ago basically didn't exist that are now open for several months during the year that allow the Russians to ship things into the Atlantic to ship things to China and have created kind of another, you know, set of sea lanes, essentially at the top of the world.

[Gordon Carrera]

Yeah, that's right. And I think global warming is definitely one part of that, and climate change, another part is climate change is also making some of the natural resources on Greenland more accessible, which is another one of the kind of narratives you hear about Donald Trump and that, you know, the reason is it's all about kind of getting hold of those, you know, critical minerals, the oil and gas that might be there, which are suddenly becoming more accessible. That being another kind of key reason for the interest there.

[David McCloskey]

You know, one of the things that I think is fascinating about the Arctic is that, you know, we're all sort of brought up on maps of the world that do not. I mean, I guess, how would you even describe how they picture or show the Arctic? I mean, it's kind of. It's a flat projection. Right. And so, you're kind of looking at the world and thinking, well, the top of Russia and the top of Canada or North America, they, they can look quite far from each other. And yet if you create a map that has the North Pole at its center and look at the world that way, you know, almost like you'd think about a map of the Mediterranean. Right. All of a sudden the US and Russia are quite close to each other. And I think the way maybe it's helpful to think about Greenland in some ways is that it's kind of the Alaska of the Atlantic. It's a beachhead for that, sticks way up north into the Arctic, that sticks out into the Atlantic and provides a kind of almost hemispheric defense of our eastern seaboard. And in fact, when Monroe promulgated his famous doctrine Gordon, Greenland was included, you know, as sort of part of the US sphere of influence. So, you know, there's a US General, to put it this way, with sort of the Arctic getting warmer, it's no longer a fortress wall up north, and the oceans aren't moats, they're actually avenues of approach. And so there's kind of opportunity and vulnerability because of Greenland's geography.

[Gordon Carrera]

That's right. And I think all of that suggests that Greenland is actually of. Is not marginal, it's not on the corner of a map, but it's actually of kind of real strategic and military importance. And there are, you know, lots of these places around the world which people don't quite understand why they're so important. I mean, Diego Garcia, the Chagos Islands have been in the news here recently in the UK because the UK controls them, but there's a big US air base on them. And they're another example of a place which seems incredibly remote but is actually strategically important. I think that's definitely the case when it comes to Greenland. So let's just do a little bit about Greenland itself. I mean, it's a huge landmass, but it actually has a population of around 60,000, not 45,000, as Donald Trump said. Sorry to fact check the President of the United States. Most of that population are Inuit. So these are people who came over, I think, originally more from Canada many centuries ago. But, you know, there's only one person for every 15 square square mile. So the place is mainly ice, and the people live on a few remote communities basically on the coast which are habitable. It's called Greenland Bit of history, because a Norse murderer called Eric the Red got exiled from Iceland, and he got exiled from Iceland to Greenland, which wasn't called Greenland then, but he wanted to entice other people to come settle on this new place by calling it the Greenland, which was obviously a lie.

[David McCloskey]

Sounds nice when you're coming from Iceland. Yeah, yeah.

[Gordon Carrera]

So it's the first good example of a kind of real estate or an estate agent agent overselling the property, I think.

[David McCloskey]

Downright Trumpian, Gordon.

[Gordon Carrera]

Right off the bat, then you get these Norse settlements. For a while they come and then they go. It's under Norwegian control. And then with an alliance with Denmark, it comes under Danish control and becomes a Danish colony. Now zooming forward to the 20th century. So it's. It's under Danish control. World War II, Denmark is occupied by the Nazis.

[David McCloskey]

We skipped a lot of history there, Gordon.

[Gordon Carrera]

We did. We're not. The rest is history. We'll leave that to Tom and Dom.

[David McCloskey]

We went about a thousand years ahead.

[Gordon Carrera]

Ye. Let's get to the classified stuff. So this is actually World War II, where the connections with the US kind of really start because it becomes a refueling base, a weather station, which is pretty important in the war. It's got mines, which the US is going to defend. And so the US kind of treats it almost as a protectorate, something it's going to kind of defend while Denmark is occupied. There's also this critical thing called the Greenland Iceland, UK gap, which is a kind of a choke point. And it's nice to hear the UK is critical, but which leads between the Arctic and the Atlantic. And in World War II, this was pretty important to control that, to stop, you know, German U boats getting through. And it's still. It's still important. So, you know, once you get to the end of the war, that's one of the many times when the US think we fancy a bit of Greenland. We'd quite like to kind of keep that.

