I want to thank all the guys that contributed to this article.
From C. R. Layton* I remember that we had a "White Christmas" every year in Fairbanks, Our chances for a white Christmas in Oklahoma is less than 1% .
* I remember how long it took for our tires to round out after a cold winters night.
* Do you remember the time the mess hall got it months meat allotment and it was all hamburger meat? (1954-55) We were having hamburger fixed a 100 different ways and SOS every morning. One day I ask the Mess Sgt. if he had a thing for hamburger. He told me to get used to it because that was all they had. One Hundred and Twenty-five thousand pounds of it. Some of the guys got so tired of it that they started eating C-Rations.
* Yes I also remember the green eggs. I decided they weren’t so bad if you put enough Catsup on them.
* Anybody remember the 1st Sgt. That walked with the big cane. I found out later that he was the soul survivor of a barrack fire in Japan, he was one tough guy.
* I learned really quick not to try and loosen the metal buckle on my gloves with my teeth when I came in from the outside cold. (BRRRR!!!!!)
* Do you remember how easy it was to chill your beer in the winter?
* I remember paying $4.80 for Ham & Eggs at the bus station in Fairbanks, but boy were they good.
* I remember the "Oogie Man" that came around every evening with all kinds of goodies in his truck. I saw guys waiting in line with just shorts and shower clogs with the temperature below Zero. Crazy huh?
* Roger "Pockets" Cole reminded me of how good the snow shoe rabbits were that I would cook & share with the guys.
* I remember "Stud" Colburn going into the burning liqure store that was next door to Moose Creek Lodge when it burnt down and coming out with an arm load of booze, singed eyebrows and black all over.
* I remember killing 12 mosquitoes with one swat of my hand. Were they thick or what?)
* I remember mailing home 250 Silver Dollars and a small bottle of gold dust that I had panned just before I rotated. They never got there. (groan)
From Robert Stowers
Some of the little things I remember:
* The rain inside the car when the headliner started melting in the spring.
* When it would freeze in the shade and melt in the sun and having to knock the ice from the front wheel wells so the wheels on the car would turn.
* The frost shields on the car windows.
* The headbolt heaters on the car engines.
* The hitching racks in front of the parking spaces to plug in the headbolt heaters.
* The inch or so of ice on the inside of the barrack windows.
* The long ice cycles hanging from the roof of the Birchwood Hanger.
* Having to pay a dollar for a hamburger when it would have been 25 cents back home.
* Those frozen storage eggs for breakfast.
* Having to change out a piece of equipment on the mission aircraft at the last minute while taxiing out to the runway to avoid a late takeoff.
* The long nights in the winter and not knowing when to wake up.
* The long days in the summer and not knowing when to go to bed.
* Bunny boots.
* The small trees stuck in the snow to mark the edge of the highway.
* Trying to find a particular aircraft on the flight line in the ice fog.
* Deciphering the aircraft log book to determine if what was written was what was meant in regards to faulty equipment.
* Going to Fairbanks in the summer and seeing a man planting potatoes in a garden, then going to town, what seemed like a month later, and he was digging up the potatoes.
* Some guys might include Major Luther Miller here, but he never did anything in a small way, so I don’t believe he belongs on the list of little things remembered. If someone would start a list of big things remembered, then it would more appropriate to include him on that list.
From Larry Liska
* The ice fog so think you could cut it
* 30 days of KP 24 on 24 off upon arrival at the 58th
* Electric outlets at all the parking places on the street in Fairbanks for the headbolt heaters
* Guys "borrowing" aviation fuel to run their cars 24/7 in the winter because the 6 volt systems wouldn't crank the engine then
* Frost on the inside of the barracks windows so thick you couldn't see outdoors all winter
* Mosquitoes as big as F-100's
* Frost forming on your mustache, eyebrows, and hair
* Emergency air drops of equipment to those poor bastards way out in those god forsaken boonies in winter.
* When you spit it freezes before it hit’s the ground.
From Ken Earl
* I remember a few things, such as a place called the Squadron Club in Fairbanks which was made from an old C-46 fuselage with an add on.
* In the winter, I recall quite a few times, as the use of alcoholic drinks were very popular up there, and when it would be dark approx. 20 hrs a day, that some of the guys, on week-ends would come into the chow hall expecting the evening meal and finding out it was breakfast.
