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The it through you

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the Arctic desolate savage remote

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wilderness of unending barren vistas through
most of the year locked in bitter cold

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and almost endless darkness in the
short summers a swamp like morass

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not too bad for caramel or polar
bears but no place for human beings.

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Yet this roof of the world holds a stark
menace to our country to our very

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existence.

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The Menace lies in the
basic new fact of our time

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that no two nations on earth are any longer
cut off from each other by geography.

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We all live at the edge of the same ocean.

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The air ocean which enveloped the globe

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and in the air age geography has new
meanings for the safety of the American

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and Canadian people.

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What was once the impassable Arctic now
provides the quickest routes for attack

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from a wide sector of Europe

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and a base

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set by the nightmare of this threat.

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The American government acted with the
advice of some of the country's best

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scientists brought together at MIT's
same Lincoln laboratories experimental

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installations like this one were built

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and tested in northern Alaska by the
Western Electric Company guided by the

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successful test. The nation's leaders
decided on a tremendous undertaking.

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This was to build with the cooperation of
Canada a radar early warning line north

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of the arctic circle starting at
the northernmost tip of Alaska.

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It would stretch three thousand miles
across the continent to Baffin Island

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opposite Greenland Distant Early
Warning line they named two

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lines. It became.

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At the proposal to create such a
line in the distant loneliness.

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Old Arctic can put their heads in doubt
but the new line had to be built their.

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Man had to conquer that
unknown frozen wasteland

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and transform it into the vital
outpost of Western civilization.

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The United States Department of Defense
faced a major question to what organization

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should our country assign
the due line mission.

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The answer was given by
the secretary of defense

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and requesting the Bell System to take on
the job under US Air Force supervision.

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The bell system with its integrated planning
development engineering manufacturing

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and law just take organization as uniquely
qualified to undertake this project

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which is so vital to the
safety of the country.

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The contract went to the Western Electric
Company the Bell Systems manufacturing

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and supply unit

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and international headquarters was swiftly
organized a host of special consultants

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called in to help start
work on a dozen front.

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Wherever it would help speed up the project
some contracts were left the contract

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called for the new line to be delivered
within thirty two months impossible some

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said there was no time to lose
recruiters were dispatched to

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every part of the country visited and.

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Of the belt system seeking out the
right people by the right jobs.

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Jack Jennings of Dayton Ohio commercial
service engineer for the Ohio Bell

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Telephone Company signed up for a new
job as an installation department.

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Bob Reed of Madison South Dakota lineman
for Northwestern dentist a job.

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One day packed as tools

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and headed north is destination somewhere
north of the Arctic Circle somewhere west

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of Dr Don Gores of Milwaukee Wisconsin
installation supervisor for the

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Western Electric Company
said goodbye to his friends

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and took off to the gum Odelein Section
three from all over America they came

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across a section of the technical
competence the scientific imagination

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and the management know how which go into
creating reliable telephone service.

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All told one thousand
Bell System men and women

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and listed the servant project five seven
to code name for the new line undertake

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in the same headquarters building the U.S.

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Air Force established a project office
vision able the Air Force to work closely

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with the project supervisors

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and provide prompt decisions
to meet the exacting schedule.

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By now the critical decisions as to exactly
where the New Line station should go

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were nearly finished.

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Aerial photographs of the proposed site
areas were analyzed by a skilled photo

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interpretation meant so

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that tentative site plans could
be drawn now men had to go north

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and check the tentative plans on the spot.

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It was February the worst possible
time of year to go to the Arctic.

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These were the dual line
pioneers the size eighteen.

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They took off from snow covered fields
in the north with a few all important.

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Tools and instruments and the
bare necessities for a living.

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They came down into the isolation
of a pinpoint markdown

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that they checked the educated guesses
of the photo interpretation meant.

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Exploring the beach approaches conducted
tests to be sure each side would be well

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suited for placing the new radar and radio
system as being designed for the line

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and mark the sights to guide
the construction crew.

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As they completed their missions site
by site three thousand mile long strip

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somewhere north of the Arctic Circle began
to shed its timeless anonymity to take

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on an historic identity line close on the

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heels of the sighting teams came the
advance construction crews first W.

