of the USCGC Bear, equipped with a seaplane, the transports Fairfax and Eleanor and some smaller vessels. Having offloaded the airport construction crews and materials, the expedition left at the end of September. World War II By summer of 1943, the airbase at Koojesse Inlet had "grown to look like a populous village" and was in use by many aircraft. It was designated Crystal II and referred to as Chaplet in coded communications. It was one of three "Crystal" weather sites in the Canadian Arctic Region, Fort Chimo (now Kuujjuaq), Quebec, being "Crystal I", and a station on Padloping Island being "Crystal III". A detachment of the 8th Weather Squadron, Air Transport Command (ATC), took up residence at the station on October 1, 1942. The initial mission of the Crystal sites was to provide long-range weather information to the combat forces then building up in the United Kingdom. As part of the Crimson East air route network, the airfield at Crystal II was referred to by USAAF Air Transport Command as ATC Station #10. It was intended to be a transport hub between the Eastern Route, which originated at Presque Isle Army Airfield, Maine, and the Central Route, which originated at Romulus Army Airfield (Detroit Metropolitan Airport), Michigan. The original plan, briefed by Captain Roosevelt to USAAF Chief Henry "Hap" Arnold and others at the Argentia summit in August 1941, called for Frobisher Bay to be a node in a northern alternate air route, running from Churchill, Manitoba, via Southampton Island over Frobisher to Bluie West Eight and Bluie East Two in Greenland, rejoining the main route in Iceland. The later success of the main air route via Bluie West One and the spring 1943 victory in the Battle of the Atlantic led to cancellation of the Crimson project in late 1943, and the associated airfields were reduced to weather, communications, and logistics duties. The air base initially had 2 runways, first was paved and the second was gravel. The shorter of the two was used briefly and decommissioned by 1944 for use as storage. Today the former runway is a commercial area along Akilliq roadway. The use of Frobisher Bay declined with the end of World War II, with jurisdiction of the facility being transferred to Military Air Transport Service (MATS) in 1948, under its Air Weather Service. During the 1950s it continued to be used as a transit