* Some of you guys must remember the rotation parties which took place
every thirty days at a tavern called Pauline’s Rainbow club. at mile 6.
*The roller rink just out of Fairbanks, I forget how far, but I know a
couple of us would go there once in a while.
From Phillip Wiles
My most memorable event would have to be when they brought a B-52 in and put it in the hanger. They wouldn't let us near as they had their own maint. and security . Our radio shop was up stairs and we would look at it from there. It was impressive!!!
* I remember the long train ride from Seward to Fairbanks and all the caribou we saw.
* How cold it was on that train...we had to wear our overcoats all the way!!
* All the cords from the windows in the barracks for headbolt heaters for the few cars that were there.
* Icefog, bunny boots and parkas,Ah those were the days!!!!!!!!!!!
From Ken Waldren
* Do you remember to slide your feet until the soles of your boot's cooled off, If you didn't your feet would go out from under & you would bust your A??
* Also never handle metal bare handed or you would stay??????????????
From Dan Waskes
- The thing I remember the most about Alaska was the aurora borealis. It seemed to be so close that you could just reach out and touch it.
- From Dck Ellis
- * The biggest thing I remember at Eielson was the burning to the ground of the computer controlled B-47 due to a fuel over flow onto the muffler of the power unit. Many heads rolled on that on. (Spring of 1951)
* I remember fixing broken windows in the Barracks with wet toilet paper, worked great until spring and Civil Engineers could replace it.
From Lt. Col. Roy Wampler
* I remember the water truck. We lived in a one room log cabin that was when (1950) the last cabin in town toward the University that had a 500 gallon water tank under the floor. It got filled by the water truck once a week on Sunday morning and there were NO extra deliveries because his schedule would not allow
* I remember the old wood burning cooking range that had been converted to use coal oil. After a few days, the wife cooked better on it than anything we had before or after.
* I remember the great Sunday mornings at the dog races downtown - the natives in their beautiful skins - gold panning - the salmon wheels on the river - and those huge gold digging shovels - chatting with your neighbor and having a beer in the sunlight then remembering it was 2:30 AM and time for bed.
From Bill Glebus
* I remember the cold morning that 50 gallons of oil drained out on to the hanger floor from the B29 that I was working on because I forget to shut of the valve during routine maintenance !! That 2 years was a great experience and made a MAN of me as I was only 18 at the time I got there
From Maj. Vince Carpenter
* Driving across the ice to the Fairbanks airport, when it froze thick enough;
* The river ice breakup in the spring;
* Ice fog;
* Coffee and donuts from "the closet" in the Birchwood Hanger;
* Two-lane road to Fairbanks that looked like a four-lane road, but the outer two lanes were several feet of snow;
* Creamer's Dairy;
* Making a long-distance call meant you had to go to the Fairbanks telephone center;
* Headbolt heaters - circulating heaters - bringing the car battery inside;
* Recombined" milk...
A memory from Mrs Donald Small (Betty)
* I enjoyed reading your memories in Alaska. It was a great time for all of us. Don and I got to know so many special people and do so many things. Camping out with the big mosquito's or having a picnic with them buzzing around was something I never got used too. We were very fortunate to get to go to Grant's cabin at property our landlord took care of for an old prospector. We and friends would stay there on a weekend and just wonder around and do target practice and play double pinochle. One time I left a duck roasting in a roaster oven while we went out to hunt moose and we got stuck in the tundra. We spent the night in an old Hungarian's cabin that night and the next day Don walked out to the main road to get a ride back to town and help to pull the car out. It was so hot in that little cabin the next morning with the roaring fire he built, but the ham he was frying sure smelled great. While Don was gone he and I picked wild cranberries from low bushes on the hillside. I made the best banana-cranberry jam from them and lost the recipe. Anybody ever heard of it? Friends barely got us out and that duck was not edible, but they did shut the oven off and wondered why we didn't come back.
From Melvin Beers
I have three things that happened to me while at Eielson AFB. I will try to write them as I recall.
# 1 I was a truck driver at the Specialist Shop ( A/3c Mel Beers) and part of my job was to drive the Prop Dolly with a propeller to the B-29 Aircraft when the guys from the Prop Shop R & R the prop.
