Fletcher's Ice Island

[1] The iceberg was a thick tabular sheet of glacial ice that drifted throughout the central Arctic Ocean in a clockwise direction.

This 7 by 3 mile kidney-shaped iceberg was discovered near the North Pole by researchers studying the Arctic haze during the spring and summer.

Also, because the nearest alternate air bases were 475 miles (764 km) away, potential in-flight emergencies could result in fatal outcomes.

Joseph O. Fletcher, who was the Commanding Officer of a U.S. Air Force weather squadron stationed in the Arctic right after the World War II, was placed in charge of the entire project.

When the ice floe cracked and shortened the runway sufficiently to terminate aircraft resupply operations, station CHARLIE had to be evacuated.

[8] Meanwhile, on 7 March 1957, using several 42-foot-long (13 m) commercial house trailers, the Northeast Air Command established a station called "BRAVO" on the iceberg.

Instead, following September an icebreaker USS Burton Island (AGB-1) was employed to transport the equipment, and the Arctic Research Laboratory Ice Station I (known as ARLIS I) was constructed in under 40 hours.

[4][10] However, during its deployment in May 1961 the ice ground began breaking up on a large scale, and the Navy found another 3.5 by 1.5 mile iceberg north of Point Barrow.

Resupply of ARLIS II during the first year was carried out by airdrops from large aircraft such as Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar and C-47 Skytrains, and also by the icebreaker USCGC Staten Island (WAGB-278) twice in the summer.

While station ARLIS II was drifting away from Barrow, the iceberg T-3 was rediscovered in February 1962 over 100 miles north of where it had been previously observed.

[12] In December 1963, the station ARLIS II reached the most northern point of its journey and eventually drifted out through the Fram Strait with the East Greenland Current.

[4] Upon completion of major restoration of ARLIS II, a full occupation of T-3 by the Arctic Research Laboratory was initiated in September 1965.

Dave Turner, an experienced NOAA pilot who was one of the last persons to observe T-3, reported that the ice floe was found about 150 miles from the North Pole.

It is estimated that sometime after July 1983, the iceberg eventually worked its way to the outside of the Arctic ice pack, where it caught a southern current, drifted off into the Atlantic Ocean, and finally melted away.