My family and I lived two years at Chiniak in the trailer court 
near the creek from June 1971 and lasted for a couple years. A CAT 
generator, with it's electrical cables run across the ground, 
powered up the little village and it seems to me that we had quite 
a few outages. My first wife Marge, and two sons, Miles and Brandon 
lived there and also my daughter Heather was born in the City of 
Kodiak. None were old enough for school. 

At Chiniak I worked in the computer area. I got that job after 
getting out of the Air force where I had spent 4 years teaching 
crypto equipment. At the Crypto school on Lackland AFB  I met two 
techs from Chiniak who were taking classes on the Satellite crypto 
equipment in use at Chiniak. So I took the classes in preparation 
of helping me get a job outside the military.

I remember working with Howard Piwattie on my paperwork in getting 
the job. I flew into Kodiak in the rain. All day long I sat in the 
Airport waiting for the blue pickup to pick me up and it never 
arrived. After many hours I decided that if I was not picked up by 
the evening plane, I would be on it. At the last minute the mail 
truck arrived, I was loaded in and off to my Chiniak adventure. Two 
others were in training with me, John Glenn and a Mr. Crabtree. 

I remember the day that a window was installed into the ladies 
bathroom door. The carpenters had received directions to install a 
window in the PMEL door and they had heard "female lavatory door".  
PMEL stood for Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory. It is 
still fun to think about.

Several of us had attended some fire training in the City and were 
made Village Fire Protection Aids. A good price was quoted us for 
fire extinguishers and quite a few were purchased. Just after 
receiving them, we responded to a fire up on the point where 
Gengrich's store was situated. The fire was put out with the new 
extinguishers and no one was hurt. 

Barney Howard was shipped up from Sunnyvale as the software rep 
while I was there and taught me many things about programming. 
Barney had a little 2 place plane which he had rebuilt.  It was kept 
at the Chiniak Strip. I did get to go flying with him one beautiful 
day and never forgot how beautiful the islands and bays and hills 
were. 

I was always amazed by the depth of the volcanic ash just a few 
inches under the moss, yet gardens grew in it. Marty Woods lived up 
on the hill and had a nice garden and he showed me how deep the ash 
went down, maybe it was 6 to 8 inches deep of ash.

A large whale was beached along the road out there and we went to 
see it before the stink got too bad, and it really did. I had 
several Dungeness crab pots and found that Kalsin bay was loaded 
with smaller king crabs and they would fill the inside of those 
pots until the rubber strap holding the door shut would be 
stretched open and when I pulled the pots the crabs on the outside 
would not release their grip until it was too late. We ate a lot of 
them.

My boys don't remember the grunion run and fish by the bucket 
full, on the midnight of the full moon and high tide, (or 
sometime in the night) but they were there having a great time with 
them. I was notified via the grapevine that a grunion party was on 
schedule and we went out of curiosity. What fun, what a mystery. 

The mountain side under the White Alice site caved off one year
covering the road next to the City of Kodiak.  A ferry was set up to 
carry walk-ons into town and back.  We walked the kid's wagons into 
town and back, kids and meager vittles.  It was a time consuming 
experience shopping with Red Flyers but it's what makes the 
memories stick.

During the beginning of our stay there the Navy ran the base and 
provided an AM radio station which was simple but fun. Partway 
through our stay the Navy left and the Coast Guard took over. On 
our last trip there, we found it to be pretty modern, with a 
fabulous swimming sports complex. It was greatly improved.

I was there when Lockheed lost the contract to Philco WDL. The 
techs then voted in the Teamsters to represent them. I acquired a 
$50.00 Teamsters card and left for the promised treasures of the 
Alaska Pipeline construction era. 

We, too, had great times there, ice fishing and parties out on the 
lake, digging fossils on past Pasadshack, digging clams, and deer &  
duck hunting. 

3 years ago Nancy and I took some of our grandchildren back to 
Chiniak.  Wouldn't you know it, a week of wonderful sunshine, so hot 
in fact that the kids went wading & splashing in the ocean on the beach 
near the 'road' to the first bunker at the lake.

I remember the lowest satellite we tracked was only 42 miles up, it 
was all the dish could do to keep up with it. We also tracked 
stationary satellites in the Clarke belt and many satellites 
in-between these extremes.  The data I could read coming in on the 
printers consisted of time stamps, azimuth, elevation, and bird 
health.  As an operator I loaded the updated hard disks and tapes up, 
started the software and then adjusted the time forward or 
backward to best fit the preprogrammed az/el data to the real-time 
bird location.  Most of the electronic equipment in the computer 
section of the station was modularized.  If an AND gate was needed 
you could just plug it in.  The logic modules were supplied in 
plastic boxes about an inch square and plugged into wirewrap 
sockets.  Each module then contained transistors that made up the 
logic.  You could call it a step in integration.

The Univac techs gave me a great understanding of the computers 
running the station and assembly type programming.  Barney Howard as 
a true software guru and was sparkling in his happiness and patient 
in his teaching me about the software and about programming.  After 
leaving Kodiak I later returned to WSU to obtain a BS in Computer 
Science.

Some of the guys had turned one of the WWII Quonsets into a auto 
shop down near the airstrip/lake.  The woods were full of old lumber 
from those old buildings.  A lot of it was used by the Chiniak 
people for porches and sheds.  The moss was awfully thick in the 
woods and it quickly grew over the fallen buildings and garbage, 
hiding the remnants of a lot of tough years by our vets stationed 
there.

I had a 12 foot aluminum boat with 3.5 hp Evinrude Yacht Twin and did 
some trolling on the lake for land locked silvers.  Quite a few were 
caught.  Two of the Hawaiians and I took this boat out to 
Chiniak Point one hot summer day where several moss covered 
rock islands stood protectingly.  We climbed A few of them which 
were full of holes in the moss and dirt where the puffins nested. 
Others were covered in huge sea lions. I still remember feeling very 
small out there.  The ocean water was so clear I could see the kelp laid 
flat about 20 feet down from the currents and the sea lions only 20 
or 50 feet away all eyeing us and talking some language I did not 
understand.  They never moved and there were lots of them.  It would 
have taken only a bump from one to really ruin that trip. 

I had panned for gold in most streams around there but never saw 
any color.

Thanks for the web page, it brought back a lot of memories.

Miles France

KL1IN (at) alaska.com

P.O.Box 1295    

Valdez, Alaska 99686