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World in Peril: The Origin , Mission & Scientific Findings of the 46th / 72nd Reconnaissance Squadron
World in Peril is the nonfiction story of the first operational unit in the Strategic Air Command, the 46th Reconnaissance Squadron, assigned SAC's first operational mission, "Project Nanook," - to assess the Soviet threat in the Arctic at the beginning of the Cold War. World in Peril chronicles the unit's development of the Grid System of Navigation which opened up the Arctic skies to world aviation and enabled the Strategic Air Command to become a global deterrent force. The scientific findings of the squadron remain today on the cutting edge of geophysics and give us foresight into future geological events that will reshape our planet and have a profound impact on our global society.
297 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 5, 2020
What a job...very harsh conditions and a one way ticket if you plane goes down. A glimpse into our world after the war and new theory.
September 29, 2025
A great read, but disappointing scholarship.....
This is the story of an Air Force unit tasked with exploring the Arctic -- all of it -- right after World War II. A part of the world until then almost completely unexplored, and unnavigable because magnetic compasses are almost useless there. Operating in minus fifty degree temperatures, which was also unheard of in this era. Flying over a part of the world where there was no "search and rescue", other than what they could provide for themselves.
Apparently US military unit records are classified for forty years, so when the end of the '80's rolled around, the survivors of the unit (most of them) got together to turn their now-declassified story into a book. Also, the CO of the unit, then Major Ken White, had apparently secretly saved for his personal records certain still-classified records about some things that were observed in the Arctic, now in the hands of his offspring who could theoretically (carefully?) write about this subject matter with impunity, while still unable to publish the actual classified material.
Herein lies my disappointment: I had expected to see copies, or at least references to, this material, in the book. Instead I found weak hand-waving, for example a quote from the book:
> "An expedition digging in the Canadian Archipelago only a few hundred miles from the geographic North Pole found under the ice and snow hundreds of frozen (not petrified) prehistoric tree trunks, shattered as though by massive tidal wave activity, and buried in the sand. Beneath the surface they found another layer of similar tree trunks, and beneath that layer yet another, until they had identified nine different levels of evidence of catastrophic change."
I believe this to be the sort of thing people associated with this unit actually observed. (Thus the book title, "World in Peril".) But this block of text is followed by a footnote referencing not a scholarly paper or report, but instead: "Discovery, 1989". That's it. What the hell? Could we be a little more ambiguous?
Outside of this, the book was really a pleasure to read: life in the near-Arctic in rather primitive conditions, various wilderness adventures, and multiple crashes that required heroic rescues. You could read this book just for the story of a big Air Force plane crashed into the side of a mountain in winter, rescued by two civilian bush pilots who landed on the side of the mountain, in the snow, in a high crosswind, that had already killed three Air Force guys who attempted and failed to parachute in with aid. And got all of the survivors out. One pilot did this round trip twice.
This is the story of an Air Force unit tasked with exploring the Arctic -- all of it -- right after World War II. A part of the world until then almost completely unexplored, and unnavigable because magnetic compasses are almost useless there. Operating in minus fifty degree temperatures, which was also unheard of in this era. Flying over a part of the world where there was no "search and rescue", other than what they could provide for themselves.
Apparently US military unit records are classified for forty years, so when the end of the '80's rolled around, the survivors of the unit (most of them) got together to turn their now-declassified story into a book. Also, the CO of the unit, then Major Ken White, had apparently secretly saved for his personal records certain still-classified records about some things that were observed in the Arctic, now in the hands of his offspring who could theoretically (carefully?) write about this subject matter with impunity, while still unable to publish the actual classified material.
Herein lies my disappointment: I had expected to see copies, or at least references to, this material, in the book. Instead I found weak hand-waving, for example a quote from the book:
> "An expedition digging in the Canadian Archipelago only a few hundred miles from the geographic North Pole found under the ice and snow hundreds of frozen (not petrified) prehistoric tree trunks, shattered as though by massive tidal wave activity, and buried in the sand. Beneath the surface they found another layer of similar tree trunks, and beneath that layer yet another, until they had identified nine different levels of evidence of catastrophic change."
I believe this to be the sort of thing people associated with this unit actually observed. (Thus the book title, "World in Peril".) But this block of text is followed by a footnote referencing not a scholarly paper or report, but instead: "Discovery, 1989". That's it. What the hell? Could we be a little more ambiguous?
Outside of this, the book was really a pleasure to read: life in the near-Arctic in rather primitive conditions, various wilderness adventures, and multiple crashes that required heroic rescues. You could read this book just for the story of a big Air Force plane crashed into the side of a mountain in winter, rescued by two civilian bush pilots who landed on the side of the mountain, in the snow, in a high crosswind, that had already killed three Air Force guys who attempted and failed to parachute in with aid. And got all of the survivors out. One pilot did this round trip twice.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews