Here's another Thule legend that needs substantiation...
when I arrived in 1983, I asked where the indoor pool was.
Someone at the gym told me that Thule once had an Olympic-sized pool, but when it was constructed, they forgot about factoring in the permafrost problem..
After a short period of time, the warm pool water melted the permafrost and the unsupported weight terminally cracked the bottom of the pool, rendering it useless.
I took that story as fact and never even asked where it was located.
Anyway... anyone have anything to add to this ??
Does Thule have an indoor pool now ???

The pool was not a myth.
While on patrol as a _base_ Security Policeman, I was exploring some of the old abandoned buildings and discovered the pool.
It was in a state of great disrepair and hadn't been used in years.
I also found a abandoned dormitory that was slap full of very old c-rations.

Thanks, TTTiger...
that solves a big piece of the mystery... now all we have to discover is why the pool was abandon !
I'm sure we have a Thuleite out there who knows the reason.... Do you remember the approximate location of the old pool ?? (ie near the pier, BX , club, hangers ect.) ?????

I believe it was somewhere down around the pier...but that was in 1974 and my memory is weak. It seems to me the reason it was closed was because the construction of the building couldn't handle the weight.

Thanks for the post, Tony.
It seems like we have a consensus as to where it was located and possibly why it was abandon.
We're making progress on this one !!!
Perhaps we'll get the definitive answer in the near future!

I remember going to the pool between July 1971 and 1972 when the pool was open, but I do not recall that it was very big and only 3 to 4 feet deep.

When were you a Security Policeman there tttiger2?
I was a Security Policeman there from July 1970 to July 1971.
I enjoyed it!!
No nuke duty!!

Those C rations that tttiger2 found were known as "phase rations".
The idea was that if you were caught in a barracks during a bad phase for a long period, you could have something to eat.
They often got raided for ciggarettes right before pay day!!
Each building and the Phase Shelters had them.
Think how long a phase would have to be to get you to eat them!!

I was at TAB in 1961-62, and don't remember hearing of a pool. I can buy the permafrost warming as a reason that it was closed. Permafrost warming was a severe condition in the Arctic. The pedestal of the BMEWS tracking antenna was set into the shale bedrock, well into the permafrost, and was cooled by a refrigeration system to offset the heat of the curing concrete, expected to last for years.

I was there from 2/66 to 9/67 as a Tracker tech and I never heard of a pool. On another subject, I remember the Phase rations as "K" rations. We lived on them for 3 days during the Easter Weekend Phase III in 1967. I actually liked them! Especially the stew and the fruitcake.