AT&T Archives: The Dew Line (Bonus Edition)

For more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com/archives
Introduction by George Kupczak of the AT&T Archives and History Center
The film documents the construction and completion of the radar defense network above the Arctic Circle by the men and women of the Bell System and Western Electric, working in conjunction with the military. The project's story is told from inception until the radar system was operational, turned over to the U.S. Air Force.
The film shows the extreme conditions under which construction took place--the almost inaccessible sites, the extremely rough terrain, and the permanently-frozen ground. Construction took a number of phases to overcome these difficulties, from every item parachuted in, to landing strip building, to icebreakers and ships providing supplies for the stations. In these phases, bulldozers were parachuted in, boats moved over land, and buildings were anchored in the permafrost.
Producer: Audio Productions
Footage Courtesy of the AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ

[@mackman1480]

As a young man I spent almost 10 years in the 80's and 90's on the Canadian DEWLINE on several stations and at the time it was an adventure of working in the barren territory of the Yukon and North West Territories at the top of the world. If you have lived in a normal sized city it is hard to explain to someone how you lived in a remote station in the middle of nowhere with 11 or 12 people and unless a village was close by no more than 10 miles of road in 24 hour darkness in winter and 24 daylight in summer. Being young I embraced the new lifestyle and enjoyed meeting new people and learning to run heavy equipment with good food, paycheques and vacations. Listening to people who will say that so much money wasted for a potential war that never happened is like someone doing preventative maintenance on a new car and having it never breakdown but the cost of failure is great. On a final note the American government invested a lot of money, time, and resources into the Canadian Arctic which opened up the Arctic decades before the Canadian government would of been prepared or willing to. Very good film video of a different era showing an extreme project being developed in an extreme place.

[@calbob750]

You might want to check out the Radar Station Veterans website to find people who had your experience. I was stationed for one year in 1968 at Thomasville AFS in Alabama. ( as a medic). In the 60s Thomasville was the middle of nowhere in Alabama. At the time it was anticipated Russian bombers would be flying up from Cuba.

[@pata299]

In school, it was mentioned and I always was fascinated by the whole story. Much I learned in the library, and now, this wonderful documentary.

[@robertmitchell2142]

My father worked for Flying Tiger Line as a Pilot and worked on this project delivering supplies and equipment there.I have slides from my father of the sights, etc.

[@w9x7cv3vg6]

having a short military career in ww2, as a wireless op,but getting up in the yrs..with a brewing family..my father worked as a stevedore on the hfx waterfront that u see going on in this video in the late 50s... as a wee kid runnin around..i used to explore all the action going on from the outside security zones.

[@hrajotte]

What a great story, this is something I never heard or read about anywhere!

[@Chris_at_Home]

I’ve been to most of them in Alaska. They are still there but only manned by 4 or 5 people, usually 2 mechanics and 3 technicians. They use satellite communications and I did testing and turn up of new equipment in the 90s. I would show up and they’d tell me to pick a room out of a hundred of so. The rooms were nice with private bathrooms.

[@linxj6]

These are the kind of films they used to show in schools to inspire kids. You won't see it any more, sadly........

[@jimmyhuesandthehouserocker1069]

i was impressed with the photgraphy and narration

[@fresatx]

I LOVE the guy that introduces the piece. "All them menses out in the wilderness...Huddled together for warmth against the elements.....Mmmmmmmm"

[@deserteddave1596]

One of the narrators sounds like Col. Troutman.

[@scotty3034]

Could you imagine there would be a day when the concept of government teamwork would be as foreign to us now as the USSR was in 1958?

[@clivelawrance1326]

Very interesting documentary. !!

[@Ian_Shelly]

Very interesting. Great video!

[@LMTDDS]

Would have been a thrill. Imagine seeing the Northern Lights, front row seating, now you pay big bucks for a trip to Iceland or Alaska with no guarantee.

[@stevenclarke5606]

An amazing achievement in such difficult conditions, and they managed to do it on time. This is a classic example of the Cold War, we need this and we need it now, it doesn’t matter how much it costs it has to be done.

[@williamjones4483]

The legacy AT&T/Bell System was well known for getting projects done on time and on or under budget. Western Electric was the prime contractor on the DEW Line project if I am not mistaken.

[@nandanm3826]

Great. Thank you for information.

[@denniswofford]

Today it would take 32 months just to complete the environmental impact study.

[@the_real_bin_chicken]

And that’s if it’s fast tracked haha

[@MikesSoftLemonade]

@@the_real_bin_chicken 7 Figure feasibility study

[@operatorjeffdeathstar7759]

Says Bible Thumper with a gun in his hands...must not need an environment to live...

