by Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 18/97) - "It's the Russians," jokes a Canadian Forces pilot, as he spots a coast guard vessel off the High Arctic coastline from his perch several thousand metres above.

The Russians may not be a serious threat any more, but military pilots who fly by Twin Otter to the remote base are still very much part of asserting Canadian sovereignty in Alert, the world's most northerly inhabited place.

"It's like a little white picket fence around Northern Canada," said Capt. Dale Maedel, another DND pilot who returned recently to Yellowknife 440 Squadron from the High Arctic tour.

The Department of National Defence sends the pilots to Eureka for two-week stints during the summer months to serve as a support team for military personnel who live in Alert, 240 kilometres further north at the tip of Ellesmere Island. The mission is called Operation Hurricane.

The pilots who fly the squadron's four Twin Otters ferry supplies and people between the two locations.

"We're basically the taxi service for Operation Hurricane in Eureka -- whether it be groceries, people -- could be anything," said Capt. Kevin Mykle, who's still in the High Arctic.

Boyce Partridge, who's the officer-in-charge of Operation Hurricane, said that Eureka exists to enable data to go in and out of the base at Alert, which is too far north to communicate via satellite.

As a result, a microwave site and ground satellite terminals at Eureka work to transfer data from the High Arctic to satellites in orbit and then to Ottawa and to the rest of the world.

This explains why Eureka -- built as a weather station in 1947 -- is now a communications centre for the High Arctic.

Located a mere 650 kilometres from the North Pole and surrounded by some of the most breathtaking scenery on the planet, Eureka controls the Arctic Data Communications System, which services the High Arctic.

But for Partridge, the technological and sovereignty reasons for Eureka are only part of what draws him back to remote Ellesmere Island time and time again since the early eighties.

"We try to make it more than just a job -- it's an experience," he said.

A self-appointed ambassador for the High Arctic, love for the wilderness runs deep in his blood. He looks forward to his four-month trip to Eureka every year and has no plans to stop coming.

This year there are an additional 40 people on site at Eureka to help build a new dormitory.

Not only is the military keeping the status quo, they are actually improving facilities in the remote locations, proving that the initiative is still important.

Lt. Col. Chris Tuck, commanding officer of 440 squadron in Yellowknife, said that a little bit of flag-waving goes a long way in an uninhabited part of the world.

"It's easy to say that there's no one there anyway, but then we'd have to let people kill as many polar bears as they wanted," he said.

And that's just one example of what could happen if Canada's didn't maintain a military presence in the Arctic. It may be like another world, but it's still Canada's.

The microwave relay sites that transfer data via satellite and other communication equipment from the hills surrounding Eureka pose a sharp contrast to the raw beauty of Ellesmere Island. The land is dominated by muskox, Peary caribou and other wildlife that are able to survive the harsh conditions of the polar desert.

Muller glacier sprawls 65 kilometres across Eureka Sound. Ice-capped sawtooth mountains loom in the distance.

Among the few people who've actually been there, Eureka is known as the "Garden of the Arctic" because of its lack of rocky terrain and sheltered location at the tip of Ellesmere Island.

Remains of the Thule people, the High Arctic's first settlers, who came from Greenland 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, can still be seen on the barrens at Eureka. Muskox skulls and rocks where their animal-skin tents were laid can still be seen.

Nowhere, said Partridge, is history so "in your face" and ever-present. The land is relatively untouched.

This is what draws Partridge to the land. He believes in what he's doing and that enables him to show the beauty of the place to other people.

It's an important part of our country, he said. "I don't know -- it just gets to you," he said. "There's so much of nothing, there's everything."