Abstract The military environment of the post–World War II years was dominated by the principal threat of air and missile attacks over polar routes between North America and the former Soviet Union. The extremities of the arctic environment demanded unique adaptations to normal military operations, which provided military and engineering geologists an opportunity to exercise a broad range of technical applications. New knowledge and skills in ice physics and engineering, glaciology, arctic geomorphology, meteorology, oceanography, and permafrost engineering were all relevant, often requiring on-the-job learning. Such adaptability could be needed in the future and would once again challenge military geologists.