How the US military tested its mettle and machinery in Alaska, from mundane surveys to a disgraceful medical study

Part of a continuing weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story.

Air Force 1st Lt. William Caffrey was flying above Interior Alaska when he lost his canopy and helmet, thus discovering a new personal threshold for terror. It was January 1955, a frigid day at the ground level and somewhat more so at the 32,000 feet where Caffrey was cruising in an F-86 Sabre. As plane and man descended, the man blacked out from lack of oxygen. When he recovered, he regained control of the jet and landed near Eielson Air Force Base. He suffered from frostbite to his hands and ears but otherwise survived intact.

Caffrey was taking part in Operation Snowbird, a joint Army and Air Force training exercise. The 1940s through the 1960s were a boom period in American military cold weather testing, much of it understandably centered in the country’s northernmost territory. Operation Snowbird was one of many such war games that tested the American military against frigid conditions and was part of a broader use of Alaska to examine the impact of subzero weather on gear, machinery, bodie, and psyches. At its most mundane, such studies included survival equipment designs and the effect of cold on morale. But the impetus for cold weather testing also prompted a horrifying case of medical abuse, when radioactive iodine was administered to 121 uninformed test subjects.

Paul Siple (1908-1968) coined the term “wind chill” in an unpublished 1939 dissertation that included the first formula for a wind chill index. He continued his wind chill research while stationed in Antarctica from 1939 to 1941 but did not publish any findings until 1945. Upon returning from Antarctica, he was immediately met by Army officials when docking at New York City, the beginning of a long-term partnership that did delay the publication of his wind chill research.

[Where did wind chill factors come from?]

That the Army knew of obscure, unpublished experiments at an Antarctic research station indicated their growing interest in cold weather studies. American military interest in cold weather performance and survival intensified as the Soviet Union emerged as their primary nemesis in the wake of World War II. As an Arctic power, the Soviet Union was a different sort of enemy than the U.S. was accustomed to fighting. Moreover, Alaska was not only a perfect cold weather test kitchen but a likely invasion route if the Cold War were to turn hot.

The Ladd Field installation outside Fairbanks, now Fort Wainwright, opened in 1940 as the Army Air Corps’ Cold Weather Testing Detachment. Over the years, the facility would endure many alterations to its mission priorities and transitions from Army to Air Force to Army control. But cold weather testing continues at Fort Wainwright and Fort Greely to this day via the Cold Regions Test Center. Over the last 50 years, private companies have increasingly utilized Interior Alaska for cold weather product testing, from the Concorde to Ford Mustangs to Teslas.

The earliest cold weather tests at Ladd Field were the most basic and pressing. By the start of its first winter, the facility consisted of one permanent structure: the runway itself. Otherwise, as one witness stated, the mechanics and soldiers worked “in raw wind and incredible temperatures on naked runways.” As Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold noted in 1940 to National Geographic, “We had spent only a few hours in Alaska before it was evident that it is one thing to decide that national defense requires air bases up near the Arctic Circle ... and quite another to accomplish these results.”

So, the initial “experiments” were the frantic attempts by those stationed there to maintain their equipment with meager support in the greatest amount of comfort possible. Rations, repair constraints, and flight capabilities were subject to most of the first official tests at Ladd Field, but their earliest successes came with clothing. When the Army picked up Paul Siple at that New York dock, they were interested in not only his wind chill experiments but also his extensive writings on appropriate clothing for cold weather survival.

When General Electric completed a design for electric underwear in 1940, there was no better place to test them than at Ladd Field. However, for the sake of proper experiment design, pilots could wear only electric underwear and not pants so as to know which garment to assign credit or blame. As the Associated Press gleefully reported for newspapers across the country, pilots in Alaska were flying around “in nothing but their underwear, and were cozy and comfortable, thank you.” The “hot undies,” another Associated Press description, were soon in use by crews of high-altitude bombers in Europe.

Maj. Dale V. Gaffney was the original commanding officer at Ladd Field. During those early years, he participated in the creation of a new jacket suitable for Alaska operations. In his honor, it was named the Gaffney Jacket, though far more commonly called a B-7 flight jacket. In the photo, Gaffney is pictured at right wearing a Gaffney jacket with two Russian pilots, one of whom is also wearing one of the Alaska creations. The pilots were in Alaska as part of the Lend-Lease Program that funneled military material to allies during World War II, including extensive amounts transferred through Alaska to the Soviet Union.

In 1943, Sikorsky delivered an experimental helicopter to Ladd Field. Officially, it was the YR-4, but Alaska servicemen were soon calling it the Arctic Jitterbug. Despite some unexpectedly warm weather, the Army concluded the helicopter was transportable and capable enough for rescue missions in even the coldest conditions.

Other significant midcentury cold weather military testing in Alaska included long-distance reconnaissance, ice island research stations, permafrost runway construction, and how to use downed airplanes as shelters. Some studies were more straightforward than others. In 1949, a morale survey was conducted at Ladd Field. Unsurprisingly, morale was lowest for young, single servicemen, given the relative lack of entertainment options and unattached women in Alaska. This was such a novel concept to the military that a survey was needed to prove the point.

Midcentury war games in Alaska, while not as strict an experiment as the “hot undies,” were still meant to ascertain weaknesses and fighting ability in cold weather. A Universal newsreel for the 1956 Operation Moosehorn conducted near Fort Greely declared, “Men and vehicles struggle through the biting Arctic winds and snow. Their mission: to find out how we shall fight in the Arctic should the need arise.” Around 10,000 soldiers participated in Operation Moosehorn. The clip further notes, “Tents must be pitched on 40 inches of snow, slight protection against a 60-mile-an-hour polar blizzard.” Generations of military perhaps had their exaggerated ideas of Alaska confirmed by these cold weather operations, in some small way contributing to the myths that Alaskans now encounter daily.