[@MillerVanDotTV]

@@operatorjeffdeathstar7759 dialate

[@bradjames6748]

Actually Canada has just ponied up 40 billion dollars for a new radar line to detect hypersonic missiles from the north

[@fresatx]

"Its raining men, hallelujah its raining men" is like totally this guys jam... Rock on brother!

[@tommym321]

Hahahaha I just laughed and my wife looked over 😂

[@fresatx]

@@tommym321 thanks for the love man!

[@tommym321]

@@fresatx haha sure. She looks over and says 🙂 “what’s so funny” and I say..oh! So there is this guy, narrating an old Cold War video (she interrupts, “what kind of video?) “ I’m like “oh, uh, it’s about an early warning system, and....” as you can see it went completely off the rails and I’m like “oh just forget it” hahahahaha

[@fresatx]

@@tommym321 Thats men and women for ya. If I met a woman that got excited about the DEW line Id be scared. Its a straight guy kinda thing. The narrator was only intrested because it involved isolated lonley men living in their own ball-stench for long periods of time. If I had infinite wishes I wish for him a "1961 Men of the DEW Line Scratch-n-Sniff Calender" Hes so fabulous... Lol.

[@stephenwilliams5201]

Small company's. that made the parts. But didn't know how it was hooked up. For secrecy reasons. That way a single factory could not be compromised To gain the whole picture. On how it worked. .

[@747captain]

What I find interesting is how they don't ever mention the name of the town, Barrow, Alaska, which is now known Utqiagvik.

[@cclevell]

Great moon picture

[@LMTDDS]

DEW line converted to NWS (North Warning Sys.) mid 80's most automated and having a few maintenance personnel available to keep it running.

[@calbob750]

Check out Radar Station Veterans website by people who staffed these sites in the sixties.

[@the_gold_canopy]

Rest In Peace to those that went down in Texas Tower 4 🇺🇸

[@eatcommies1375]

I think there is an abandoned DEW training site in the middle of a farm field somewhere in Illinois.

[@michaelb9529]

That would not be the DEW Line maybe the Pine Tree Line it was built first and near the boarder. Then the Mid-Canadian Line then DEW

[@markpimlott2879]

You are correct! There was an equipment testing and personnel training DEWLine site near Streator IL (about 80 miles southwest of Chicago). Both the Pinetree (Radar) Line were built farther north across Canada (53 degrees North latitude in the west & 50 North in the east) & the Mid-Canada Line (55 degrees North latitude). They were largely made obsolete with the completion of the DEWLine (at 69 degrees North latitude) from Alaska across the Canadian Arctic to Greenland.

[@eatcommies1375]

@@markpimlott2879 Thank You Sir👍

[@killdeerperiland3303]

lots of dudes checked out this guys dew line

[@firefightergoggie]

The history of the DEW line...as read by Truman Capote's brother.

[@marmaly]

Where did they find this guy?

[@jaewok5G]

and now they track Santa

[@garystewart3110]

never understood why they chose the middle of winter to do their survey

[@edremeika9788]

Not many people klnow of the airborne section of the dew line that went from Argentia 😳🙄 newfoundland,across the Atlantic Ocean to the azores flown by the navy with super constelliations.

[@deepbludude4697]

I did some work at that site pre 9/11 it was abandoned craziest thing personal effects, TV's furniture clothes, trays on the table in the chow hall its like they just up n left.

[@crf80fdarkdays]

​@@deepbludude4697 witch site is this?

[@mr.pavone9719]

Where's Doctor Quest, Race Bannon and Jonas Venture?

[@deserteddave1596]

Have no fear, the Man of Bronze is here! Doc Savage!

[@intercommerce]

Wondering what would have stopped the Soviets from taking out, by stealth or air strike, the DEW sites just before sending the bombers, should they have wanted to?

[@tomdis8637]

It's an intriguing question. Once communication had been lost with any station, NORAD and the National Command Authority would likely have declared an emergency and scrambled the US bomber wings across the US and in Europe, and, after 1958/9 with the development of IRBMs and then ICBMs, placed the US Ballistic Missile forces on high alert. Note that the DEW radars were useless against ICBMs and SLBMs. Recoginizing that, the US developed BMEWS in 1958 and integrated communications with the DEW stations. . There was also a warning system called the Mid-Canada Line that would have provided positive verification of a Soviet bomber strike. As new radars were installed, many stations were decommissioned. In 1985, with the upgrading of radars at remaining sites to the GE AN/FPS-117 system, DEW was renamed the North Warning System (NWS). In 1990 all US personnel were withdrawn and the Canadian stations were transferred to Canada, although the US subsidized the Canadian stations. Some NWS stations are still active.