[David McCloskey]

It's the Alaska of the Atlantic, Gordon.

[Gordon Carrera]

It is.

[David McCloskey]

I'll keep saying it. I mean, it really is. You know, it matters, Right? It matters to us, national security. So of course we try to buy it.

[Gordon Carrera]

Yeah. So 1867, the US aboard Alaska from the Russians. Weird thing, isn't it?

[David McCloskey]

I mean, that's another story about $7 million. Great deal.

[Gordon Carrera]

And they tried. I think they looked at Greenland at the time. They look again in the 20s and the 30s. They look again at the end of the Second World War. The Danes don't want to sell it. But then this is the kind of key moment, I guess, where the Cold War starts and where we get to the kind of classified secret bit of our story, because 1949, Denmark joins NATO. And the Arctic is becoming strategically important in a way that it wasn't in the past. And again, your point about geography really matters in this. And as you said, it's that idea that you have to see the world as a globe and the fact that the shortest line between the new two superpowers, the US and the Soviet Union, if you want to fly a bomber or launch a missile, is basically over the North Pole to the middle of each country. And so actually, Greenland is bang in the middle of that. And so the US already realizes @ the very start of the Cold War, that Greenland's significant. 1951, they sign a deal to build a base in a place called Tula.

[David McCloskey]

Tula.

[Gordon Carrera]

That's my Inuit pronunciation. You can correct it if you speak Inuit. You want to reveal that now?

[David McCloskey]

No, no, I'm going to. I'm going to sandbag you on the Inuit later and really, really entrap you. But isn't too late, isn't that the company that makes those, you know, gear carriers that go on top of cars or it's a brand or something like that? That's where I've seen. That's where I've seen the name before.

[Gordon Carrera]

Yeah. So Tule is at the very top, north west coast of Greenland. So, you know, right up in the Arctic Circle.

[David McCloskey]

Yeah.

[Gordon Carrera]

The name actually becomes kind of Ultima. Thule becomes this idea of this the most remote place possible. And so I think for kind of people who are into the wilderness or trekking or everything else, that's where the kind of brand name, I think, comes from. The idea of this being the most remote place you could get to during the war. It's a weather station that the US uses. But then in 1951, they decide to build this big base. They relocate the Inhabitants about 60 miles north to a town called Kanak. I think that's my Inuit pronunciation.

[David McCloskey]

That's good pronunciation, solid B plus.

[Gordon Carrera]

And the key point about this base is it's the closest you can get to the North Pole, where you can still be resupplied by ship for a few weeks in the summer when the ice melts. So it's basically as far north as you can get, you know, to build a Runway and a base, which is what the US Is going to do.

[David McCloskey]

Well, again, I think listeners would be also surprised if they just. If you looked at a map, map that pinned the North Pole at its center, just how much further toward that pole, the northernmost part of Greenland, where Thule is juts Up. You do not appreciate that if you look at just a flat map of the world, I think you don't see it, but it is literally like a kind of almost a knife pointing up toward Russia. Right, which, which provides so much of the strategic advantages that we're going to talk about.

[Gordon Carrera]

Yeah, so, so they build this huge Runway here at the base and originally the idea is they're going it as a kind of a refuel point, a stopping point for long range bombers, but actually soon the distance bombers can fly in missiles, meaning they don't necessarily need to be landing them there. But the base is still vital. And the other aspect of it, beyond actually having a landing strip there, is the fact that the geography allows you to build a radar there. Now this is the really kind of fascinating bit about it, is that in 1961 the US builds a huge radar to detect Soviet missile launches and bombers coming over the North Pole. And it's the one part of what's called the Ballistic Missile early warning system BMUS, which is designed to give a kind of 15 minute warning that the, that World War 3 is coming, you know, and it transmits that to, to norad, Cheyenne Mountain. Have you seen War Games? Do you remember that? Before your time film?

[David McCloskey]

No. When.

[Gordon Carrera]

When the film War Games. Educate me.

