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WASHINGTON (USTCNS) --- Operation Pacer Goose, Military Sealift Command's annual re-supply mission to remote Thule Air Force Base, Greenland, was completed in July.

MSC tanker MV Gus Darnell and MSC chartered dry cargo ship MV Green Wave made the icy trip accompanied by CCGS Henry Larsen, a Canadian coast guard ice cutter.

Thule Air Force Base, located less than 700 miles from the North Pole, is re-supplied by MSC every year with JP-8 aviation fuel and larger dry cargo goods during Operation Pacer Goose.

The Arctic base, which can only be reached by ship in July and August due to ice, is regularly supplied with food and mail from bi-weekly flights out of McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey.

Thule is home to the 12th Space Early Warning Squadron, which operates the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System and space monitoring for NASA.

Gus Darnell loaded fuel in Aruba and Green Wave loaded dry cargo in Norfolk, both departing for Greenland on July 14. Thanks to minimal amounts of ice, each of the ships required only a few hours of ice breaker escort from Henry Larsen. Green Wave arrived at Thule July 22 and began unloading cargo.

Gus Darnell arrived July 26 and proceeded to unload fuel. Green Wave loaded retrograde cargo Aug. 8 and returned to Norfolk, Va. Gus Darnell sailed to Mobile, Ala., in August for her biennial overhaul. (FROM MILITARY SEALIFT COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).