Engine Change on Greenland Ice Cap

AAC Crew Performs Engine
Change on Greenland Ice Cap

Sondrestrom AB Greenland. An Alaskan Air Command crew from this Air Defense Command accomplished a complete engine change in 30-degree below zero weather on the Greenland ice cap near here where an aircraft was stranded.
The change became necessary when one of the engines of a C-130 failed to respond at take-off time from the ice cap radar site DYE 3.

The pilot made four attempts to lift the aircraft on the three remaining engines from the some 8,000 feet above sea level ice.
The ski-equipped C-130s with JATO (Jet Assisted Take Off) bottles attached to their sides are used at Sondrestrom to service the two isolated radar stations on the 700,000 square-mile Greenland ice cap.

Performing the task were A1C Vernon R. Willis, A1C Jack L. Young, A2C Gary M. Spets, A2C Joe W. Owens, A2C Carl L. Chesser and A2C Gerhard T. Guentor, all of the 5040th CAM Group at Elmendorf AFB.

(Photographs and newspaper article, circa 1965, are courtesy of Gary M. Spets who was a member of the 5040th CAM Group.)

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Sondrestrom AB Greenland. An Alaskan Air Command crew from this Air Defense Command accomplished a complete engine change in 30-degree below zero weather on the Greenland ice cap near here where an aircraft was stranded. The change became necessary when one of the engines of a C-130 failed to respond at take-off time from the ice cap radar site DYE 3.
	The pilot made four attempts to lift the aircraft on the three remaining engines from the some 8,000 feet above sea level ice. The ski-equipped C-130s with JATO (Jet Assisted Take Off) bottles attached to their sides are used at Sondrestrom to service the two isolated radar stations on the 700,000 square-mile Greenland ice cap.
Performing the task were A1C Vernon R. Willis, A1C Jack L. Young, A2C Gary M. Spets, A2C Joe W. Owens, A2C Carl L. Chesser and A2C Gerhard T. Guentor, all of the 5040th CAM Group at Elmendorf AFB.
(Photographs and newspaper article, circa 1965, are courtesy of Gary M. Spets who was a member of the 5040th CAM Group.)