Hi Steffen:

After seeing your website, I have taken the liberty of writing this letter to you. Just telling a little clip of my story from "The Top of The World".

I am just a citizen, an unknown poet from this little country so far away, who wishes to tell in few words about the area of Northern Greenland. Thule Air Base, where I worked. Thule is located 690 nautical miles north of the Arctic Circle and 800 miles south of the North Pole, on the isle of Greenland.

I'll not tell you a lot about my work on "The Top of The World", but about some of the fascinating beauty of this huge area, where I had two of the most unforgettable years of my life, which I'll always remember.

In 1984 there were 150 woman, and 1200 men at that time - on a very hard Place, only with stone and ice. I have talked with the first two Danish women on the base ever, and they told me about some very great times. I'm still having contact with them. The first woman came in 1976; she was still there when I returned home to Denmark in 1986.

I worked as Postmaster for Danish Arctic Contractors at Thule Air Base. I can promise you; this was a period I'll keep in mind forever. I have made a homepage for keeping all my memories, and have a lot of greetings in my guest book from people that have worked in the North, and that has given me some very good friends in Arkansas USA as well as all over the world.

My friend in Arkansas says "I think everyone should be able to go there for a month or two of their lifetime", and I think he is right for it was an unforgettably fantastic experience for me as a woman to be there.

Thule's residents include an international mix of Dane and Americans, military and civilians working together year-round everyday in this hostile, yet enchanting land.

I landed on Thule air base 26^th April 1984 from Copenhagen, and when I looked out of the window I said to myself, "I'm not going to get off this plane". I sat there, looking at the Security Police at the end of the steps, planning to take the return flight to Copenhagen, thinking, and "here I will not stay", in such a cold place where nothing could be seen but ice and snow. I didn't know if I could survive, but found I could.

The first four months in the post office, I sat every day, waiting, saying to my self, when the next flight arrives for my vacation, I'm never come back to this huge area. I know that the men outside my door have a very hard and bad time too, when I have not delivered a letter in the post-box after the last flight with mail has left - "dear post" have you forgot to deliver something to me, and he would phone home, using the phone in my post office which at that time was the only phone able to make such a call.

A letter from home means everything, on that place - people at home don't know how the isolation, and the coldness can affect people, or the winter time with the totally darkness where the moon is shining and dancing when you going to work and home from work. In my post office there were sad faces - trying to keep smiling, and I happened to be the best postmaster ever on Thule, when I have delivered a letter from home. The days when the mail plane could not get through were very hard days for everyone on Thule. Below there is a picture of the runway with the moon above...

The climate conditions at Thule are very special.

One of the first things new arrivals notice at Thule is the air, it is clean and crisp. The air is so clear that distances are deceiving. Mountain peaks and Islands that are 15 to 35 miles away look as they are just a short walk away. Temperatures in Thule the "Land of the Blue Noses" have reached 68° Fahrenheit in the summer (this record-breaking temperature was reached in June 1983), and have dropped to as low as -47° Fahrenheit in the winter.

Winds of 30 to 100 knots are common during the arctic winters. The winds are known as phase winds and they blow snow off the polar ice cap and cause storms called phases. These storms are deadly combination of wind, snow and subzero temperatures.

The summer at Thule is beautiful, with the sun dancing over your head for 24 hours - and temperatures good for being out people grill and having a nice time. The first time people telling me they were going to a party and grill, I thought they teased me… It was true though, and we enjoyed many outings like this while there.

I must not forget to mention that we had very good music there. The music from that time came from AFRTS, the Armed Forces Radio and from Radio 5OZ20, a Danish FM radio station which is the worlds northernmost stereo music station.

I still listen to music that I recorded there, and radio stations here still broadcast the music from that time. When hearing that music your thoughts immediately return to the far north and you dream of the good times and good friends you had there. Good friends and good music will last forever.

I sit and wonder what my life would be like if I had not been through those years at Thule..?

Friends, coldness, sorrow, life, snow, fun, warmth, happiness, with lots of good times touring on the ice cap in the spring and summer, sometimes the club with good food and wine when we cannot be outside, which is like an restaurant at home. The same in your private home;

We had it all.

I really enjoyed the place, and I still miss all the good times with friends I found up there. I have included some of my pictures and poems that explains some of the feelings of being in that hostile yet beautiful place.

Kindest regards,

Jette Falk