Jim Thomas's Introduction of John Draper at the "Tales of the 55th", Offutt AFB,
NE, 30 March 2007
As the Cold War intensified in the late 1940s, General LeMay had recognized the
need for emergency landing locations for US aircraft in the Arctic. Hence was
born the idea of establishing an 8000-foot gravel strip at Nord in extreme
northeastern Greenland at a Danish weather station. Periodic storms would close
Thule for all air operations for several days. General LeMay wanted a more
northerly alternate to be available for his crews in extremis.
Our next speaker, John Draper, copilot on a 55th SRW RB-47, faced those extreme
conditions. His crew had launched from Thule in January 1957 for a mission into
the Kara Sea in Soviet Arctic waters. The Soviets were unreceptive to prying
American reconnaissance in this sensitive area and launched fighters to chase
away the RB-47. So John and his crew hightailed it out of the area to take up a
heading back to Thule. And then they were confronted by some really bad news.
Their intended destination, Thule, was closed due to a phase storm. Not even
their planned KC-97 tankers could launch from Thule. Due to adverse winds RB-47
fuel consumption had been greater than planned. Their alternate Sondrestrom,
Greenland was too far to reach. Their airborne condition in the midst of Winter
Arctic darkness could be accurately described as in extremis.
To tell us the story of landing that 55th jet on Top of the World, here is JOHN
DRAPER.
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Top of the World Landing
First Northernmost Jet Landing Ever Made!
OUR LANDING AT STATION NORD, GREENLAND
First Northernmost Jet Landing ever made: a RB-47H at Nord, Greenland 510 miles
from the North Pole in January 1957 with an aircraft and crew from the 38th SRS,
55th SRW, Forbes AFB, KS.
Recollections of the mission from Thule AB, Greenland (Jan 1957.)
I was told the AC tail # was 281 (RB-47H – the same aircraft that was later shot
down by a Russian fighter on July 1, 1960 north of Murmansk in the Barents Sea.)
The crew:
A/C - Kenneth L. Addison (Capt)
C/P - John P. Draper (1st LT)
NAV - Robert Bihn (Capt)
ECM#1 - Milford E. Seabaugh (Capt)
ECM#2 - Richard E. Brubaker (1st LT)
ECM#3 - Peter G. Kleck (Capt)
RB-47H - Same model as we flew out of Thule AB
In the winter of 1956-57 one RB-47H aircraft supported by KC-97 tankers made Top
Secret polar flights out of Thule AB Greenland (as depicted below) to inspect
Russian defenses. Five KC-97s prepared for flight with engines running in
weather 50°F below zero in order to ensure three got airborne. After a two-hour
head start for the KC-97s, our RB-47 would catch up with them at the northeast
coastline of Greenland where two would offload fuel to top off our tanks (The
third was an air spare). We would then fly about seven hours of reconnaissance,
while the tankers would return to Thule, refuel, and three would again fly to
rendezvous with us upon returning at NE Greenland. We averaged about ten hours
and 4500 nm in the air, unless unpredictable weather closed Thule as it did on
this mission.
Thule, Greenland, is the home where the fastest sea level surface wind speed in
the world was measured when a peak speed of 333 km/h (207 mph) was recorded on
March 8, 1972. Interestingly, Thule is the only Air Force Base with an assigned
tugboat. The tugboat is used to move icebergs that appear off the coast that may
interfere with the flight path of incoming and outgoing flights.
Thule AB, Greenland
Mission out of Thule AB
We were a newly formed, barely combat-ready, 38th SRS 6-man RB-47H crew deployed
to Thule, Greenland in January 1957. On the day of our eventful mission, which
ended with an emergency landing at Nord, we departed Thule on an ice-covered
runway that provided little, if any, nose wheel steering capability.
A typical mission for us:
Our area of reconnaissance interest was in the Novaya Zemlya (New Land) area of
the Soviet Union (we called it banana island.). I think Pete was the most
recently assigned Crow on the crew; therefore, he was assigned the lowliest
Raven position of “Raven 3” (ECM #3.) This was advantageous to us as it turned
out (since Pete was a Russian linguist) because that position provided access to
the Soviet voice communications spectrum.