[David McCloskey]

No, no, no, I have not seen it.

[Gordon Carrera]

Classic 80s Matthew Broderick hacker. You've got to watch. It hacks into the kind of the NORAD computer to play games, but accidentally nearly starts World War Three. But anyway, that's all to do with NORAD detecting early missile launches. And interesting enough, so Tule is one of the sites, they've got another site in Alaska and then the third site, interesting enough in the UK in Yorkshire, for those who wonder what some of the big kind of radar domes are in a place called Filingdales in Yorkshire. Well, the origins of it are the kind of radars as part of this kind of ballistic missile early warning system. So, you know, if you've got Alaska, you've got Yorkshire and you've got Greenland, you've kind of got a triangle which covers all the directions, the Iron Triangle to look for those Soviet missiles built in 61. Still, you know, a very important radar, you know, transport. I love the fact it's been transferred, the control of it though to the Space Force. U.S. space Force, that's right.

[David McCloskey]

And renamed. Right. It's no longer.

[Gordon Carrera]

It's Pitfik Pitufik, which is the local name. So I think that's a nod to the community which might have been displaced but yeah, so it's still part of this kind of missile defense and space surveillance mission for the US up there at that base.

[David McCloskey]

And Gordon, you have wandered around Pitufik, isn't that right?

[Gordon Carrera]

And I've actually been to the radar itself, which is, I mean, so I went to the base, As I said, 2008. I went in September.

[David McCloskey]

It was balmy. Right.

[Gordon Carrera]

I would describe it. So it wasn't entirely ice covered. It was a kind of Martian landscape, mainly kind of bits of ice, rocky. It was weird because it's light through most of the night at that point. So you can kind of get up at 2 in the morning and it's light. You still have, as you go round Greenland, even at that time, the kind of sense of disorientation which comes from, you know, the sun not really going down. You'll see these icebergs in the distance which are actually like enormous. And you'll hear like a crack of thunder, which is an iceberg kind of breaking off the ice shelf, moving away. I mean, it is the strangest, most unreal place I think I've ever been.

[David McCloskey]

The most random piece and really, I think most essential bit of research that I did for this episode was to determine that most of the icebergs in the North Atlantic calve off of Greenland.

[Gordon Carrera]

Yeah.

[David McCloskey]

And so Greenland sunk the Titanic, Gordon. Which is a bit of a unknown sort of, I think con in the sort of Greenland, you know, pro. Con sheet. It's a decided negative. But yeah, all of the icebergs in the North Atlantic come off of these kind of ice fjords in Greenland and then float south and sink and sink large passenger ships.

[Gordon Carrera]

So you've got this wild kind of scenery. And then you've got a US military base where they've got a bar which does karaoke and serves pizza. You know, in that it's like an American base. And you've been to American bases. They all kind of like try and transfer a little bit of America to wherever they are so that people can feel at home.

[David McCloskey]

They have a mile high club. Is that right?

[Gordon Carrera]

A Top of the World club, David.

[David McCloskey]

Oh, Top of the World club. Okay.

[Gordon Carrera]

Slightly different.

[David McCloskey]

Yeah. The other thing, Gordon, I did, I did some more research on this base and I had a question for you, which is when you were at Tulay.

[Gordon Carrera]

Yeah.

[David McCloskey]

Which direction did your compass point?

[Gordon Carrera]

Ah, yeah. Do you know, I cannot remember, but I remember everything going wild.

[David McCloskey]

You didn't bring a compass?

[Gordon Carrera]

No, I didn't. I'm not. I'm not an explorer.

[David McCloskey]

I would have Thought on your Arctic expedition you would have brought a compass.

[Gordon Carrera]

Is that to do with the magnetic north pole as to the real north pole and things like that, isn't it?

[David McCloskey]

Your compass will basically point west.

[Gordon Carrera]

Right.

[David McCloskey]

Because that's where the magnetic north pole is relative to. To lay. And the. And the other great bit here that I found is, do you remember when you opened an exterior door or when someone opened an exterior door, whether they pushed the handle down or up?

[Gordon Carrera]

No. 15 years ago. I don't remember. Go on.

[David McCloskey]

They go up and. Do you know. Do you know why most handles. You know, you push it down.