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and Advanced construction party
went in by light ski place

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and another ski plane followed
with basic materials and supplies

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and a small trench with

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that much they made camp set
up radio communications

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and cleared the snow from the frozen
inlet to make a nice big big enough for

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wheeled planes to land on the
bigger planes brought in a bigger

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tractor more men and supplies.

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But at some sites the wind kept
piling up the snow so fast

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that a small tractor would help
then the only way to get a bigger

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tractor in was to drop it by parachute

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the first time they tried it didn't work.

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One way they learned on the DO line was
from mistakes they had lost one tractor

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this way they wouldn't lose any more.
They knew now how to do it right.

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Finally they had ice caps wide enough and
long enough for the biggest cargo planes.

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The Air Force C.

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One twenty four the masters made aviation
history with those Icelandic they brought

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the construction crews what they had to
have the big machines that could take

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and pile and handle in the hall

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and could stay on top in the running
battle with the drifting snow

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and above all I could work gravel digging

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and moving gravel is the start of just
about everything in the Arctic without it

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you can't build roads permanent airstrips

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or building foundations by
early springs stateside

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they'd remember us mobilizing task was
an old swing this was a teamwork job

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government and private enterprise military
and civilian working closely together.

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There was teamwork too between nations.

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Throughout the project the US Air Force on
the Royal Canadian Air Force maintained

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a cordial productive lives
on engineering problems.

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How do they work out quickly decisions made
on ten thousand and one vital details.

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Had to develop new techniques for building
the DO line structures under arctic

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conditions at Bell Telephone laboratories
the all important electronic

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experimental work was nearly finished as
rapidly as possible after development work

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was finished.

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The actual manufacturing on assembly
of the electronic equipment was pushed

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intensively procurement
was another mammoth.

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Every item

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that would be needed in the Arctic from
radar antennas to paperclip had to be

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anticipated and ordered more than one
hundred thirteen thousand do a lot.

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Purchase Orders went out
from Western Electric

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and its subcontractors to more than
forty six hundred different business

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enterprises located in
EVERY STATE OF THE UNION.

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Every province of God of the substantial
number of the suppliers the job of

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transporting the material called for a plan
Continental in scope it would include a

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West Coast Sea live out of Long Beach in
Seattle another on the East Coast from

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Philadelphia and Halifax

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and an inland barge live
on the Mackenzie River.

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Meanwhile the Canadian and American
commercial aircraft of all types

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and sizes were bearing the full burden of
supplies for the early construction along

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the lines. They flew

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but by all odds was the greatest
commercial airlift in history all

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together aircraft carried thirty
thousand tons of machinery

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and supplies to do line sites before
the ice landings dips off and in May

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and June of that first year.

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Nothing stopped the
airways planes were lost

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and courageous men gave their lives

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but the supply of the
construction work went on in

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the camps of the construction contractors
living conditions were primitive

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but already the crews were changing
the face of that far north country.

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The Eskimos too were recruited
and they did a good job.

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The crews build roadways developed water
supply sources laid down building

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foundations.

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And made the beaches
ready for the sea live

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at the same time to the appointed
places of a family of all those.

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He lives in the materials that would be
the new line came the tools to build it.

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Every item was handled with this batch.

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According to a plan carefully designed
to put it in the right spot on the beach

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when it realigned destination
supplies of petroleum

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oil

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and lubricants build up a car on a car at
Long Beach on the west coast selling Elvia

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in the east in June.

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They started loading on the west
coast petroleum first then the

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ships went on to Seattle at Seattle
they loaded for a solid month

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at Halifax loading for the East Coast Sea
live continuing for a month plus ten days

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the ships were operated by the military sea
transport service of the United States

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Navy. Onboard would be soldiers of
the U.S. Army transportation car.

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Intensively trained to handle
the unloading of the ships

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and deliveries to the
beaches on the new line

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that would be no going down to
the store for a loaf of bread

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or a package of nails or anything else.

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Everything had to be transported there
and you'd be hard put to name an item

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that wasn't stowed in the ship's the West
Coast sea lift was to be income boys.

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The slower ships left Seattle for the
others following a few days later

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whose whose

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it was a long voyage.