TRIP TO ADAK

When the Korean war broke out Bob decided that he should get back into the Navy Air. He did not want to be drafted by the Army so chose to make his own move so that he could get back into what he loved. Anytime he could get into an airplane, he loved it. After some training he was sent to Adak, Alaska. In case you are not familiar with Adak, it is way out there in the Aleutian Islands, where there is some of the toughest flying a person can find. The winds howl at 100 miles per hour, and the visibility can be very poor. To top it off, he was with a crew in a PBY, which is an amphibian-type plane. The PBY was an old plane, but known for dependability, but it flew at low speeds and took time to get between the islands. Their mission at this time was delivering mail, picking up ill people who needed to get to a hospital, or whatever need the Navy had for them. Most of the islands had no air strips, so the plane was then landed in the water.

Bob was living in a barracks situation, which for a married man who was used to his comforts of home, and home cooking, it was a bit difficult to revert to this military life. He was out there for a year, and in order to get him to extend for another year in the Aleutians, they offered to bring his family to Adak . I was eager, and this sounded like lot of fun. They had beautiful duplex homes that were new places with lovely furnishings and all the comforts anyone could want.

Linda and I reported for a departure date of December 27, 1951. We agreed that Christmas would wait until we got to Adak to have that exciting day with her Daddy. We were assigned a fairly nice stateroom on the USS Funston, a military ship. It had a nice dining room with fancy dressed waiters who took excellent care of us. We were on the 4th deck, and were told that we could not go below that deck. We didn't know at first, but soon found out that the lower decks had military men headed for active duty in Japan.

We sailed that December 7th into a world we had never seen. Linda got sick the first night out. Poor little girl was very miserable , but by morning time, she seemed to be OK, and it was her Mother who was sick. Each day out at sea got rougher and rougher, and I got sicker and sicker.; Can you imagine a snow storm at sea, with 150 m.p.h. winds? That's what we experienced, and it was horrible. I was not alone. Many on board were sick, including the nurse who was supposed to be taking care of us. She had made that trip many times without getting sick, but the other trips were not in the middle of winter. The crew would tell us that we still had it good. They said "you should see what those poor military men are experiencing on the lower decks." They could not even get to an outside deck where there was some air to breathe.

When we got near Adak 10 days later we were told we would have breakfast prior to docking . All the wives and children were so excited to get off that ship and stand on something that was not pitching up and down. Every child was spit and polished so their daddies could see them at their best when we debarked. Breakfast came and went. We headed for the docks, but pretty soon we turned and came back away from the docks. We did that 4 or 5 times before we heard the announcement that the winds were too strong, and we might wipe out the docks. Now we were going to have lunch on board and try again after lunch. After lunch it was the same old story, we could not dock and would try after dinner. Oh, yeah ! Now we are getting very impatient with all of this, and I recall saying "I am not going to spend another night on this ship." To make a long story short, I did spend another night on that ship. When morning came again, the kids did not look spit and polished anymore. No one wanted to open suitcases to get fresh clothes; all we wanted to do was get off the ship.

Adak has no trees, except for their "National Forest" which was planted in World War 2. Those trees had been there all those years, and although they were alive, they were about 3 or 4 feet tall. They just sat there and did not grow. It was like landing on the moon, with everything being brown and bare. As Linda saw her Daddy, and he carried her to the car, this little child who was nearly three years old said it all. She said "grey, grey, grey." Even she was awed with what she saw.

This was an experience I shall never forget, and a boat ride that I would never like to take again.