Seventy-four people plus a snow snake and a mouse manned this station seven miles above the Arctic Circle about a hundred miles north of Fairbanks. Surveillance of the Alaskan sky was provided by a Search and Height Finder Radar. I was the NCOIC of the two megawatt power plant. Generally speaking this was a very stressful assignment. The plant could not go down. National defense and in winter people's life depended on the plant. Remote duty over a long period of time can alter one's behavior. Some of the following stories would only occur under such conditions.
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A perfect time to have a vasetomy is while remote. Our First Sergeant caught the mail plane and went to Eielson AFB for the procedure. Returned that afternoon and encountered a disturbance in the airman dorm. He tried to talk an irate airman in to turning his music down, the airman responded by kicking him in the groin. OUCH!
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An ingenious scheme to get out of Fort Yukon was concocted by a young airman. He took leave back to the lower forty eight. He went AWOL. After a short time he reported to a local air force base with the intention of receiving displinary action and getting reassigned to said base. Didn't work out for him, He was escorted back to Fort Yukon and court-martialed.
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I poured a cat in the ceramic room. I put it in a line to get fired in the kiln. Checked back in a couple of days and cat was still in line on shelf. I got a little perturbed. Discovered a couple of Radar Ops troops was making coffee mugs for sale and was hogging the kilns. I told them they needed to play by the rules. They told me to go back to the power plant and forget it. I did but I didn't forget it. With two padlocks in hand I proceeded back to the ceramic shop. My friends was there and they watched as I opened the disconnects for both kilns and place a padlock on each one. Rendering the kilns out of service ( The power of controlling electrical use ). The next day we came to an understanding.
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Major the field mouse (named after the commander), was found at the tank farm and adopted by our supply people. They put him in a nice box, placed it on the counter and the entire site would come in and visit with Major. He was the site pet. As I was leaving the plant one afternoon I entered the main hallway of the building. I was greeted by some sort of ceremony. A four wheel cart was draped in black. In the middle of the cart was a kitchen size match box. It was adorned with special colors and cloths. People around the cart was dressed in religious costume and the procession was moving very slowly to a back exit of the building. Major had died and his funeral was in progress. I paused and paid homage.
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Late one evening as I was making my way to the chow hall for a cup of day old coffee a very large happening was developing in the rec room. The site and possibly all of Alaska Ping Pong Championship was being decided. The contestants was a Lt. weapons officer and an Airman with the Communication Detachment. The Airman was at his end of the table awaiting his opponent. Shortly, I looked up the hallway and the Lt. and his entourage was making their way to the rec room. The Lt. was adorned in a flowing robe with sparkles and the word CHAMPION across the back. Behind him was the PADDLE BEARER, carefully balancing a special lower forty eight red, white and blue Brazilian rubber paddle on a cushion. Entering the rec room and positioning himself near his end of the table he removed the robe and paraded around a bit in his brightly colored leotards. The crowd was coming alive as the match commenced. At that moment the Site Klaxon horn sounded, something was painting the scope and it was time for all of us to go back to work. The challenge was never repeated, we moved on to other things.
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The long wait is over, I finally made TSGT (E6); not news to the reader but it was to me. Again, celebrated passover quite frequently.
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Earlier I briefly spoke of stress. It hit me hard when an extremely cold front came out of the USSR and settled over Fort Yukon. Outside air temp dropped to near -60 degree F. The diesel fuel we were using was tested to -35 degree F. The on duty plant operator notified me that all of the governor load straps was indicating fuel starvation ( his observation saved the site from going down). Arriving in the plant I realized that load had to be shed. I notified the site commander of the plant status and told him I was activating the site load shed plan. He concurred. I dropped enough load to secure 3 generators . It helped. The plant fuel was turning to gel as it entered the plant. We began putting friction on a 2 foot section of line. This was helping. Slowly the temperature began rising. Soon we were out of the woods. Evaluating the damage was mostly at the gym. Everything in the gym had frozen. A two lane bowling alley was destroyed. Balls and pins had split open, hardwood lanes buckled. However, radar kept turning, the chow hall prepared cold cuts, and folks stayed warm. The site closed shortly after I left with the new airborne radar plane AWACS.
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The University of Alaska sent a team to the site in the summer. Their job was to determine if corn would grow in the perma frost. It did. We had about 22 hours of sunlight and you could almost watch the corn grow. I have often wondered if the indigenous people had used this research.
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The site cook and I completed our DREAM SHEET at the same time. I ask him where did he forecast for when returning to civilization. He said Malmstrom AFB, Montana. He was from Macdill AFB Florida and had property there. That is where he wanted to go back to. I ask him why he picked Malmstrom and he said he was one step ahead of the Air Force. He ask for North and they will give him South. A month later assignments came in. I was headed for Craig AFB, Alabama and my friend the cook was going to Malmstrom AFB, Montana. So much for second guessing the Air Force.
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Sitting in the movie room waiting for the same movie I watched three nights ago. A young airman came in carrying a piece of white rope about 3/4 in diameter and four feet long. He proceeded to neatly coil the rope at his feet. I looked at him. He looked at me and said it was his newly acquired SNOW SNAKE. I said ok and tried not stepping on it. It was a very nice piece of rope.
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These stories could go on forever I'm pressed for time. I'm on the road to my next assignment, Craig AFB, Alabama.
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