Bill considers himself to be a laundry
professional because he spent six months working in the laundry of the USN
Markab, a U. S. Navy repair ship. When he enlisted in 1960, the Navy promised
to train him to be an electronic technician. They made good on the promise but
he had to wait for an opening in the ET program before he could start.
After his time on the Markab, he was sent to
Treasure Island for six months to learn his trade. Then he was assigned to a
base at Kodiak, Alaska. His job was to protect the DEW line which was the
Distant Early Warning of Russian airplanes violating our air space. The
Russians were not our friends then and they are not our friends now.
Unfortunately, the Amsterdam will not be stopping
at Kodiak tomorrow because of rough weather. The entrance to the island is
between two reefs and our captain says it is too much of a risk to enter during
the storm that is expected to start any minute now. We have been to Kodiak
before so it’s not a big deal for us. There isn’t much there.
This storm is expected to have peak winds at 35
miles per hour. The last one peaked at 60 miles per hour.
When we visited Kodiak the first time, Bill told
me the story of when he and a friend climbed Barometer Mountain in April 1962. He
was 19 and was much more agile than he is now. They climbed all the way to the
top to slide around on a glacier. They would take a run and slide down standing
up. Then they climbed back to the top and slid down again.
When they got tired, they still had to make the
steep climb back down the mountain. There was a lot of grass and the slope
looked to them like a giant slide so they decided to slide down on the seat of
their pants. They hit outcroppings of rocks a few times but it didn’t stop
them.
When they got to the bottom of the mountain, Bill
discovered he had both split out his pants and lost his wallet. They were
walking back to the base when their commander and his wife drove by. They stopped
and offered them a ride back. Bill said he was embarrassed by not being
properly or totally dressed. The commander’s wife thought that was funny and
promised him she would not look.
The following spring, someone found Bill’s wallet
on the mountain and gave it back to him. It didn’t look bad at all except the
pictures were a little bit waterlogged. The man was honest enough that he even
returned the money. Bill dried it all out and it was fine.
