Fox News' Bill Hemmer heads north — way north — for look at U.S. military preparedness

NEW YORK — Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer needed a chain saw to complete one of his latest assignments.

Hemmer traveled north for “Battle for the Arctic,” a documentary on the Fox Nation streaming service about the U.S. Navy's preparedness in the region, where he took a brief ride on a nuclear submarine. The sub surfaced on a giant ice floe northeast of Alaska where the Navy had a camp. It took more than an hour for a chain saw to cut through the ice and enable Hemmer to walk down the hatch for his visit.

“It's not quite impenetrable,” Hemmer said. “But it's close.”

Hemmer noted that eight nations have land within the Arctic Circle, seven of them members of NATO. The exception is Russia, and the U.S. military is watching closely — the purpose of his trip.

His special, currently streaming, doubles as a travelogue into an endless expanse of white.

“Everything you see is something that you have never seen before in your life because so few people have been here,” he said. “It's a remarkable site.”

Mindful of loyal Fox fans, Hemmer skirts one issue — climate change. “Why Arctic ice is receding, how fast and what it means,” he said. “All of these things are points of debate.”