SSI NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LVIII No. 42 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, APRIL 9, 1956_Per Copy—15<^
4,000 MEN BUILDING DEW LINE
ALONG 3,000-MILE ARCTIC BELT
POINT BARROW, UP)—Nearly
4.000 construction workers, skilled
craftsmen, laborers and others,
are building the Distant Early
Warning Line.
On icy mountain tops, on storm
swept peninsulas these workers
at dozens of sites along the 3,000
mile belt near the top of the world
are assembling what amounts to
small industrial communities.
The largest ot the three types
of radar installations has about
25.000 square feet of floor space—
control rooms, offices, power
units, living quarters.
Comforts of Civilization
Plumbing, heating, utility elec
tric service—everything that goes
into a community down in the
States—has come to a region
where only a handful of Eskimos
have lived out a bare existence.
The U.S. Air Force assigned to
the Western Electric Co. the pri
mary responsibility for this un
precedented construction job.
Western Electric broke the proj
ect down into three construction
sections. The Puget Sound Bridge
& Dredging C<±. and Johnson,
Drake & Piper, Inc., of Seattle
were given the contract for the
western or Alaskan sector. The
central section contract went to
the Northern Construction Co. and
J. W. Stewart, Ltd., of Vancouver.
Stations in the east are being built
by the Foundation Co. of Canada,
Ltd., of Montreal.
Hundreds of Subcontractors
These companies, in turn, have
awarded hundreds of subcontracts
for construction and equipment to
both U.S. and Canadian firms.
Robert B. Alexander, Western
Electric’s assistant project mana
(Continued on Page Five)
Publisher Charged
With Violation
Of Anti-Noise Law
BEAUMONT, Tex., —News
paper Publisher William Prescot
Allen today pleaded innocent to a
charge that he violated a city anti
noise ordinance and posted an ap
peals bond after being fined $100.
“I’m just saying ‘let’s get rid of
some of this corruption’,” Allen
told the judge.
Allen was brought to city court
this morning on the misdemeanor
complaint after he was arrested
Saturday because he insisted on
using his loud speaker-equipped
car on the downtown Beaumont
streets to tell about his anti-crime
crusade.
Allen, publisher, of the Laredo,
Tex., Times and newspapers in
Juneau, Alaska, and Montrose,
Colo., also was arrested in nearby
Port Arthur on a similar com
plaint. He posted a $25 bond.
Allen commented in court that
after he finished his anti-crime
tour in Texas he planned to go to
Washington “and clean up the in
come tax department.” He said
"hidden taxes are eating up mast
of our income.”
Allen was jailed Feb. 21 in Fort
Worth after he refused to tell a
grand jury where he got informa
tion for a series of editorials in
his Laredo Times blasting alleged
crime conditions in Fort Worth.
He was released the next day
after admitting in open court that
an anonymous letter was the
source for his editorials.
»
F’ickle Spring Weather
Wrhips Up Dusters and
Causes 14 Deaths
(By the Associated Press'
Spring’s fickle weather today
served up dust- and snowstorms
that were blamed for a least 14
deaths.
Powerful winds swept one of
Texas’ worst dust storms in his
tory from the Panhandle area into
the south and central portions of
the state, threatening extensive
damage to crops.
Three traffic deaths were at
tributed to poor visibility result
ing from the swirling black sand.
Snow which reached depths up
to 25 inches in the northeast
caused nine deaths and bogged
traffic. A traffic mishap in Wyo
ming, which had up to 10 inches
of snow, took two lives.
Most of the victims in the
northeast died of heart attacks
while shoveling snow.
Overnight storms, including
dust, tornadoes, hail, rain, and
light snow, lashed at Oklahoma.
In some parts of Texas, the
duster carrying off rich, black top
soil was the worst since the 1920s.
Light rain combined with the
dust to give Dallas and Waco a
muddy mess.
I NENANA ICE CLASSIC
i CONTEST CLOSED SATURDAY
WITH 4250 NOME GUESSES
Sale of tickets for the Nenana
Ice Classic closed at midnight last
Saturday. Keith Hedreen of the
Polar Bar, who handles the sale,
reported today that 4250 chances
were taken locally.
So now, Alaskans all settle
back to await nature’s next move
along the Nenana and speculate
upon their powers of prognostica- (
tion.
Atomic Power Plant
! For Alaska is Planned
By Army, Says Bartlett
WASHINGTON" UPV—Construc
tion of an atomic power paint in
Alaska is planned by the Army,
Delegate (D-Alaska) said today.
