Bluie East Two Bluie East Two was a minor United States Army Air Forces ( USAAF ) airfield at Ikateq , East Greenland . It was operational from 1942 to 1947 . Founding and Construction . After the United States assumed responsibility for the defense of Greenland in April 1941 , the urgent need for establishing airfields in the area caused the Army to launch several survey expeditions . In May 1941 , Navy PBY s staging from Iceland searched without result for suitable sites in East Greenland . In August , USAAF Captain Elliott Roosevelt performed aerial reconnaissance of the area in a B - 24 staging from RAF Reykjavík . Although minor sites were found , no flat area suitable for the desired 5 , 000 foot runways and clear approaches could be identified . As a result , the BE - 2 expedition in September 1941 was limited to establishing a radio and weather reporting station at the village of Angmagssalik , the only sizable human habitation along the coast . This was an 11 - man expedition led by Antarctic veteran , Lt . ( j . g . ) Frederick E . Crockett , USNR . The team arrived in the area on USS North Star and the steamer " Lake Ordoc " on or near 20 September 1941 . However , due to a series of delays , Coast Guard records show " Lake Ordoc " did not depart Reykjavik for the site until 31 October , arriving on 2 November with the Army weather station , and departing 15 November . Lt . Crockett used dog teams to reconnoitre the area around Angmagssalik . In November 1941 , he found an alluvial shelf at the base of high mountains which faced a narrow strait near Eskimo huts named Ikateq . This site was about 40 nautical miles north of Angmagssalik , and was subject to extreme weather . On 26 July 1942 , the USCGC Comanche led a supply flotilla bringing the construction crews to complete a 4 , 000 foot gravel runway and associated facilities . On 1 November , the BE - 2 station began reporting weather from the new location . The 5 , 000 foot runway was completed in 1943 . Operations . Bluie East Two never attained the prominence in trans - Atlantic air traffic originally intended , but it served very well in the alternate airfield , meteorology and navigation , and search - and - rescue support capacities . In 1943 , Colonel Bernt Balchen used the field for a bombing raid against a German weather station at Sabine Island , 600 miles north . The raid failed due to weather , and Balchen completed the raid later from Reykjavík . Balchen and Crockett also used BE - 2 for support of the epic rescue operations on the ice cap during 1942 and 1943 . The weather and the airways radio detachments regularly exchanged personnel with the station at Cape Dan , Kulusuk , 30 miles away . BE - 2 also supported outlying stations at Walrus Bay ( Scoresbysund ) and Comanche Bay . Transportation was effected by aircraft from Bluie West One , a local Norseman ski aircraft , by a station vessel named the " Judy How " , and occasionally by dog sled and by ski patrols . The field was resupplied seasonally by the U . S . Coast Guard , and received regular air supplies and drops when the runway could not be cleared . After 1945 , the field declined in importance , and it was evacuated at the end of 1947 along with many other American stations in Greenland . In July 1945 , the U . S . State Department defined the Ikateq Defense Area as 6654N to 6600N and 3630W to 3649W . The associated auxiliary weather station at Cape Dan was defined by a two - mile radius circle centered at 6532N , 3710W . At the same time the claim to the original station at Angmagssalik village was deleted . Legacy . The Danish government had no interest in the facility , and the equipment , fuel , and any usable items were appropriated by visiting locals . The strip remained useful for " ad hoc " air operations , and served in a supply role for the construction of the early warning radar station DYE - 4 at Kulusuk farther south in 1958 . Kulusuk is now Angmagssalik ' s main airport , although its distance requires further helicopter flights to the village and other nearby settlements . Reports and photographs show Ikateq with considerable rusted fuel drums , vehicles , and ruins . The need for a clean - up has been an occasional political issue . Name . Ikateq means " shallow water . " " Bluie West " and " Bluie East " were wartime code - names adopted for the two strings of planned radio stations in Greenland by the USAAC in 1941 . BE - 2 was frequently referred to as " Optimist " , perhaps due to the urgent anticipation preceding its discovery . Air Transport Command called the field Curio in coded traffic . Care must be exercised in affirming the station ' s location , since BE - 2 originally reported from Angmagssalik , and another nearby coastal station at Cape Dan also reported weather during the war . Nearby Kulusuk reported after 1960 . BE - 2 should not be confused with the abandoned Eskimo settlement of Ikkatteq , which was located to the southwest of Angmagssalik .