Myers 1980 Journal Barrow, Alaska 28 June Arrived at 1710 in the Wiley-Post Airport, downtown Barrow. Again as last year, I maneuvered through the trip at the painsomeness of reaching the Arctic snow, compared to what Nelson or Murdoch or Bailey experienced. Imagine this: San Francisco to Seattle 1hr 28min 17sec to touchdown Seattle to Anchorage 3 08 15 Anchorage to Fairbanks 0 41 24 Fairbanks to Barrow 1 11 01 6 hr 28 min 40 sec or 23320 seconds of flying time. That is obscene. Zimmerman was at the airport to meet me. Another NARL [illegible] was there also, + or quickly turned to what must be the dominant theme of the summer—the impending shutdown of NARL on 30 Sept. This officer man, an ITT employee, had the most insane explanation of all. He swore that it was due to the FID’s closing polar bear hunting. (Without that, the Navy brass had no interest in coming North. Open the polar bear season again, he maintained, and NARL would enter a new era of prosperity. Malarky. My own suspicion is that mismanagement combined with excessive labor costs + sliced Navy budgets are at the root. But enough of that. Weather today—15mph NE wind, no clouds, ~30°F. Snow is melting everywhere but there is so much of it that the tundra has a long way to go before becoming clear. In fact, we flew over Atkasook on the way in—even then the tundra is 100% snow. Birds—I saw little but did not go outside except in canopy. See daily list. There have been 2 Alcis flammeus reported but no Nyctea. Someone vacationer—they saw a weasel. The lead is ~1000m offshore and ~5Knt wide.