[Gordon Carrera]

Yeah.

[David McCloskey]

Polar bears. So if you push, basically the idea being the bear probably won't lift the handle, but it might like lean into the door and push the handle down and then get access to the base.

[Gordon Carrera]

Polar bears can't lift. That's what you're telling me? Yes, that is something new. I bet your listeners were not expecting to learn that from today's show.

[David McCloskey]

Full of all kinds of wonderful facts. I guess it's the only or maybe one of the few bases in the world where you do have to think about protection from bears. Polar bears in particular.

[Gordon Carrera]

The other weird thing was we did go to the radar and we drove towards the radar. And I just remember the car kind of making these buzzing and popping sounds as you got close to the radar. And the controls on the dashboard literally started having a life of their own. And the electric of the car were clearly being frazzled by this radar. It was like an X Files episode. Another reference not sure you get.

[David McCloskey]

Oh, I get that.

[Gordon Carrera]

You get that.

[David McCloskey]

What happened to your pacemaker?

[Gordon Carrera]

Nothing, thank you.

[David McCloskey]

David Gordon's pacemaker went haywire.

[Gordon Carrera]

I do not have a pacemaker, before you ask you being mischievous, trying to throw me. But anyway, so the radar itself is this kind of weird place where they. Where they're, you know, they're still looking for stuff coming from space or over from the Soviet Union. Strange, strange place. Although that is not even the strangest thing. Thing that's ever been around that base. This is my favorite story before we get to the kind of story of a lost nuclear bomb, is a place called Camp Century, which I didn't visit because it's not there anymore, but it's about 150 miles from Thule. And the US built in the way only the US could have done in the Cold War. A under ice base in the middle of nowhere called camp century in 1959.

[David McCloskey]

It's got real Bond villain vibes to it, doesn't it?

[Gordon Carrera]

It's totally bombard. Although I have to say, Callamard producer said it's like the rebel base at Hoth in the Empire Strikes Back. Star wars fan, David.

[David McCloskey]

Yeah. Oh, yeah, no, I, I actually was, I was trying to remember the name of the ice monster that captures Luke Skywalker and takes him to his cave and I couldn't, so I had to look it up. But it's a wampa. Okay, so you'd have. This was a. This would have been one of the. If you've seen the movie, as most listeners probably have, Empire Strikes Back, the vibes here, Gordon, would have been decidedly ice kv. Yeah, you would have had sort of giant yeti like things running around. It was great. And they have a barber shop, apparently. Well, I guess where else you can't leave to get your haircut anywhere else, right.

[Gordon Carrera]

Barbershop, chapel, theater, dormitories. The largest walk in freezer.

[David McCloskey]

The whole thing's a walk in freezer. Right.

[Gordon Carrera]

Which I kind of think is a bit redundant anyway, which is why you need, why you need a walk in freezer in the middle of the ice and a nuclear reactor. So to power it all, they shipped in a nuclear reactor. What's really interesting about this base is it what the base itself is not, not secret. So they actually have Walter Cronkite, the kind of US newsman and some boy scouts come and visit it. And it's also kind of the COVID story, and it is a cover story is that this is a research base looking at survival in the Arctic and even, you know, climate change, how it's adapting. And that's also what they tell the Danish government, of course, whose land it is. But actually, David, there was a darker secret to it.

[David McCloskey]

Obviously there's a giant, you know, sort of like subterranean ice world. It definitely has a dark secret project Ice Worm. Oh, that's a great name.

[Gordon Carrera]

It's a good name.

[David McCloskey]

That's a great name. I'm looking for titles for my next book. That's going to be it. That's on the list.

[Gordon Carrera]

Which again, this is nutty Bond stuff, which you couldn't believe really happened. But they're trying to work out whether you could have a secret network of nuclear missiles under the ice in Greenland which would allow the US to hit the Soviet Union back. If the Soviet Union has launched a first strike on the United States. So in other words, you know, the Soviets, you know, blow up continental US but secretly the US has 600 nuclear missiles in tunnels. The idea would have been moving along train tracks under the Greenland Ice sheet ready to pop up and launch at the Soviet Union, you know, in retaliation.