Airman Bill Mc Nerney was the Prop Man and I drove the new prop to the aircraft. I backed it up to the engine as required and stopped when Meade said to. We would then swing the prop off of the dolly and hoist it into position to slide onto the engine. The prop would not slide onto the shaft so Meade said for me to go up into the aircraft and out onto the engine and sit on the engine and get ready to help slide the prop onto the shaft. This I did. The prop slid onto the shaft with he and I wiggling the prop around. It slid on nicely. He then said to rotate the engine. I said "WHAT"? He said "turn the engine". I was new and I said "HOW"? Meade said "just rotate it". I said "OK" and grabbed the blade and jumped off of the engine down to the ground. The engine jerked as each of the cylinders were turned until it hit the ground. Meade just about fainted. I did not know about the magnetos and that the engine could fire. I never told anyone what I did.
# 2 Airman Carl Painter and myself, Airman Mel Beers were sent out to work on a B-29 generator problem. It was a cold snowy day. I'd say it was between 0 & 20 degrees above. We waited for someone to come out to run the engines for us to test and troubleshoot the system but no one came. We were getting cold so Painter said he could run the engines. He knew a lot more about what he was doing than I did. I knew the electrical system but not how to start up and run an engine. Carl ran all four engines and we did our work. Carl said "let's have some fun". Well, what he had in mind was scary. With all four engines running, he pushed the throttles forward and the plane started sliding forward even with the brakes on and chocks in place. In front of the aircraft, guarding the plane was a guard. As the plane moved forward the guard didn't know what to do as he watched us. At that time Carl placed all four engines in reverse and the snow flew all around the guard. I was worried about where the plane would end up. Painter shut down the engines and all was well. We left, and again I told no one about what had happened.
#3 Everyone had to do this: Being that I was a truck driver. I, Airman Mel Beers, was selected to drive the 6 by 6 for the overnight survival training. Well, I was married and my wife had not been in Alaska very long so I hated to leave her for the one night, but I did. A Major had me get the truck and meet him and a large number of men at the 750 man BKS to load up. There were C-rations and sleeping bags for all. I then drove to the north end of the base and up the road there. We had gone several miles when the Major said for me to stop. They unloaded everything and headed off into woods. I, of course went too as we all had to get this Alaska cold weather indoctrination. It was below Zero at the time. After we were back in the woods a ways the Major had every one make a camp by cutting pine branches to place their sleeping bags on. After we did that they made a camp fire. I was wet and cold because the snow was up to my waist. I went back to the truck, started it up and stayed until I was dry. Then I went back to the fire. Everyone was to eat their rations to practice their survival techniques. The Major just stood around and watched to see that all was done as required. He asked me to eat some of the C-rations, as I had not touched them because too many guys were complaining about them. I had brought a paper bag with me and the Major asked, "what is that"? I said it was my lunch because I was on separate rations. He about flipped. I was dry, warm and had plenty to eat.
From Max Hunter
*I remember waking up with the sun shining brightly at 3:00 A.M in the morning thinking that I had overslept and was late for work.*I remember the 1950 Plymouth that Bert Thurston and I bought together. We were told that it belonged to a retired old maid school teacher (and we believed it).
*I remember my mustache icing up.
*I remember the ICE FOG building ice on the cars windshield as you drove.
*I remember how cold it was working on the RADAR equipment while the Aircraft was parked on the Flight Line.
*I remember staying up all night watching the MID-NIGHT SUN set and then rise again only minutes later.
*I remember the LOG CABIN with the DIRT ROOF that we passed going into Fairbanks.
*I remember getting Silver Dollars, instead of Paper Dollars, when receiving change after making a purchase.
From Mel Parker
My favorite memory of Alaska, by far, is walking between hangars at night, hearing only the crunch of snow under my bunny boots because the snow absorbed all other sound -- when the Northern Lights would appear, sometimes suddenly across the sky, other times bursting from a tiny point before filling the sky. My favorite display I likened to seeing vast stage curtains from underneath, slowly shifting in shape and in an indescribable palette of colors. Their beauty was awesome to the extent that sometimes I would think that there should be music -- and infrequently there was ethereal music, but only that which originated in my own mind. I doubt that even the finest photographers would be rash enough to say that they captured the full beauty of the Northern Lights on film or silicon. My smattering of knowledge that the Northern Lights were a product of a solar wind or other emanation from the Sun cutting across the Earth's magnetic field never diminished my appreciation of them, then or now.
If you spent time in Alaska and would like to add a special memory to this section, Please write it out and send it to me. I will add it on.
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