Eyes of the North (1966)

This film describes the arctic mission of the Air Defense Command and pictures its space detection and tracking facilities. Acknowledging the roles of Canadian, Swedish, and English personnel in North American detection operations, the film demonstrates a typical scramble to intercept unidentified aircraft.
Eyes of the North by 1365th Photo SQ, Aerospace Audio-Visual Service (USAF) 1966
National Archives
- ARC# 7074169
- 342.26433DF
- USAF 342 SFP 1287

[@photocyclist]

I was stationed in Thule for a year. If you ever watch the Clint Eastwood movie Firefox, the black hanger scene was filmed there.

[@csjones5513]

That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing that! Loved Firefox.

[@johndyson4109]

That's really Kool! I love the movie Firefox..

[@Couchintheclouds]

Who did you piss off to get assigned there?

[@photocyclist]

@@Couchintheclouds Nobody. It was a voluntary remote. Easiest way to get a new assignment. When you wanted to get reassigned you put in for worldwide no preference. Thule may be remote, but its not a bad place to be. You had a gym, 2 nightclubs, store and post office. Hiking was popular. Pretty much every barracks had a bar. Every assignment was what you made of it. You focus on the positives, activities and your friends.

[@davidhollenshead4892]

@@photocyclist A friend chose to be a technician in our early warning Radar Array because he could pursue his education. He ended up meeting his wife after learning her Nation's Language & Customs. The funny thing was aside from the differences in their hair & complexion they looked quite similar. As he was African American from Baltimore & she was a Native Alaskan...

[@randelbrooks]

Produced by US Air Force station Lookout Mountain, Hollywood California. They made thousands of these wonderful films.

[@paulparker8298]

Propaganda

[@coldwarchemical7857]

@@paulparker8298shut up

[@Praktical_]

​@@paulparker8298just because it's propaganda doesn't mean it's untrue. It just has its own narrative to push.

[@Daniel-S1]

@@paulparker8298 How is it propaganda? These installations existed then, some or all still do now for the very same job of providing an early warning for inbound missiles or bombers. The threat is real.

[@davidhollenshead4892]

@@Daniel-S1 Actually the real reason for these early warning Radar Array installations was to deescalate situations during the Cold War: Having adequate time to intercept Soviet aircraft our Air Force was able to radio their base which would notify NORAD that said Soviet aircraft were not on a bombing mission. As the lone or pair of Soviet aircraft were either off course or had been given the unpleasant mission of probing NATO radar arrays... The Soviets had their own early warning system with Radar Arrays. NATO aircraft also probed Soviet Radar Arrays and presumably also occasionally were off course. While the Soviets were more likely to fire on NATO aircraft in their airspace, they had reason to be distrustful. Britain, France and the US unfortunately supported the White Army during the Russian Civil War significantly increasing the death toll. The Soviet Union also took the worst damage during WWII of the Allied Powers... As war is the failure of Diplomacy and clearly both sides often failed to be diplomatic...

[@JohnCompton1]

I love all this vintage DEW line footage. Astounding engineering and construction in some of the most inhospitable locations in the world. I hope everyone who sees this has a wonderful day or night!

[@ryanreedgibson]

Yeah, me too. America did some really awesome things pre and post WW2. I really wish certain politicians were not trying to kill public schooling. We need more education, not less, and to focus on real problems, not ones made up to fight culture wars. Have a wonderful night.

[@1968slugger]

Yeah, so do i

[@w.e.b_b]

What the hell does public school have to do with this topic? 😂 I went to a shitty public school and we didn’t learn anything valuable other than street knowledge. The fact that some random person on YT associates this video with public school is embarrassing..

[@PsRohrbaugh]

​"we didn't learn anything valuable other than street knowledge" = why 99% or people at that school are still on the street

[@davidhollenshead4892]

@@ryanreedgibson "We need more education, not less, and to focus on real problems not ones made up to fight culture wars." I'm sorry but the abuse I took for having too much Native Blood to pass for White was not a culture war. Having MAGA Hatter tell me to "Deport yourself to Mexico you God Damned SP-word" when some of my ancestors have lived in what is now Canada & the US for over 14,000 years is clearly a failure in our schools. Teaching Ethics & Basic Human Decency is not a Culture War!!!