[@RCAvhstape]

The purpose of the DEW line was to detect incoming aircraft, so not sure how the Soviets would pull off such an airstrike without being spotted. And if it were a precursor to a massive strike, they'd have to hit several DEW sites at once to make a hole for the bombers to come through. The aircraft hitting the DEW sites would almost certainly be nuclear armed bombers themselves, so there is no sneaking past this without NORAD noticing and going high and to the right. As for "stealth", there was no such thing in the 50s/60s. All aircraft were visible on radar.

[@raymiles691]

DEW is multi purpose acronym 70yrs to date.

[@greghawkins1025]

32 months is 2 years & 8 months.

[@andrewireton]

I prefer his honey badger documentary.

[@thehypernator5851]

OG mountain Dew!

[@Plasma216]

go green

[@dcviper985]

Tampons. I bet they didn't bring any tampons.

[@bobschaal6183]

That sounds like Johnny Carson doing the narrating!!

[@upperleftcoastchelseafan7718]

Does sound a bit like Johnny and the guy who did the introduction sounded like wacky Charles Nelson Riley.

[@judd4101]

The only reason I came to the comments section was to see if I could find out if the narrator was Johnny Carson.

[@DougBirdacks]

For a laugh, try the dead link in the description. These archives aren't available on the web anymore. I'm wondering if the current AT&T would delete this channel if they realized it still existed?

[@TheRogueX]

They're available now so... I think you clicked it on a bad day.

[@chrisphoenix115]

dnL (please, read upside down)

[@krichardt]

No vibrancy at all here.....how on earth did they do it without the magical cultural enrichment we all get to experience in Chicago

[@wisdomit429]

Hell global warming man it should have been a balmy 60 degrees at the dew line!!! -55 degrees but i thought all the ice was gone???

[@slowneutron6163]

p/g

[@rmf9567]

What an unbelievable undertaking by the greatest country on earth Trump 2024🎉🎉

[@8800081]

Sounds like somebody needs to learn the difference between upriver and Downriver

[@krichardt]

The river they referenced flows north

[@TheRogueX]

@@krichardt This made me laugh, I was like 'what, does the dude you're responding to not understand how rivers work?'

[@brandonbarr2784]

Crazy how much money was wasted. If everyone would just realize we will on this blue spaceship together

[@RCAvhstape]

As soon as we ditch communism/socialism, we can get on with the business of living in freedom and peace together.

[@Lucy2086]

DEW Direct Energy Weapons

[@tomdis8637]

"Directed Energy Weapons"

[@calbob750]

Distant Early Warning

[@crf80fdarkdays]

"Dick every woman"

[@gregpoirier1779]

I worked hauling cargo to the Dew Line (NATO) sites from ships & barges. All this RADAR EQUIPMENT was truly mind-boggling in size & shape & quantity...all highly INTRICATE ELECTRICAL Materials & Computers ( the whole 9 yards). Each site became a virtual town. It must have cost TRILLIONS of $ to ship all that sensitive equipment, all the way up to the Arctic.. THEN, Then U.S.S.R. folds around 1980. Can you believe that TRILLIONS more $ were spent cleaning up the sites, and shipping the Cargo, back to Montreal? Several TRILLIONS MIS-SPENT and wasted.....Trillions....and nobody knows.............

[@williamjones4483]

Mankind has varying levels of civility towards his fellow man. There are some less civilized countries that would desire to dominate other countries. The DEW Line was created to thwart that desire. I could not imagine how the Soviets would have acted had it not been for the deterrence of the DEW Line. Edit: It was in the later part of the 80's before the fall of the Soviet Union. President Reagan uttered these words on Jun 12, 1987 "We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev...Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall".

[@krichardt]

Greg Poirier the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989

[@c0smoKram3r]

TRILLIONS

[@scottwheeler2494]

Did Rome waste the money building their roads?

[@jeffjohnson7657]

it was 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down. The Soviet Union did not dissolve until 1991.

[@christianitis]

George has the most jewish voice ever

[@festusbojangles7027]

narrated by the gayest man in america

[@crf80fdarkdays]

And commented on by the gayest man in the world

[@spockspock]

Wow, that’s where the nazi weather station was.

[@amychasen7817]

I love knowing that, even today, I can do business with a company that helped my country perpetuate the Cold War and produced propaganda like this to justify and normalize its role therein.

[@linxj6]

Shut up. Neophyte.