Journey from the past

[Nachodaddy]

Charlie Bravo, I enjoyed your post and a small part of it reminded me of something from my past, but not to do with motorcycles - just with cheating death. When I was 19, the Air Force saw fit to send me to Thule Air Base, Greenland. Arriving in August, I got to experience the Arctic winter in all it's glory before the first Coast Guard ice-breaker ships started opening up the channels for our re-supply ships. That was when I learned the Army has a navy. The tug-boats that guided the supply ships in were Army tugs run by soldiers, who were sailors. Wrap your head around that, twenty-year-old Airman! One day our commander announced that the tug boats were taking tours for base personnel and I jumped at the chance. It was a great ride, and we got to see many wonders, but best of all was when the captain, an Army Warrant Officer, asked if we wanted to walk on an iceberg. He pulled the tug up to a huge iceberg floating in the Arctic Ocean and put a ladder against it. Up the ladder we went and walking around the iceberg. It is hard for me to believe now, but we didn't have any kind of special foot wear, like cramp-ons, to keep us from slipping and, if we'd slipped into the ocean, we'd probably have been dead before they could fish us out. We were wearing hard-sole smooth bottom boots and no one slipped. Any way, we strolled around the iceberg awhile, then back to the tug and to the dock. And, in case anyone has any heart-burn about boys having all the fun, the only women on Thule at that time were the female nurses from the hospital, and several walked on the iceberg that day.
Walking on an iceberg floating free in the Arctic Ocean is one of the highlights of my life, thanks to the US Army's Navy. And Charlie Bravo, it is nice to meet one of those special soldiers who were sailors, again.