[@jaydouglas5847]

Starting in 1985, the DEW Line system was replaced by the North Warning System (NWS). The NWS is a modernized radar network that continues to provide early warning capabilities. It covers the same northern regions and offers improved technology and reliability . Most of the original DEW stations were deactivated beginning in 1988. Some were upgraded with new equipment as part of the transition to the NWS. The official handover from DEW to NWS took place in 1993. Many of the DEW Line structures have been abandoned or dismantled over the years. Some sites were repurposed, while others were rebuilt to form parts of the NWS. This "military film" was particularly well made and I must thank both " The Nuclear Vault and Periscope Films" for the preservation and curation of these fascinating time capsules.

[@haraldsydness4902]

Funny thing I noticed, they show the troposcatter antennas as looking for planes, but they are actually telecommunication antennae

[@Chris_at_Home]

On the Arctic Slope of Alaska they only decommissioned 2 of the five stations there. I’ve been to most of them in Alaska doing satellite communications work.

[@Chris_at_Home]

@@haraldsydness4902At one site where we were turning up a satellite link they had to blow the legs of the tropo antenna so it would fall over to give us the view of the satellite.

[@randelbrooks]

Thank you well said

[@stevesmodelbuilds5473]

My father was a Bell Telephone electronics technician, who worked on building a relay station for the DEW line on Resolution Island in Northern Canada. He told me that when it came to the electronics, the 'boffins' had the same authority as the Base Commander.

[@mebsrea]

My dad worked on the DEW line as a technician for a summer somewhere in the late 1950s. He mentioned that men were limited to a beer a day, and incoming packages would be shaken to ensure no one was sending in bottles of liquor. The response to this on the part of the family members sending in booze was to open the bottles, transfer the contents to mouthwash or other plastic bottles, fill them to the brim so that no sloshing could be heard when the package was shaken, and then wrap and ship them!

[@photocyclist]

9:00 The initial threat in a phase storm was visibility. You could lose sight of your building just a few feet away.

[@michaelhyduchak5859]

Great film. I worked at fedelect headquarters in the comm center keeping in contact With the main sites for both dewline and bmews. We worked 24/7 year round Alternating days off. Great job with great pay.

[@daveeyes]

My Dad was scheduled to man a DEW line station, but another guy was ahead of him in line. The other guy encountered a polar bear at his DEW station and got bitten. He had to be medevac'd out.

[@georgejones3526]

Here, kitty kitty.

[@RobertCraft-re5sf]

Reminds me of the US submarines that surface by the North Pole and get attacked by polar bears. On more than two occasions, the bears have damaged the submarines. They seem to believe the submarines are giant whales. Submariners who venture onto the ice are trained and armed in case of polar bear attacks...

[@cfneal1459]

uh ...@@RobertCraft-re5sf -- if a polar bear can damage a sv, there's something wrong.

[@dmacpher]

@@cfneal1459 Anechoic tiles on the outside of subs for sound management are rubber(or synthetic rubber). Surprisingly whale like and not all that robust.

[@lancecampbell4323]

Fun fact: Polar bears and cougars are the only two animals in North America that will hunt humans. As I used to tell my Cub Pack, “You are not at the top of the food chain in nature.”

[@winterburan]

in Italy there are still all the abandoned bases of the Ace high troposcatter network and the Medcom 486L network, many still have paraboloids, like DYE 1 and DYE 2 which are sinking into the ice of the polar circle, cleaning up costs more than abandoning it within a few days in the 90s

[@Tom-mk2tx]

😊

[@EGULL97]

We are so back. Listening to D E W by Rush when I saw this.

[@drsevrin100]

Don't forget about the Pine Tree Line and the Mid-Canada Lines.

[@MrPlusses]

Don't forget the Clothes Line. This was women hanging laundry reporting if they saw anything. It was the backup according to the joke my father told all the time. My father was a radar/microwave electronics engineer on the DEW Line. Even into his 70's he still had a security clearance with the government.

[@kilroywuzhere6864]

I loved my 13 months at Clear Air Station with the old BMEWS site. Such a great time

[@po2313]

Thank you for posting. My father was stationed at Thule around 1967.

[@Rocketman88002]

Those antique search radar antennas are real freaks. Phased array radars used thousands of TR elements which electronically steered the energy to the target then listened for the return.

