[astatine]

I was asked about this in the Space Bar thread. It seemed a bit more appropriate to start new one for it.

Originally Posted by Carol Omigod, you live on Attu? Is it a military base? Air Force? My dad worked on Adak for awhile. Have you ever been to Adak? How about Cold Bay? Williwaws? Damn. What's it like on Attu? Do you have craggy hills and lots of tundra? Underground lakes? You have salmon runs and midnight sun? No trees, I imagine? I am *SO* curious. (Or is that all classified information. ) P.S. I just checked your profile. Coast Guard, right? Yay for the Coast Guard! A rugged place to be stationed, and a dangerous job. Thank you for your service, Astatine.

I do indeed live on Attu. There is a fairly small Coast Guard base out here. Just 20 guys.

Yeah there are craggy hills and tundra and all that. Yes tons of salmon later in the summer. I believe the nights get as short as 4 hours so no midnight. No trees really not much wildlife except rats and birds.

The station is LORAN station for long range radio navigation. Its the back up to the back up of GPS. It isn't a very dangerous job except for the possibility of being electrocuted. Our transmitters have a lot of scary high voltages and electrical currents.

I have a web-page with some pictures here.

[Xeno]

Do you still find remnants of World War II? Seriously, I'm curious how much one can find that was abandoned by both the U.S. and Japanese during the whole, brief campaign.

[astatine]

Originally Posted by Xeno Do you still find remnants of World War II? Seriously, I'm curious how much one can find that was abandoned by both the U.S. and Japanese during the whole, brief campaign.

Yep there are still some artifacts out here. You aren't supposed to keep any though. Our engineers found a prop from a landing craft in the sand at the beach. People find trays and stuff all over the place.

[Windswept]

Originally Posted by astatine I was asked about this in the Space Bar thread. It seemed a bit more appropriate to start new one for it.

I'm glad you did, Astatine, but I almost missed it! It was way down on page two when I found it a few minutes ago.

I do indeed live on Attu. There is a fairly small Coast Guard base out here. Just 20 guys.

You mean, you guys are the only people on the island? I guess you don't have Coast Guard vessels there then, huh? I toured a CG vessel while it was in port at Seattle. I think they even had an ice-breaker there at the time, too. It was the CG sea-rescues (in bad weather) that I was thinking of as so dangerous. But in the Aleutians, any time a vessel puts to sea can be dangerous, especially in the winter, right? Have you had 100 mph winds yet, or anything approaching that?

So, I guess the Bering Straight doesn't ice up anymore then, does it?

Somewhere I have two large paperback volumes called The War in Alaska. There 'was' a battle at Attu, right? (Or maybe it was another island.) I read about it at some length - even read diary entries by the Japanese doctor in the medical tent right before he committed suicide. What a shame. Such needless death. I think all the wounded were put to death as well.

Anyway, I think it's silly that you guys can't pick up artifacts. What's the point of just leaving them there to rust away, when they could be saved for the historical record? Surely there's a war museum somewhere that would want such things. In fact, I think a national war museum is going to be built near Casa Grande, Arizona. There's the military museum at Ft. Lewis, Washington, and probably something of the kind in Anchorage. I think some rules are just dumb, unless Attu is scheduled to be excavated by a museum team in the not-too-distant future.

Plus, there are probably artifacts from the migrations from Asia that you might be able to unearth when the weather improves. It would be a real shame to miss the chance to find something along 'those' lines. They would be *priceless* bits of the history of humans on earth!

Wasn't there an Air Force installation on Attu at one time? Is there any kind of military or civilian facility at *all* left on Adak, or has the island been turned over to indigenous tribes?

Yeah there are craggy hills and tundra and all that. Yes tons of salmon later in the summer. I believe the nights get as short as 4 hours so no midnight. No trees really not much wildlife except rats and birds.

I hope you like salmon. I've heard you can just go out to the creeks where the salmon are running and smack a few over the head with a baseball bat. Not very sporting, maybe, but that's what I've heard.

The station is LORAN station for long range radio navigation. Its the back up to the back up of GPS. It isn't a very dangerous job except for the possibility of being electrocuted. Our transmitters have a lot of scary high voltages and electrical currents.

So, are you supplied by military aircraft, or what? Not by ship, surely? Sorry I have so many questions, but I'm fascinated to have someone on the boards who is currently in the Aleutians.

I have a web-page with some pictures here.

I couldn't get your webpage to work.

Thank you for your reply, Astatine.

[thegelding]

damn, son, you are in the middle of nowhere


g

[Windswept]

Originally Posted by thegelding damn, son, you are in the middle of nowhere g

Thank you, g.