Approval of the plans and mon
ey with which to build the plant
are to be sought of Congress this
year, he said he was advised.
The plant, with a proposed ca
pacity of 1,500 kilowatts, would
be located at an undisclosed Army
installation. It is known as an
Army package power reactor type
plant with a design based on a
2,000-kilowatt prototype now be
ing built by a private firm at Ft.
Belvoir, Va.
Bartlett said he was advised the
military desires to obtain opera
tional experience with the plant
in temperatures varying from 90
degrees to minus 60 degrees.
Estimated cost of the plant is
$4,126,000.
Pan American’s Proposed Trans-Polar
Flights From West Coast to London
Would Cut up to 15 Hours Flying Time
CONTRACTOR'S PLANE
CRASHES AT MOON CREEK
Fred Parsons, pilot of a small
plane flying on the DEW line
project at Moon Creek, and two
passengers, Albert Spernak and
Breen Canaday, were brought to
Nome to the MMM Hospital after
their aircraft cracked up shortly
after takeoff at the site. They
were brought to Nome by Lyle
Edwards, bush pilot for Alaska
Airlines.
Their plane is reported a total
loss. All three men escaped ser
ious injury and were released
from the hospital today.
Chamber’s Alaska Day
Banquet Is Sellout J
SEATTLE, MV—'The Alaska Day
luncheon at the Chamber of Com
merce, at which Lieut. Gen. J. H.
Atkinson will speak, is a sellout,
it was announced yesterday. The
luncheon will be Friday.
General Atkinson, an Air Force
officer, is commander of the Alas
ka Command, in charge of all de
fense activities in the territory.
Race to Complete Huge DEW Line Defense Project
Goes On With Supplies Flown, Shipped and Hauled
By ELTON C. FAY
AP Military Affairs Reporter
At an Arctic Radar Site, UP)—
Ninety tons of airplane and cargo
ease down to the ice runway of a
lake, 1,000 miles' from civilization.
Engines thunder as reversed pro
pellers fight the plane to a stop.
Clamshell doors yawn open.
Another load of freight is de
livered in the race to build the
Distant Early Warning Line.
By military and commercial air
craft, by ship, by tractor-drawn
sled trains close to 200,000 tons of
material has been toted in the last
year to build the warning line
along the 3,000 miles at the top of
the American continent.
When DEW Line is ready, per
haps as much as two years from
now, it may provide a plane-proof
electronic sentry system standing
watch for air invaders headed for
cities of this continent.
From Baffin I. in East
The eastern end of DEW Line
will be on Baffin Island, across
from Greenland.
The western end will be so
close to Soviet territory that the
radar station there should be able
to keep track of Russian planes
across the international border.
To Cape Lisbourne in West
That anchor is at Cape Lis
bourne, Alaska, about 200 miles
southwest of Point Barrow. The
cape is only about 200 miles from
an eastern tip of Siberia, only 100
miles from the international
boundary which extends out into
the Arctic Ocean from Bering
Strait.
Newsmen who traveled the
3,000-mile stretch of DEW Line
asked if it would be possible for
an aggressor to jam the system
with electronic equipment, thus
blinding DEW Line to the ap
proach of enemy aircraft.
Maj. Gen. James E. Briggs, a
deputy chitfl of staff of the U.S.
Air Force which is building the
line, says “there is no electronic
emanation put out in space which
cannot be jammed.” However, he
says everything possible is being
done to prevent jamming.
Coping With Ballistic Missiles
There were those who wondered
if DEW Line, equipped now to
detect manned planes, such as jet
bombers, could cope with ballistic
missiles fired over the polar area,
Brigg’s reply was that “when
ballistic missiles become an im
mediate threat, we’ll have to de
sign to meet them.” But he indi
cated that the geographical loca
tion of DEW Line is also in the
right place for detecting a missile
attack.
The C-124 Globemasters are
probably the most impressive car
go carriers of the whole fantastic
transportation system for DEW
Line’s building. They look like a
Quonset hut on wings. There ap
pears to be no reason why they
should fly.
Globemasters Proven
However, the Globemasters of
the 18th Air Force, assigned the
job of hauling heavy equipment,
have accumulated thousands of
flying hours shuttling between*
the United States and DEW Line.