[@davidhollenshead4892]

You should see the Soviet "Woodpecker" Early Warning Radar Array...

[@ericb592]

Diggin' the Hemi powered start cart at 20:30

[@MrWolfTickets]

NICE. Thanks for tagging that!

[@paintnamer6403]

Gotta love the chrome valve covers even though it's an industrial HEMI. I wonder if it's a FirePower or RedRam.

[@rtqii]

The U.S. military experimented with Camp Century in Greenland, a test project for Project Iceworm. Camp Century was powered with a nuclear reactor, a PM-2A: 2 MW electric, plus heating, that used 92% enriched Uranium. It provided power and heat for a couple of years without incident. Quite unlike Nukey Poo, the PM-3A, that used in Antarctica.

[@savagecub]

My father was stationed in Iceland for a time as an Air Force technician at a DEW line station.

[@RT-qd8yl]

And now it's a crapshoot on whether any of us would even be warned in time. By the time it hits we'll still be listening to Primary Entry Points fight, echo, and rebroadcast each other on EAS without even knowing what's going on. 😎 *_PROGRESS_* 😎 Cool video, thanks for sharing.

[@theodorepatton887]

☺️. Thank you for the reminder! We can’t repeat. Human history

[@austinator1318]

What are you, a commie spy? We still monitor the skies, and already "repeated" this by upgrading and implementing new systems. Without early warning capabilities the "civilized" world would likely be obliterated without second thought.

[@dante666jt]

Yes. Perfect for my night's slumber

[@manhoot]

One must be watchful of such things.

[@frisk151]

My getting older arse (circa 1973+) finds these older videos really cool.. I'm having to pretend to be responsible or my mind running wild would try and search out any papers on the radar shown early on here... I'm actually curious if that radar array was actually capable of actually get anywhere close to 1500 miles... Kinda doubtful unless it was located way above MSL.. Otherwise, I would think (speculate) that the curvature of the earth would end up creating an ever increasing blind spot starting at 'ground' level and increasing further out. Shows what I know.. Regardless.. Thanks for putting up this video.. I'm going to check the rest and likely sub.. Definitely like.. I really don't like when things are lost to time, especially videos, even if they might be boring.. So, thank you!!!

[@Joe3pops]

Most people dont know the wooden barracks that housed the base's 1950s construction crews were still present in 1978. Sometime afterwards most were lost in a fire.

[@BuyLuxuryFootRestsFromTh-bw8ub]

Another wonderful film to enjoy in the middle of the night. 😊

[@DrLeroyGreen]

15 minutes is a long friggin' time in peace or war.

[@yoloman3607]

Not enough time to watch this film...

[@theodorepatton887]

Did you make it too Walmart today ? 😆

[@socaljarhead7670]

BMEWS was pretty daggone cool.

[@jmanner2562]

Look at all that Arctic sea ice😮

[@angusmatheson8906]

So much is gone now. 😢

[@jovanlopez1660]

Grandfather was stationed there told me about a firefight with a pack of polar bears once...wild!

[@terryrodbourn2793]

The picture you used was low frequency for subs communications!

[@gregoryjclark81]

Cool shot of a Tupolev Tu-16 twin-engine strategic heavy bomber. I wonder where that footage was captured. 0:57

[@manuwilson4695]

"ATTENTION WE ARE ALL UNDER ATTACK...YOU HAVE 15 MINUTES. PIG OUT ON ALL THE RATIONS, AND SAY GOODBYE!" 😂

[@asmodeus0454]

The good old days of the Cold War back in the mid-1960's when everyone knew where he or she stood.

[@DarkFire515]

I sometmies get nostalgic for the cold war, but then I remember what would have happened if we had failed.

[@anthonyiocca5683]

What about subs?

[@Joelontugs]

I feel like this the most non tactical thing you can do let me explain and tell you how this works and where it’s at lol

[@michaelopheim7549bmw]

Kodiak alaska white Alice project

[@allgood6760]

👍✈️

[@rachelstrahan2486]

👍

[@davemeeks8109]

We needed this because the former Soviet Union claimed they were producing ICBMs like sausages. Of course before we had men landing on the moon we send astronauts into orbit with the MOL, MANNED ORBITAL LABORATORIES PROJECTS. Images indicate they had around 20 ICBMs, which was very helpful for future planning. 😊

[@schr75]

MOL was cancelled before it ever launched

[@martkbanjoboy8853]

​@@schr75I suppose he was referring to CORONA because that was what the USA went with as MOL was a non starter.

