The Nome Nugget

3,000 Troops Sail
With Supplies for
Arctic Radar Posts

WASHINGTON, (A) The Army said Tuesday that 3,000 specially trained troops are nearing the destinations at which they will unload 200,000 tons of supplies for an arctic radar network.

The equipment is for the Distant Early Warning or "DEW" line, the northernmost radar net spanning the North American continent.

This radar net is a joint venture of the U.S. and Canada and is aimed at providing, when completed, early warning of any possible trans-polar air attack.

Units of the Army Transportation Corps have been augmented by Army Engineers, Quartermaster and Chemical Corps troops for the cargo handling operations, which will be done under constant hazards of fog, ice, and storm.

Two task forces, one working from the Atlantic side and the other from the Pacific, left Seattle and Norfolk, Va. last month.

The Pacific task force will pass Point Barrow east bound this month and proceed through the Beaufort Sea into the Canadian arctic, dropping off men, equipment and small cargo vessels en route. The transports will have to be back into the Pacific by late September.

The Atlantic force is divided into two groups. One recently arrived on the coast of Baffin Bay and will be joined shortly by the other. These two groups will be unloading along the Baffin coast until late September.