The Daily Alaska empire., 1947-10-20
NETW0Rk0F AIR FORCE
 IS REVEALED
North Alaska Defense Line Extended Through h.
 fegrdted System

WASHINGTON, Oct 20-LR-The Air Force is projecting a bristling network of defenses in strategically critical Alaska. an integrated sys- tenn including such installations as radar warning stations. under ground command posts and fighter fields.
 An official summary issued by the Air Force high command lifted a corner of the curtain on USAF ac- tivities on the Arctic frontier dur ing the last year.
 Twelve months of flights by AL aska-ba squadrons making aerial studies. weather flights and con- ducting training operations, said the statement, have proved that USAF units can fly anywhere in the Polar regions during any sea- son of the year"
 Ranging out from American ter rltory over o-man's land, aircraft of the 46th Reconnaissance Squa- dron have made more than 100 flights lover the geographic North ,, Pole and it's immediate vicinity the statement disclosed. The squadron was sent to Alaska in June, 1946, to observe and pho- tomap the Alaskan area for the strategic location of defense com- ponents.
 These components. the statement said, included an nter-dependent system of early warning sites ora- dar), fighter bases and under ground fighter control centers with necessary facilities for cold weather testing of heavy bombardment un- it's tsuch units are made up Of B-29 and newer models of ultra long range bomb carrying aircraft.
 New Bases Built
 The Air Force statement did not say how far these defense projects had been advanced, but Army en- gneers and the Air Force have been authorized, so far, to spend more than $75,000000 in Alaska. In addition to announced construction program for Ladd Field, mile 26 have been unconfirmed but unde- nied reports of new bases being built on the Arctic Ocean rim Of Alaska and Canada.
 The USAF reported that valuable geograph!th. navigational and weather discoveries had been made during the Arctic operations, in- cluding the fact that there are ehree magnetic North Poles instead of one "A magnetic pole is the point toward which an ordinary magnetic compass turnsJ
 The Poles are located in an clip tically shaped area with the major pole on Prince of Wales Island. in- stead of the long-reported position at the lower tip of Bothia Penin- sula. There arc local poles on Both- urst Island and Bothia Peninsula, the statement said
 Pioneering
 The pioneering 46th Reconnais- sance Squadron, which has flown more than 5000 hours and 100000 miles since it's arrival in the the ater, has been followed by other units including the 57th Fighter Group, the 54th Troop Carrier Squadron, the 4l5th Night Fighter Squadron and the 10th Rescue Squadron. They were sent to Alaska either for operational duty or on training missions. (These are in ad- dition to several squadrons of B-29 bombers which have made rotation al training missions to the theater).
 In addition to surveying for the deiense sites, the reconnaissance squadrons have carried on two. other projects--exploratory flights for establishing regularly scheduled air transport service; photo-map- ping in cooperation with the Navy. of a 35,000 square area ito determine the possibility of oil for nations" tThis presumably may be reference to the exploration for oil begun by the Navy during the war in the region of Point Barrow)
 Possible Attack
 The Air Force news announce ment served to implement testi-