Air power and the Arctic: The importance of projecting strength in the north
By: Secretary Heather Wilson and Gen. David Goldfein  
The U.S. Air Force has been flying over the Arctic for more than a half century. Often forgotten, the United States’ first-ever mass airlift and aerial bombing campaigns were conducted there during World War II’s Thousand-Mile War along a remote chain of Alaskan islands.
Almost a decade before the Japanese invaded the Aleutian Islands, Gen. Billy Mitchell advocated building airfields, telling Congress: “Whoever holds Alaska will hold the world.†Even then, the Arctic was strategically important, and Mitchell’s words underscored the role of air power in the region, where minimal infrastructure and extreme climate severely limit how militaries can operate.
https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2019/01/09/air-power-and-the-arctic-the-importance-of-projecting-strength-in-the-north/
