We had a short ten minute helicopter ride to go from Tasiilaq to Kulusuk. Kulusuk seemed to me to be a place that I could not determine why anyone was there.

I asked our guide, “Why did you build an airport here?” He looked at me with an odd expression and said, “We didn’t, you did”. In this case, the you means the U.S. government. More to come on that later.

Here is Vicky after landing at Kulusuk Airport. The airport was built in 1956 by the US Air Force as part of the early warning defense system. The US closed down their operation in 1991. This is the only airport in eastern Greenland.

The US military might no longer be interested in Kulusuk but the scientific community has now discovered it.

The airport is number 1 on this map. Our hotel was number 6 and the village of Kulusuk is at number 9. You could walk from one end to the other in about thirty minutes.

Vicky arriving at Hotel Kulusuk.