No One Thinks of Greenland

I was in Narsarsuaq in 2001 on a hunting trip. I was curious about the old US military airfield where we landed because my father in law had landed there as a crewmember in a B-17 on the way to England during WWII. The remains of the old US military buildings can still be seen. While on my trip, however, I heard from local people about the US military hospital located in Narsarsuaq for Korean War wounded. I was surprised to say the least. Then I later discovered Mr. Griesemer's excellent book. It not only accurately describes Greenland but it also accurately describes many of the aspects of army life (been there, done that, too). I would recommend this book highly as a good read!

I am writing a book about the sinking of the Army Troopship Dorchester by a U-Boat on February 3, 1943, just south of Greenland. The Dorchester was headed for the Army Command base at Narsarsuaq, called BW 1, in southwestern Greenland, and the 227 survivors were taken to the 188th Station Hospital at the base. This is the hospital referred to by the name Qangattarsa in Mr. Griesmener's excellent novel. Mr. Griesemer told me that the novel grew out of a single paragraph he had read in a 1990 book by another author. I obtained the other book, contacted the author, and learned that the paragraph in question in that book, which describes his adventures through the North, was based on a story he heard some years during a conversation with "two drunken Danes." The hospital at Narsarsuaq was closed after the war, but its buildings survived, and the hospital was reactivated in the early 1950s, as the Cold War heated up and small U.S. garrisons protected the Radar stations in the north, the DEW Line, and the airfield at Narsarsuaq, through which planes continued to fly between the U.S and Europe. More than 10,000 planes had passed through during WW II, when the hospital had grown to 200 beds of its authorized 250. The U.S involvement in Greenland in the 1950s was much smaller and only 5 - 10 doctors, nurses, dentists and others staffed the hospital until it closed in the late 1950s. I have done extensive research in the National Archives. I have had conversations with men and women who were stationed at the base in the 1950s, and most importantly with professional men and women who worked at the hospital. Uniformly, they have been surprised when they hear how their operation is being described. I have not found any objective evidence of the existence of the situation described in Griesemer's novel. His wonderful imagination supplied details that filled out the basic story. The Chief Military Archivist at the National Archives has been asked about the story several times over the years and has found nothing in the record, classified or not,to even suggest it may be true. In truth, badly burned or wounded men from Korea were treated at the Army's FitzSimons Rehabiliation Hospital in Denver. Historical fiction is fun and Griesemer is a fine novelist. His novel stimulates thinking about what might have happened, but it should not be confused with history.

If you liked "Johnny Got His Gun" by Trumbo you'll be less depressed reading this interesting tale. The book is based on a real former military hospital in Narssarsuaq, whose ruins I walked through in the mid-70s. But that was a WWII facility, and not really the Korean War unit of this book. (Search Narssarsuaq on the Net for more insight). Truth aside, this amusing tale does in fact invoke M*A*S*H and Catch-22, and will be especially enjoyed by servicemen/women who have served in some of Uncle Sam's godawful remote outposts.

An amazing first novel that draws obvious comparisons to Catch-22 and M*A*S*H, but this novel stands on its own merits. Based on the actual existence of a secret military hospital in Greenland during the Korean War, the author takes advantage of the otherworldliness of the arctic landscape to emphasize the loneliness and desolation of men and women stationed far from home. The fact that everyone has to experience six months of darkness ("stark raving dark") after six months of sunshine adds to the character's emotional instability and feelings of temporal dislocation. This is a funny, poignant novel with romance, mystery and the underlying theme of how people deal with their mistakes in life

Quite simply a wonderful read. Part conventional love story, part Catch-22 and Dr. Strangelove, all with a good dose of MASH thrown in. Memorable characters abound and military incompetence runs rampant. By the time I was finished I had to ask myself what the genuine horror really was. This is one I shall recommend wholeheartedly to my library patrons. Booksellers, this should make a great hand-sell!