It works through your link.

[Windswept]

Oh, great pictures of Attu, Astatine.

Thanks so much for posting those.

Wow, the place where you guys live is pretty spartan, and not very lovely.

But I guess if it's warm enough, and the food is great, that's all that matters.

(A woman couldn't be there for ten minutes without trying to fix things up: attractive paint schemes, charming curtains, plants (real or silk, whatever; it's the illusion that counts), a more cozy and inviting arrangement of the furniture.

It's just that I feel bad that you guys are stuck at the end of the earth without an appealing place to call home.

Hey, there *is* a fox on the island. I thought there must be. I guess that's the largest mammal (aside from you guys...haha).

So, who *are* these people who come to see the birds? Do they come on Reeve Aleutian Airways? Do they stay with you guys? Do they pay for their room and board??? I'm truly puzzled.

[astatine]

I forgot that my old .Mac account lapsed and I have a new one. You can see the pictures here.

We are the only ones on this island. The native Attuans were displaced by the Japanese in World War II and never came back. I believe there were only 40 of them at the time.

We definitely get some nasty storms. I have seen winds of 90+ MPH but that is it so far. We live in a pretty sturdy building and you know the winds are nasty when it shakes.

There was a very bloody battle here 2500 japanese and 500 Americans died in the fight for this place.

There is an Air Force base on an island near here. There used to be a navy base out here. Our air strip is left over from that time I believe.

We get resupplied every 2 weeks by a C-130. So mail can take a while to get out here.

The fox was hunted to extinction out here. So we are left with our rats and birds.

The bird watchers haven't come out here for a few years. They are talking about starting up again I guess.

[elvia]

Sure looks like a nice place to escape too.

[astatine]

I mentioned previously that the most dangerous thing here is out transmitters. I should have mentioned the antenna too. Our transmitters here put out 600,000 watts and the antenna is 625 feet tall. When whoever is climbing the tower (not me I refuse to) they have to take a running jump and hope they land on the tower with out hitting the ground or else there is a good chance you will get fried.

The reason I mention it is because one of our station's dogs almost got toasted yesterday. There are the huge crows out here that are about the size of chickens and the dogs like to chase them. Well one landed about 20 feet up on the tower and our dog (named Tennessee btw) freaked out. He ran at the antenna and our CO called him back but then the crow started yelling and Tennessee got all hyped up and went after it again. This time he wasn't listening to the CO and touched the antenna. Needless to say there was a loud BZZZZZT and Tennessee apparently got knocked back a few feet. Some how he got up and walked it off though.

[astatine]

I guess this thread is kind of dying. I thought I'd give it another bump since I added a couple of pictures to my .Mac homepage.

They might be a bit big so I'm not going to inline them but here are their URLs:

The station from the tower.

Our warehouse and some of the bay from the tower.

I didn't take either of the pictures. I'm not paid enough to climb to the top of the tower.

[Windswept]

Originally Posted by astatine I guess this thread is kind of dying. I thought I'd give it another bump since I added a couple of pictures to my .Mac homepage. They might be a bit big so I'm not going to inline them but here are their URLs: The station from the tower. Our warehouse and some of the bay from the tower. I didn't take either of the pictures. I'm not paid enough to climb to the top of the tower.

The station looks nice - all white and tidy. But that's not where you actually 'live', right? The place that had all those bicycles in front - that's where you live? I remember it as being painted gray; though maybe the color was an optical illusion. One thing that confused me: you don't actually have to walk a considerable distance for each meal, do you? I mean, how practical could that be when the weather turns bad?

Thanks again for posting your fascinating pictures, Astatine. I, for one, have really enjoyed seeing them.

[astatine]

Originally Posted by Carol The station looks nice - all white and tidy. But that's not where you actually 'live', right? The place that had all those bicycles in front - that's where you live? I remember it as being painted gray; though maybe the color was an optical illusion. One thing that confused me: you don't actually have to walk a considerable distance for each meal, do you? I mean, how practical could that be when the weather turns bad? Thanks again for posting your fascinating pictures, Astatine. I, for one, have really enjoyed seeing them.

The place with the bicycles in front is where the bird watchers stay. We all live, eat, and work in the station.

It is hard to get perspective from the pictures from the top of the tower but that thing is 625 feet tall and a quarter mile or so away from the station.


Our station's website.

[GeorgeRoss]

I just had a phone call from my son at boot camp. He has just gotten orders to Attu. In searching the internet for information about this place I came across this site an was suprised. I'm have a ton of questions but will wait to ask them.

It sounds like an interesting place to go.

-george