[David McCloskey]

Makes sense to this US taxpayer. Let's do it. But they never did they actually put, put nukes there.

[Gordon Carrera]

No, they gave up.

[David McCloskey]

That's disappointing.

[Gordon Carrera]

Yeah, it is disappointing. But basically they realised you could put longer range missiles in hardened silos in the US and you could use submarine launch missiles and they would all give you the ability to survive a first strike without having to kind of use the Greenland base. But you know, there's this idea, so it's, you know, even back in the 60s that Greenland could be a kind of a massive nuclear missile base. And eventually they abandoned it in 1966. And one of the reasons is the ice is crushing Camp Century. It's moving and, and it's crushing the walls. And they realize basically this is not going to work.

[David McCloskey]

So it's abandoned just like the Hoth base.

[Gordon Carrera]

Exactly.

[David McCloskey]

Callum's, you know, analogy holds on multiple levels.

[Gordon Carrera]

Yeah, but they weren't attacks kind of attacking it anyway. It's a bit different.

[David McCloskey]

Well, okay, so we have Greenland set up as a giant island of strategic importance to the United States. It is pointed right at Russia. It allows us to, I mean, this radar, Gordon, that you went to that, that maybe fried your ability to do math because it's so powerful it can apparently see something moving the size of like a tennis ball 3,000 miles away. So this is a very serious, real deal radar. So we've got the radar there, we're watching the Soviet Union. There's a bunch of important minerals on Greenland. It's pointed right at the heart of Moscow. And critically, a nuclear bomber is going to experience some real trouble above Greenland in the 1960s. When we come back, we're going to tell the story of a broken arrow in the heart of Greenland.

[Gordon Carrera]

See you after the break.

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[David McCloskey]

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[David McCloskey]

All right. Well, welcome back. We are telling the secret history of Greenland on the rest is classified. And Gordon, we are now at a point in the Cold War where things are going to get very, very hot on Greenland very quickly, aren't they?

[Gordon Carrera]

That's right. So this early Cold War period as we were talking about, the US Is still really fearing a kind of Soviet first strike. And so Strategic Air Command, which does the kind of US nuclear posture from 1958, starts running something called chrome dome missions.

[David McCloskey]

Great name.

[Gordon Carrera]

Every day, 12 B52 bombers armed with thermonuclear bombs go on 24 hour sorties over the kind of northern and southern part of the Atlantic. And the idea is that they are ready to drop the bomb on the Soviet Union. So the idea is if the Soviets launch a strike, these planes are constantly in the air, permanently carrying the weapons, just waiting for the go code to say go, drop the bomb.

[David McCloskey]

What could go wrong?

[Gordon Carrera]

What could go wrong?

[David McCloskey]

What could go wrong? We're flying a giant superfortress above the North Pole which with a handful of thermonuclear weapons on it.

[Gordon Carrera]

What's interesting is Thule is particularly important the base because they've worked out that the first thing the Soviets would do if they were about to launch a war would be to destroy the radar because the radar is going to give the US early warning. So actually one general tells Congress, I like to tell the commander at Tule that he will be probably one of the first ones to go if we get into a war. But there's one thing I would like to know from him and that's when we went. And so basically the crucial thing they want to know is if the comms go down from the base up there at the top of Greenland, is it Because a war started. So from 1961 they changed the route of one of the Chrome Dome missions so that One of the B52s is permanently over the base. And so it's basically an airborne monitor over the radar site at Thule and ready to watch in case it's destroyed and report back immediately. I mean, it's kind of crazy, but January 21, 1968, a B52 is on one of these missions. The mission is codenamed Junkie 14.

[David McCloskey]

It's a good name. The Arctic sort of naming convention thing is working on this episode, I think.

[Gordon Carrera]

And so many years later, I actually interviewed two of the pilots who'd been on that mission, Junkie 14. The commander was a guy called John Hawg. And John was the kind of quiet, quite laid back, you know, even later in life you could tell he was the kind of senior guy, the commander. The other guy I interviewed and we brought them back together was a guy called Joe Di Mario. He was the co pilot, slightly more voluble character and, you know, he'd learned to fly age 16 in Maryland. He'd done, you know, Air Force combat missions in Korea, you know, so by the time you get to 1968, these are actually two pretty experienced pilots who are flying that day. And, you know, even though we talk to them 40 years after the mission, I mean, they could still remember every detail of what happened that day.