[@UQRXD]

Now with orbital weapons it is seconds. Thinking laser.

[@grahamfisher5436]

A warning system Should be able to give humans a chance to avoid dangers In the event of a TGNW there is no hiding. Hiding is futile.. On the 9th Saturday Of march 2024. I was sat in the Radar navigators seat of a Vulcan bomber (XM594) With an ex vulcan pilot / trainer/ assessor ( he taught prince ( now King) Charles how to fly the Vulcan, "frontline" aircraft John La Brun. I was honoured to be able to do a over 1 & a half hours of videoed interviews with him.. He said.. indirectly.... 'If the bombs drop.... Thats it life on Earth over' I was also allowed / able to "press the *button* Of the "Bomb go/ gone" switch. A most strange feeling indeed ( I did, check / confirm 1st with Mr La Brun, that. The system was disarmed 1st ... before I "Pushed the *nuclear* "button" .. Also.. I was able to do /experience something that is not normally possible/ permitted..I went up into the co- pilot and pilots seats area Im going to upload the 5 separate videos here on KZbin. Mr La Brun spoke of some incredible knowledge during the interviews..

[@65gtotrips]

“The glow of unnatural colors” ? What is that ? All colors are natural.

[@patricia1333]

Probably referencing Aurora borealis

[@bullthrush]

Shouldn't a "Navy C-47" be called an R4D.

[@marceloquiroga8877]

terrible la guerra fria

[@gyrospinup]

This is back when the Canadian government cared about freedom.

[@alphadog6970]

But they still care about freedom, freedom to do whatever they want😅

Why don't you take action and do something about it then??? Instead of just sitting in your mother's basement bitching about it.......

[@angusmatheson8906]

Oh ffs.

[@wardenwilson6725]

Quit your whining, snowflake! You're free to write your ignorant comment. Canadians have many more legal rights, than in 1966.

[@zackatwood2867]

All that watching and the man with red coat never rode over the horizon on his horrible sleigh 🛷

[@Vladimir-hq1ne]

His cufflinks absolutely out of tune with his suit, tie and.. General behavioUr.

[@psuyou]

Lots of the use of "men!" BWAHHH

[@kerrycater2795]

A question. If we are watching our skies so carefully, how come things like 9/11 weren’t anticipated more quickly?

[@mebsrea]

Because those were hijacked commercial airliners operating in densely traveled commercial airspace, not new radar contacts heading toward the United States from empty airspace over the North Pole.

....-- - z

[@alialalwy8977]

00:41 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Those responsible for these shows are tyrannical .

[@robertkennedy7772]

'promosm' 💋

[@_Kolan_Koala]

All that money should have been spent on hospitals and schools

[@hypercomms2001]

With all this technological capability... And now imagine an idiot in the White House.. And your life and millions of others are dependent on what Donald Trump does if he gets back into the presidency....

[@TheJmich2001]

All useless against boxcutters.

[@frankchan4272]

That’s when a 9x19 comes in.

[@manuwilson4695]

Do you honestly think the military police didn't take precautions against that sort of thing?...talk about DUMB! 🤪

[@daveweiss5647]

​@@manuwilson4695 I believe he is talking about 9/11.

[@chrisstopher2277]

Boxcutters can be scary.

[@user-ov5iz9ld4s]

Propaganda

[@daveweiss5647]

Yes, obviously, it doesn't pretend to be anything else... was there anything specifically you believe was misleading, mis or dis information or false in anyway?

[@stargazer5784]

There isn't anything presented in this film that should be considered propaganda in the traditional sense. Where is the false or misleading information? The Soviets were and are a real threat, even though they now go under a different name.

[@guntiskaugurs5053]

russian bot

[@bingojones4820]

⚠️good point⚠️

[@LarrySanders-01100]

The original Iron Dome, today we have a different system function but this is the original Iron Dome system

[@ronaldtartaglia4459]

5:42 i am surprised that there are trees right in front of the radar. Wouldn't it block the signal???

[@cerebralm]

those aren't in front of the radar, that's perspective. the trees are much closer to the camera then the radar.