The arctic cold is both a hin
drance and help. It imposes al
most intolerable pressures on
crews who. must maintain and
operate aircraft. But the arctic
winter also congeals lake surfaces
to ice more than five feet thick
and blankets barrens with snow
which can be compacted into air
strips. Planes thus can land in
areas closed to both sea and air
transport during the summer and
fall months.
Enormous Supply Problem
Burma Road and the Great Wall
of China were comparatively easy
to build. The materials were at
hand. The builders of DEW Line
must bring a vast variety of equip
ment from points thousands of
miles distant—above, on, and thru
the ice as the seasons change.
What the Western Electric Co.
and its subcontractors need for
this DEW Line job is enormous in
quantity and variety—huge bull-,
dozers, tons of steel and cement,
prefabricated buildings, wire and
cable by the hundreds of miles,
food to feed thousands of hungry
workmen. ,
• $1 Billion for Transportation
The transportation item will
figure heavily in whatever DEW
Line finally costs—perhaps a bil
lion dollars or more.
In the commercial airlift there
have been 81 U.S. and Canadian
planes involved. Day and night,
they come winging in from the
south, leave their loads, head back
home for more.
Aircraft wrecks add to the cost
of transportation. The commercial
carriers have lost 18 planes and
two lives.
Maj. Gen. Chester McCarty, the
commander of the 18th Air Force,
reports that of the 106 aircraft his
outfit has used in the airlift,
three have been in accidents. One
of these was minor; another crash
landed but many of its parts were
salvageable; the third was a total
loss. No lives were lost.
Cold Helps and Hinders
The arctic, which makes flying
so tough, probably helps to save
lives. Snow covered plains and
frozen lakes are handy spots for
emergency landings when some
thing goes wrong in the air.
Weather can be nasty in the
arctic. Winds, sometimes as pow
erful as 100 miles per hour,
scream across the tundra. Clouds
roll in. Fog cloaks airstrips. Some
times ice crystals turn the air into
a bewildering whiteness, in which
there is no sky, no horizon, no
ground.
§> NEW YORK, (JO—Pan American
World Airways said today that it
and Trans World Airways could
now operate profitable and time
saving passenger, mail and cargo
flights direct from the West Coast
over the polar route to Europe.
The two U.S. flag transatlantic
airlines have applied to the Civil
Aeronautics Board for permission
to fly the polar route.
Time savings of the direct ser
vice would amount to from 5 to 15
hours, or from a two-night trip to
a one-night trip, Pan American
said.
The savings in time would re
sult, Pan American said, because
of the shorter distance of the polar
route and the elimination of the
lengthy stopovers in New York.
Pan American said polar ser
vice from the West Coast to Lon
don would represent a saving of
1,074 miles from Seattle; 1,013
miles from Portland; 659 miles
from San Francisco and 432 miles
from Los Angeles.
Pan American’s analysis said
that in 1955 about 50,000 people
flew to Europe from the West
Coast, which has 10 percent of the
total U.S. population and is rapid
ly growing.
The statement said Scandina
vian, British, German and Canadi
an airlines have rights to fly the
polar route between the West
Coast and Europe, and Scandina
vian Airlines has been operating
the service since 1954.
The company’s exhibits said
that Pan American will invest
$8,500,000 in equipment and pro
motion of daily one-stop flights by
5,000-mile range Douglas DC-7C
planes to Europe from Los Ange
les, San Francisco, Portland, and
Seattle.
The refueling stop would prob
ably be Sandresrom, Greenland,
but some of the ea9tbound servic
es would be nonstop, Pan Ameri
can said.
The, flights, offering about one
third first class and about two
thirds tourist accommodations,
would terminate in London at
first but would be extended to
other European cities as business
grew, Pan American said.
Airman's Body Found
In River From Jan. 31
Crash of B-25 Bomber
PITTSBURGH, (JV—Police re
covered from the Monongahela
River yesterday the body of a
crew member of an Air Force
B-25 bomber that was ditched in
the river last Jan. 31.
The body was that of Capt. Jean
H. Ingham of South Charleston,
West Virginia.
The plane was enroute from
Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, Nev., to
Olmstead AFB, Harrisburg, Pa.,
when the pilot had to ditch it
with a crew of six aboard.
The craft floated for a few min
utes and then sank. Four of the
crew made it safely to shore.
Capt. Ingham and S/Sgt. Walter
E. Soocey, 32, of Palmer, Alaska,
were missing. Soocey has never
been found. The plane has not
been recovered either.
The pilot later said that he had
to ditch the craft because it ran
out of fuel. f
i