[David McCloskey]

Which is gonna make sense once we tell the story. Yeah, once we tell the story. Is it one of those days that just sort of fades away, you know, into the recesses of your memory?

[Gordon Carrera]

So they leave New York from where they're flying from on a kind of crisp, clear morning, and they head over to Greenland and they're gonna fly over the radar in a kind of bow tie pattern, which I guess is the way of kind of circling around it. 24 hour mission carrying four nuclear weapons. The autopilot wasn't working, so they're flying by hand. It's already a bad start, but they ref. And it sounds crazy, but neither they nor the refueling tanker had autopilot. So John Hawke, who's the pilot, is having to kind of hold the two, you know, the two planes close together enough to refuel in the air for half an hour. And even though he's wearing this kind of thick suit, he's drenched in sweat by the end, having done it. Joe Di Mario is one of two co pilots. He takes his turn in the co pilot seat to give the other guy a break. Cruising at 30,000ft. And now over Greenland, unsurprisingly, perhaps. It's really cold.

[David McCloskey]

It's 30,000ft. It's over Greenland. It's January.

[Gordon Carrera]

It's January. It's cold. It's colder than Texas is today, I think.

[David McCloskey]

Colder than Texas. You would. Yeah, you would need one of these coats that I have on here.

[Gordon Carrera]

And they had an extra heating system to deliver some. Some extra heat, which you could turn on when the main heating system didn't work, and that brought in hot air from the engine compressors.

[David McCloskey]

Now, what could go wrong?

[Gordon Carrera]

What could go wrong? Are you getting a sense of impending doom? So. So JoJo Mario switches that on, and you've got to kind of regulate it, turn it up and down, how much hot air you're allowing in. First thing they smell burning rubber.

[David McCloskey]

Interestingly enough, what sort of triggers the potential doom here are, and I think this is the technical term, ass cushions. Right. Because these guys are sitting in the plane. I mean, they're up there for 30 hours or something like that.

[Gordon Carrera]

Yeah, at least 24 hours. At least. Yeah. Yeah.

[David McCloskey]

And of course, you're sitting on, I guess, a, you know, US Air Force supplied, you know, seat, which probably isn't that comfortable. And so they've brought a polyurethane cushion for everybody to sit on so that it's more comfortable when you're. You're pulling the shift and polyurethane. Fire marshals will call this solid gasoline, Gordon, because they are extremely flammable pieces of material. And I guess one of them is sitting kind of close to a heating vent. Is that right?

[Gordon Carrera]

Yeah. I think what actually happens is there's a heating vent, then there's a metal box next to the heating vent, which. Which heats up. And then next to that is this kind of cushion. And the cushion basically, you know, catches fire. And this is on. We should explain. There's a kind of lower and an upper deck to these planes, and they're smelling this burning rubber. They're trying to work out where it comes from. Smoke and fumes are starting to come into the upper deck. And so they work out that there's something going on on the lower deck by the jump seat where this. Where this cushion has been. Now, the navigator who's down there tries, you know, grabs one fire extinguisher, then another to try and put it out, and it's not working. So this is a pretty serious fire. And pretty soon the whole of that lower deck is engulfed with flames. At this point, John Hogg, who's piloting it, says, we've got to head to the base, you know, there's a Runway there, and we've got to get there.

[David McCloskey]

Another two lay fact, Gordon. Yeah. What color is the Runway way at Dula, do you remember?

[Gordon Carrera]

It's painted, isn't it?

[David McCloskey]

It is.

[Gordon Carrera]

It's painted. I can't remember why. It's through the permafrost, isn't it?

[David McCloskey]

That's right. Yeah. It's white. And I. I guess the issue there is you don't want it to absorb a bunch of heat in from the sun, kind of, I guess, in spring, summer, and melt the permafrost below it. Because the whole base is built on the permafrost, Right. It's essentially built on kind of like ice. Right. And so if things. If the heat from transfers from Runway from buildings, it kind of melts foundation and things start to sink. So the Runway is painted white.

