Slædepatruljen Sirius

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Slædepatruljen Sirius or just Siriuspatruljen (the Sirius Patrol) is a Danish long reconnaissance special force unit operating in the northern/northeastern part of Greenland. Their job is to enforce sovereignty, by patroling the coastline from 81°.04'N - 61°.40'W (westcoast Hall Land) southeast to 71.53N - 22.33W (Kap Biot). The bee line is around 2100 kilometre, but the distance patrolled, following any fiord to it's head is greatly beyond this. The inland ice is not a part of the patrol area.

The patrol altogether consists of 12 men, who are in service in 26 moths. Each summer 6 new men arrives and 6 who have ended their service period returns to Denmark. Thus every year the partol is made by 6 men who have the experience from last year, and 6 new ones who will learn from the more experienced guys. They will form six dogsledteams, with somewhere between 11 and 15 dogs and two men. These teams are the same throughout the year. When travelling this team of men and dogs will carry approximately 350-500 kilos, depending on the distance until their next depot.

The periods of sledge patrolling is divided in two. Depending on when the ice is thick enough, the autumn patrol starts sometime in november, and lasts until 22 December. The sun sets for the last time around start of November, and in the increasing darkness the winterstorms gets progressively worse and more frequent. Getting home before christmas is therefore not a matter of course. Around the end of January when the weather stabilizes and the sun reappears, the longer journeys begin and last until June, before the ice starts breaking apart and drifts southwards. Within this period, the six sledgeteams cover a great part of the coastline, and in a 3 till 4 year duration all areas will be visited.

The summertime is used for maintaining the headquarter called Daneborg, and filling the more than 50 depot huts spread all over the patrol area. This is done by small boats in the southern area, and by aeroplane (the Twin Otter) in the nortern part.

Men who wish to volunteer for the Sirius patrol, must have ended their compulsory service. The head for the try out, where 7 men will be chosen to start on about 6 months of different courses.

Some of the courses:

• Survival course in Greenland (5 weeks)
• Shooting course
• Demolition course
• Engine & mechanics course
• Reconnaissance course
• Firefighter course
• Radio & communications course
• First aid course
• Extended first aid course
• Sewing course
• Truck course

Starting in December, they will have completed the courses in the end of May, and first then, the final group is picked (6 men or sometimes less), just 2-3 weeks before going to Greenland for 26 months in a row.