The 1955 Operation Snowbird that William Caffrey survived pitted massive parachute drop attacks on entrenched positions at Galena and Talkeetna. During the exercise, the Army utilized a “windchill nomogram,” a chart listing the impact of wind and low temperatures based on Siple’s work of over a decade prior. Other gear had previously been designed, refined, and tested at Ladd Field, including rations that could be eaten in extreme cold and air cushions that lifted tents off snow or frozen ground.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner journalist Robert Sinclair, a former Army paratrooper, participated in the Talkeetna jump. Wrote Sinclair, “When you parachute into 40 inches of snow it has the sound of a nice, soft ‘plump.’” Every paratrooper carried more than 125 pounds of gear, enough to last a week in subzero wilderness. Sinclair noted, “But the paratroopers didn’t look like people. It looked there were 30 neat piles of baggage stacked along the walls of the plane, with a small face peering from each pile.”

Throughout the operation, there were a few minor injuries and one close call. Pvt. Walter Arion’s primary chute failed during the Talkeetna jump. He told Sinclair, “Man, when I began passing my buddies who had jumped ahead of me. Brother. I knew something was wrong, but definitely. So . . . I just pulled my emergency, closed my eyes and prayed a little.” His emergency chute opened with just enough time to break his fall before he hit the ground, unhurt if very shaken.

At their best, the midcentury cold weather tests in Alaska were logical, necessary, and even somewhat adventurous. But with limited oversight, moral and ethical breaches did occur, including one of the more underreported controversies in Alaska history.

In 1947, the Air Force founded the Arctic Aeromedical Laboratory, or AAL, at Randolf Air Force Base, in Texas of all places, though it was soon relocated to Ladd Air Force Base. Its stated purpose was “to solve the severe environmental problems of men living and working in the Arctic,” prioritizing research on the human experience in extreme cold more than technological issues. Its more innocent projects included the previously mentioned morale survey and a wearable sleeping bag.

History is rife with terrors and tragedies when militaries experimented on their own personnel. Then there are the times when such organizations performed medical studies on private citizens. In 1955, the AAL began a study on the thyroid’s role in cold acclimatization for humans. Based on animal studies, AAL researchers hypothesized that the thyroid prompted an increased metabolism in response to extreme cold, thus aiding adaptation and survival.

A hypothesis is one thing, reasonable and debatable. Then, the researchers decided to experiment on actual people, using radioactive iodine to track thyroid activity. From 1955 to 1957, 121 individuals — 102 Alaska Natives and 19 military personnel — were given radioactive iodine pills. The Alaska Native subjects were from Anaktuvuk Pass, Arctic Village, Fort Yukon, Point Hope, Point Lay and Wainwright.

The military personnel were briefed on the nature of the study and then asked to participate. The Alaska Native subjects, however, had no idea what they were ingesting. There was no written consent, no informed consent of any type. The researchers approached village elders who summoned other residents to take part in the experiment. This interaction was limited by fundamental language barriers and a more specific inability to translate the scientific and medical details of the study, like the word “radioactive.”

Many, if not most, of the Alaska Native participants believed the pills were some sort of positive medicinal treatment. As James Nageak, one of the subjects, later said, “I figured it was something that would make me healthier. If I’d known what was in those pills, I never would have taken them . . . Nobody would have.” Further, none of the Alaska Native subjects were informed of the study results.

To be clear, and as noted in a 1996 review of the study, this methodology violated the Nuremberg Code on human research, AAL guidelines, and basic human decency. No such study would now be allowed to proceed. At least one participant developed thyroid cancer, and in 2000, the Air Force issued an apology and paid $7 million in restitution. The AAL folded in 1967.

Key sources:

“Army’s ‘Windchill Factor’ Chart Tells Operation Snowbird Troops in Alaska How Cold is Cold.” Nome Nugget, January 14, 1955, 4.

Arnold, Henry H. “Our Air Frontier in Alaska.” National Geographic, October 1940, 487.

Campbell, D.L. “Corporations Test Prototypes in Interior.” Alaska Journal of Commerce, February 13, 1995.

Cold Weather Testing in Alaska: 1940-1970 (revised edition). Fort Collins, CO: Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, Colorado State University, 2020.

Douthit, Jim. “‘Undefeated’ 4th Infantry Win Galena Battle by Default.” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, January 25, 1955, 1.

“Experiment Victims Paid” Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2000, B-3.

History of the 354th Fighter Wing and Eielson Air Force Base. 354th Fighter Wing History Office, Eielson Air Force Base, 2010.

Lankford, Harvey V., and Leslie R. Fox. “The Wind-Chill Index.” Wilderness & Environmental Medicine 32, no. 3 (2021): 392-399.

Neuberger, Richard L. “Wing Commander.” Alaska Life, May 1944, 43.

“Pilots Test Army’s New Flying Clothing.” Jefferson City Post-Tribune, January 16, 1941, 6.

Price, Kathy. The World War II Heritage of Ladd Field, Fairbanks, Alaska. Fort Collins, CO: Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, Colorado State University, 2004.

Sinclair, Robert H. “Sinclair Describes Jump with Paratroopers Near Talkeetna.” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, January 29, 1955, 1.

United States National Research Council. The Arctic Aeromedical Laboratory’s Thyroid Function Study: A Radiological Risk and Ethical Analysis. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1996.