Lipan goes north to Alaska

	Lipan goes north to Alaska. Winter of 1969 and Lipan is tasked with a three month cruise to the island of Adak in the Aleutian Archipelago for SAR duty (Search and Rescue). The three month cruise ended up lasting six months and saw Lipan involved in everything from SAR to support missions involving the detonation of a nuclear device on the island of Amchitka. This is a cover photo of the Adak Sun, the base newsletter, welcoming Lipan to the hinterlands.
	The cover story of the Adak Sun welcoming Lipan and displaying a photo of our skipper, Lt Commander Joseph Demarke III.
	As we approached the Aleutians the ocean depth became steadily shallower but we could not yet see land. We doubled the lookouts and the bridge was a busy place as we strained to see an island. Most of us had never been to Alaska and, although we had made countless landfalls throughout Hawaii and the Western Pacific, few of us knew what a snow covered island looked like. Then lookout "Lucy" Sutton said, "Hey that big cloud ahead of us ain't a cloud." In the colorless region land and sky mingled. The skipper renamed the island "Sutton Island."
	Adak. We arrived at night and a pilot was sent out to us. He directed our skipper to steer towards a red light ashore but, mistakenly, it was a taillight on a jeep on the pier. As we approached BM2 Bob Carroll was in charge on the forecastle and in the darkness and ever present fog he saw a pier ahead of us and screamed into the headset, "Bridge, Bridge, backdown full!" We came within inches of plowing into the pier. The jeep driver was trying to get away as fast as he could, with Lipan diligently following mistakenly after him.
	Sweepdown the ship. What a hassle. Brooms were useless and we had to scamper to find shovels. It snowed constantly in the Aleutians that winter but it was a light and fluffy low-moisture content snow and it mostly blew away. Still, it was a nuisance, along with the constant freezing cold and high winds.
	There was no color in the Aleutians in the winter. Everything was a hue of black and white. The gypsyhead on Lipan's anchor windlass is starting to show some rust and is the only color in the photo.
	Adak was strictly a military base. No Alaskans lived on the island. It had an airport and a harbor but its main function was early detection of ICBM launches over the pole from the Soviet Union. Atop Mount Moffet (seen here) were gigantic "White Alice" radars, housed in huge geodesic white domes that looked like massive golf balls sitting on the mountain. All part of the old dewline (Distant Early Warning) radar system that monitored the Soviets during the cold war.
	Fowl weather gear was the uniform of the day for anybody who would be topside for any length of time. Here's a shot of me in the black beret visiting with lookout Leslie (Lucy) Sutton GMSN on the flying bridge. Lucy was a big lovable teddy bear of a guy.
	Lipan would make a monthly trip to the island of Atka to service the tiny Aleut Indian fishing village there. We'd handle the mail for them and provide transportation to citizens who needed it. On one trip we took an 8-month pregnant woman aboard for transport back to Adak and a flight to a hospital for her child's impending birth. It was a short overnight trip but the seas were always horrendous, as they were throughout the area.
	Pulling into Kobakoff Bay on the island of Atka. Even the harbor had choppy waters, strong currents and strong winds and when we tied up at the pier there we had to keep the main engines running and the screw turning just to stay tied up. Atka was the site of a military buildup during WW-II and it was loaded with scattered abandoned military equipment. It had hundreds (if not thousands) of old stacked 55-gallon gasoline drums which were still being siphoned for the one official village vehicle.
	Another shot of Kobakoff Bay Atka. The small fishing village housed the only inhabitants on the entire island. When Lipan pulled in they would jump in their outboard motorboats and drive out to greet us and welcome us to their village. These hardy men were dressed minimally and seemed impervious to the freezing salt spray and high winds. It was a big event on the island when the monthly visit occurred.
	Another shot of Kobakoff Bay in Atka.
	Lipan tied up at the pier at Atka. Note the slack in the stern line. We were technically still underway, with the engine room and bridge manned. The strong currents and winds necessitated this unusual circumstance. The pier was WW-II vintage and was stacked with traps for Alaskan King Crabs, one of the main sources of income.
	Lipan looks as if she is peering over the crab traps, looking for her ashore crewmembers. The gentleman in the photo is a U.S. Government Postal Official who accompanied us each trip, responsible for the pickup and delivery of mail. Note that Lipan is flying the ensign from the A-frame indicating that she is indeed still in an underway status.
	The crab traps stacked on the pier at Atka with their floats.
	A close up shot of one of the King Crab traps. These traps were about the size of a telephone booth, ganged together in bunches of three I think, and this one has a dead Spider Crab within it. In those days they kept only the King Crabs and tossed the Spider Crabs back into the ocean as nuisance catch. With the depletion of fishes in the oceans I assume that practice is no longer practical.
	The pier at Atka stretched out quite a distance into the harbor. During WW-II this section that I am standing on was blownup to inhibit the Japanese from landing troops directly ashore. The Japanese did occupy some of the Aleutians during the war. The pier was never fixed and this "temporary" bridge across the span was still being used in 1969. I wonder if its still like that?
	IC Chief Ventenilla makes the long trek back to Lipan. The long "T" shaped pier had the missing section and dozens of holes throughout it, some covered over and some open. You really had to watch your step. The walk to the village was lengthy but it was interesting to see it and how sparse things were.
	The fishing village at Atka. The houses were small shack-like structures with minimal paint on them, as would be expected in this harshest of climates. They had no modern conveniences and one house had a small store setup in its living room to supply the locals with basic needs. Note the outboard motorboats nestled into the rocky shore.
	A couple of houses in the village. That black dot in the sky is an eagle but until I rescan my photos at a higher resolution (IF I can find them again) you'll have to take my word for it.
	This building had something to do with children because it had two bunny rabbit figures painted over the barn-like doors so it must have been a school of some type for the local kids. I don't recall ever seeing any children while we were there. Actually, other than our initial greeting, we saw few of the residents. There was one retired Navy Chief Petty Officer who was the liaison to the U.S. Federal Government from the village and he lived there year round to tend to the needs of the villagers. He drove the jeep, was the mayor, the FD, the Police, the Court. Everything.
	L to R Bill McKelly RD2, Parker ET2, me BM2, and Paul Silman SM2 enjoying a day of liberty ashore. Quite a difference from the typical liberty ports such as Olongopo in Subic Bay in the Philippines.
	Ahhh, the beach!
	The onion-domed Russian Orthodox Church and burial grounds on the hillside next to it. The Aleutians were Russian at one time until Seward bought Alaska from them and the Russian Orthodox Religion is widely practiced throughout the region. The archipelago is closer to Russia than the U.S. and its strategic value was immeasurable during the cold war.
	SN Bob Stradford in front of a house on Atka. Bob was a great asset in this harsh area because he never got seasick, no matter how rough it got. He was one of the few men aboard who could steer the ship during the worst weather and, because of that, the poor guy spent countless hours on the bridge while most were too sick to get out of their racks. "Strad" was a dependable strong guy while he was on Deck Force and I relied on him quite a bit.
	Me doing some window shopping on Atka.

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