“ It's so strategically located that the best way to explain the thing is, for anybody who wants to look at it more closely, take a globe and see its location, and we can track from certain basic facts the location of the population of the globe today: over 85% of them are located in the northern hemisphere between latitudes 35 and 50 North, and where they are located, industries are located, and industries of today, militarily speaking, are our strategic targets. ”

“ Because of the many additional parts required to make them, the manufacture of highly complicated watches of the highest quality is a challenge to the skill of the world's leading watchmaker. And only a few watch factories can produce such complicated timepieces. And among these Longines leads with such true masterpieces as the Longines Chronograph watches, the Longines Second Setting watches, and of course the Longines Automatic watches. ”

“ Now, Colonel, I attended your exhibition here the other day, and I wondered how you actually were able to paint from the cockpit of an aircraft high up in the air.
Balchen
You can--there are many ways to compose a painting and to get your impressions home with you, you can set it down on a larger sheet of paper than you can handle in a cockpit. The space is confined there, and with a small watercolor box and small pad you can catch the colors and put them on the paper. ”

“ Travel from London to Tokyo would save over two thousand miles one way, while going across the Arctic instead of the conventional way today.
Lesueur
Well, Colonel, you piloted the first aircraft over the South Pole. now, has that continent down there got any strategic importance?
Balchen
It has some strategic significance. For instance, the Panama Canal should be blocked, all vessels that couldn't go through the Panama Canal which had to go around Cape Horn. but it has not. But this high priority strategic significance, as the high Arctic, as the North Pole has? ”

“ Makes it more a key point in the whole defense system because the High North, General Spaatz said in 1946, the Arctic will one day become the byways for our operational measures. It works both ways, there are all open across the High North. that was in 1946. Thule is one of the bases that's closing the gap in the Northern defense of our continent. ”