Icebreaker Polarstern reached its home port of Bremerhaven in Germany just before Orkan "Joshua" hit northern Germany hard. The ship returned after 3 month at sea with 48 crew and 46 scientists working on ocean biology, chemistry, and physics. The 7-week expedition from Svalbard to Greenland and back to Germany culminated 3 years of planing and preparations led by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI).

The Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv invited me to teach at their Summer Language School. Until last week I worked with ~50 Ukrainian students from about 10 in the morning to 5 in the evening monday through saturday. We met daily in classrooms, on the lawn outside, and in pubs over food and beer. The main purpose of the Summer School for the 17-21 year old students was to learn German as their second, third, or fourth foreign language.

An air raid alarm interupted my first night's sleep near Rynok Square in Lviv, Ukraine at 2:30 am on June-12, 2024 after 22 hours on a train the day prior. Sirens outside, mobile loud-speakers on the streets, and my cell phone all blared the message "Attention. Air Raid Alert. Proceed to the nearest shelter. Don't be careless. Your overconfidence is your weakness."

Science and Greenland both combine discovery, adventure, and diverse people. I do this work free of academic constraints, responsibilities, and pay, because I retired from my university three months ago drawing on savings that accumulated since 1992 with my first job in San Diego, California. It was there and then, that my interest in polar physics started, but my first glimpse of Greenland had to wait until 1997 when a Canadian icebreaker got me to the edge of the ice in northern Baffin Bay between Canada and Greenland.

My President Donald J. Trump threatens to take Greenland and does not rule out force to do so. A conflict emerges between the current United States' administration and the people of Greenland and Denmark. My loyalities as an American citizen lie with the U.S. Constitution and the people of Denmark and Greenland. I worry about my government's malicious incompetence when it interacts with friends and allies of more than 100 years such as Denmark.