| This
is a view of the Coast Guard Loran Station at Cape Sarichef, on Unimak Island.
I spent one year of isolated duty with 17 other guys on this island in the
Aleutian Islands off the tip of Alaska during my 4 year enlistment during
1975-1976. What is isolated duty? It means no town, no radio, no trees,
no summer, no TV, no women, for a solid year. It is rewarded by an additional
30 days paid vacation (Which they would prefer you take before showing up
at your next station). The island was extremely remote, but was an amazing
place to view wildlife such as countless bears, herds of caribou, wolves,
fox, bald eagles, grey whales, seals, etc. It was a tough year, but I am
glad I got to experience it. We were not allowed to go outside without a
high powered rifle and 2 way radio because of bears and other dangers. I
got chased by bears on several occasions. Once when we came too close to
a mother with cubs, and once at night when I went outside to take weather
readings, and got chased back to the door, and was inches from a paw swipe.
Bears were here every day at dusk however, and usually were not too much
of a problem. They did break into the building several times though, and
once we chased him out with CO2 fire extinguishers. This photo was taken
during the summer months when it stays light out till around midnight. That
takes some getting used to, and by the time you are used to it things start
to switch, and the winters have very short days. My job here was as an electronics
technician, and I was to maintain and operate the LORAN A equipment, and
stand radio watches. LORAN A is the first system for what we now call "GPS"
or global positioning. This station along with many others were placed all
over the world to form a grid of signal sending units to allow ships and
planes to navigate. This station has been dismantled for years and there
is no more operating crew. All that is left now are a couple of automated
lighthouses. |