Barely into the start of the Crow's “on watch” mission, Pete heard a short,
barely audible Russian communication. Part of the short Russian phrase included
the Russian word for aircraft. Pete immediately informed his Chief Crow (Mel
Seabaugh) and the aircraft commander (Ken Addison.) We immediately aborted the
mission and reversed course to a northerly heading. I was directed to turn on my
gun radar to check behind us but saw nothing. We proceeded out the way we had
planned and started on our way back to Thule AB.
At some time during the flight back, I was finally able to contact Thule radio
on HF and they informed us that Thule AB was in a Phase 3 alert status for wind
(Phase1 was the least intense and Phase 3 the highest) and for us to proceed to
our alternate, Sondrestrom AB in southern Greenland. By the time we had made HF
radio contact with Thule radio we were pretty well committed and didn't have
enough fuel to fly to Sondrestrom. Thule radio informed us that Nord was the
only landing site available to us with our fuel state so we diverted to Nord. I
remember I couldn't find the let-down/approach plate for Nord for a few minutes
(causing some anxiety!!). There was only an ADF approach to the field. I
remember there was an overcast but I think it was well above minimums. It was an
8,000-foot gravel runway (thankfully the surface was snow covered and packed so
the gravel was not a problem). The runway lights were smudge pots (and we found
out later that they had attempted to contact us not to come because the high
winds kept blowing out the smudge pots - I'm glad we didn't get that message).
The A/C and I figured we had only about 20 more minutes of fuel and that he
would try one approach and if he couldn't get in, he would execute a missed
approach and we would all bail out (eject) over the field. Well, we made it in.
I swear he deployed the brake chute when we were still about 8 to 10 feet in the
air but we WERE going to land the first try.
I think there were only about 13 or so Danish civilians (weather people) at Nord
at the time and we were sure glad to see them. When they found out that we would
have to have a KC-97 fly in from Thule for support, they were very glad to see
us. They had not yet received their Christmas mail and would we make sure the
KC-97 brought it.
The plane was refueled over the wings from 55 gallon barrels of fuel they stored
since they had no single-point refueling capability (which was no mean feat in
itself!)
A relief KC-97 flew in the next day or two with maintenance personnel, a
starting unit and a new brake chute for us and we flew back to Thule AB. We then
heard that a KC-97 crew attempted to taxi out and takeoff in the Phase Alert
winds when they found out that we didn't have enough fuel to make it to our
alternate, Sondrestrom AB, for an in-flight refueling but the Base Commander
ordered them not to attempt it. We sure bought them many, many rounds of drinks
at the club when we returned and heard about this.
Some questions Pete was recently asked:
“Were you able to get a Direction Finding fix on the source of the Russian
conversation?”
Answer: “No. The transmission was short and weak. Had I been in DF antenna mode,
I would not have heard an intelligible conversation. I assumed the Russian
transmission was an air-to-ground transmission. Even if the Russian conversation
had been in English, I would have had to replay it several times to determine
the exact words. I was denied the privilege of replaying my recording of the
Russian transmission after returning to Thule. Too bad! It would be nice to
determine the exact conversation for History's sake. Perhaps, somewhere the
words on the recording still exist, but I doubt it."
As it worked out, had we not cut the mission short we would not have had the
fuel to land at Nord. And as Pete Kleck later said, "Luck was with us! Spacibo,
moi Sovetski Russki Drug!. Translation - Thank you my Soviet Russian friend."
In the late 1990s we got to wondering if these landings would have been the
northernmost by a jet aircraft EVER? The Russians had an airbase at Ostrov Greem
Bell on Franz Josef Land but that was several miles south of Nord's latitude.
And the Canadians had a base at Alert on northern Ellesmere Island. Alert was a
few miles more northerly than Nord. But Alert was a 5000 + foot runway suitable
for C-130 operations, not for jets. Cargill Hall from Air Staff formally queried
the Canadians for us. They confirmed the following in a letter:
"No jet-powered aircraft has ever landed at ALERT on the gravel-packed runway
there. We therefore congratulate you in having landed further up near the North
Pole than the Canadians themselves. We have even confirmed that Santa Claus has
not yet converted to jet power. Merry Christmas."
Tales of the 55th - 2007