[Gordon Carrera]

They've decided to head for there. Joe Demario gets on the radio and issues a mayday, so says it's the only time in his long flying career he's ever had to do it. But right after he does the mayday, they lose all electrical power. All the electrics go on the plane. Upper deck. Now the smoke is coming into the upper deck as well. They can't see the instrument lights, and it's totally dark outside because it's January.

[David McCloskey]

This is a great situation.

[Gordon Carrera]

This is bad. John OG is trying to use the lights because obviously there's some lights from the base. So he's trying to use those to manually guide him towards where it is. But at the same time, he realizes the plane is too heavy. They can't do a controlled landing. They've got no instruments, and they're not going to make it because the flame and the smoke is just getting worse and worse. Someone else in the crew kind of asks him and says, are we over Thule yet? And Hawk looks out of the window, and he leans out. At that moment, he can't see the lights. So he realizes that means they must be right over the base. I mean, that's the only way he can work that out because it's so dark, and they're at about 8,000ft. And he basically gives the order, we got to bail out. Joe Demihario doesn't hear the order, and all he remembers hearing is bang, bang, bang, bang. Four bangs. And what's that? He shouts over to John, and John Hawke says, well, it's the others ejecting. You know, you got to go. You got to bail. So Joe reaches down, he raises the armrests of the ejector seats and rotates the ejection trigger guards. That then blows a hatch over his head and stows the kind of central column, the steering column in front of him so it doesn't smash his knees as he ejects. He says he doesn't actually feel a jolt or anything as he ejects. All he knows is the next thing he's outside the plane. His seat belt automatically releases after one second and then the seat is actually blown away by the wind. And then a lanyard attached to the seat pulls the ripcord of his parachute. And he said, you know, it's like the feeling was then like his legs were being ripped off as the parachute kicks in. Strangely for a pilot, he's scared of heights. It's kind of bit bizarre, but there you go. But he says he wasn't scared. Instead he said he kind of felt godlike is the way he describes it. As he floats down from the aircraft. He's up in the air now. They've all left the aircraft.

[David McCloskey]

Everybody got out, right?

[Gordon Carrera]

Well, unfortunately, apart from one person. So seven in the crew, six eject. One person, unfortunately, who is. Is in that kind of lower deck and he's not at the seat to eject. So he tries to kind of manually bail out of a hatch and jump out the hatch. And the speed they're going with, he jumps out head first through the hatch and the airstream just slams him back into the plane. So he's actually. He's the one who's not going to make it. But the other six of them all managed to eject. So the plane is now empty, it's unattended, and it's making a kind of slow left turn and descending down with.

[David McCloskey]

Four hydrogen bombs on it.

[Gordon Carrera]

With four hydrogen bombs on it. And as he's floating to the ice, Joe Di Mario just sees a bright light flash seven or eight miles away. And then after a few seconds he's suddenly swung around by the shock wave of a massive blast. And we should say this is at 4:39pm Atlantic Standard Time time that the B52 is going to hit the ice. And immediately the news of the crash leads to a flash alert being sent to the U.S. air Force. And they declare the code and the code word designating an accident involving nuclear weapons.

[David McCloskey]

And that's Broken Arrow, also a great 1990s action movie, totally with Christian Slater and John Travolta. One of the formative action movies of my youth. I can still wouldn't when you say the words Broken Arrow. And I saw in the script, I thought of, of John and Christian up in that, you know, B2 bomber. And the scene where Travolta, I think Travolta kills someone with a pipe in that movie, he swings a pipe at somebody and kills him, hits him in the chest. And I remember as a kid seeing that and thinking that was pretty crazy. So whenever I hear Broken Arrow, I think of that movie. The same concept, right? The idea was Travolta was going to steal nuclear weapons by crashing the plane and selling them to a terrorist group. Group.

[Gordon Carrera]

Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

[David McCloskey]

And in this case, well, it's. I guess that was slightly more entertaining than this one. All right, but enough about John Travolta. Gordon. I digress. So I think with a full on broken Arrow incident, missing nuclear weapons. Let's break and we come back next time. We will talk about what in the world happened to these bombs and how does this incident from the 60s really draw us into today and explain a lot about why in the world Donald Trump wants to buy Greenland. So join us next time.

[Gordon Carrera]

See you next time.