The Rescue That Taught Me That Discipline Was Not Optional

In 1965, I learned firsthand that the greatest danger at Thule Air Force Base in northwestern Greenland was not an enemy. Instead, I soon discovered it was the environment.

Thule was a remote Arctic outpost, just 700 miles from the North Pole. At the time, about 6,000 military personnel and 2,000 Danish construction workers lived there. Once anyone stepped beyond the boundaries, they were completely exposed to a world that did not forgive mistakes. Discipline wasn’t optional. Warnings were not suggestions. They were more often than not, the difference between life and death.

During one Phase Three Alert, which is the most dangerous environmental alert level; when no one was supposed to be outside under any circumstance, I was part of a three-man rescue team. Our mission was to find a missing Danish construction worker who had failed to respond to the warning system.

At that time, I was a First Lieutenant, Assistant Chief of Security and Law Enforcement and knew it was essential that I hang onto the rope as I boarded our half-track rescue vehicle in high winds and severe cold. The half-track was specially equipped to withstand the extremely severe weather of Greenland. The wind was averaging around 90 knots, and visibility was near zero, and the temperature was about 40 degrees below zero, which makes the air feel like 100 degrees below zero. 

We weren’t dodging lead bullets. Instead, we were dodging what amounts to ice bullets; the worst life-threatening challenge the environment could produce.

We had only fragments of information from the man’s buddies about where he might have gone. Foot by foot, we slowly investigated different locations. Finally, we found him sprawled out on an icy side road. He was barely alive. We struggled to get him into the half-track and then rushed him to the base hospital as fast as we could.

The doctors worked on him right away which resulted in saving his life.

That was Thule.

Discipline wasn’t optional. Warnings were not suggestions. In the Arctic, the environment does not forgive mistakes. And sometimes, the difference between life and death is simply showing up and refusing to give up. It was lessons like this situation provided which prepared me for the profession I devoted my life to, which is to provide people with the financial planning that will best serve them and their objectives. The financial environment can be unforgiving, and mistakes are not optional.  

Vern Hayden CFP®