Wow, a friend just emailed me from the Aleutian Islands.

[CanuckAmok]

She's on a research vessel just West of Unimak Island, about 1200 miles West of the Alaskan Mainland.

She says it's "...freakin' cold and freakin' quiet, and the fog never, ever lifts...".

Just a thought to you DUers stuck in the heatwave.

[Droopy]

1. My aunt, uncle, and cousins

used to live in Adak, Akaska. My uncle was stationed there in the Navy. I think it is the farthest westward town in the United States.

[CanuckAmok]

3. Yes!

IIRC, it's the only US soil invaded by the Japanses in WWII. In 1942 they took Adak to prevent the USAF from establishing an airfield within reach of the Japan, but they abandoned it in 1943.

on edit: USAAC, not USAF.

[jobycom]

2. Shwew

I was afraid you were going to say Bush invaded them, too.

[BikeWriter]

4. Crap, I had a shipment to Shemya once...

Luckily, they needed an electrician at Sparrevohn on the mainland, too. I traded orders. It was remote, but at least it wasn't an island.

[greendog]

5. I was out that way a few summers ago

You can take the ferry from Homer to Dutch Harbor. It stops in several little towns along the way.

We lucked out and had nice weather for the whole trip.

[CanuckAmok]

6. I'm just occasionally freaked-out by wireless email...

It's like "Hi, I'm in the most remote place in the Northern Hemisphere. How's it goin'?"

[Floogeldy]

7. Thanks a lot!

My father was stationed in the Aleutians in the Navy.

They say that is why I'm crazy, today.

}(

[BikeWriter]

8. We had two guys come down with cabin fever at our site...

It's a very real thing at remote sites.

[Floogeldy]

9. Yes.

On a serious note, I think my dad had some problems afterwards. Because this was back in the late 40's, early 50's.

But he came out of it okay in later years.

[BikeWriter]

10. I doubt they had much as far as recreation back then...

We had movies and a library, at least. The winter was pretty damned hard to take. I think it contributed to my PTSD.

[Zuni]

11. I interviewed a WWII vet who invaded the Aleutians

he landed on Kiska, which the Japanese left before he got there. He served in the Phillipines and Okinawa as well, but he said Kiska was the most miserable place he ever served in

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. My hubby was stationed at Shemya

He said it was absolutely beautiful.

[BikeWriter]

13. Did he tell you about the wind gauge?

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Seems like I remember that

He talks about the animals. He took lots and lots of pictures of foxes. And it was so cold in the winter they had tunnels to go from one part of the base to the other. Also, when he was there they had no women on base.

[BikeWriter]

15. The wind gauge was a piece of chain tied to a post...

when it blew out horizontally the wind was considered to be blowing.

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. LOL

I'll ask him if he remembers that.

[BikeWriter]

17. I was diverted from there in 1969 to Sparrevohn...

Some of our people were in radio contact with them. Others had been there.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. Hubby was there

in 70 and 71.

Small world.

[BikeWriter]

19. Not too long after my time...

The Alaskan Command and the Aircraft Control and Warning Squadrons were an important part of our cold war defense.

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. He was in the army

and was stationed there in the comm center.

[BikeWriter]

21. Oh, okay. That means one of several things....

He could have been in regular communications, plus we heard lots of stories about our Russian-speaking people out there listening in on the Russkis. :-)

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. Well he had a TS clearance

and still can't disclose much about what he did. But when people ask him what he did, he tells them he was stationed at the closest US military installation to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and he was in communications. :)

Not hard to draw some obvious conclusions.

[BikeWriter]

25. For sure! From what I hear they often...

gave Russian pilots faulty directions in Russian. I remember we heard some funny stories.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. That's funny

LOL

[BikeWriter]

28. Yep, I have a friend who was a pilot out there...

about ten years before that. He says fights with the Russian pilots were regular events.

[trof]

22. So was my brother-in-law.

In the 70s.

[trof]

23. I flew over the Aleutians for 10 years.

Once or twice a month, between Anchorage and Narita.
I think I saw Shemya maybe three or four times.
Covered in fog all the rest.

[BikeWriter]

26. That weather out there was said to be bad...

I have no regrets about diverting to Sparrevohn.