Crusty old Joe's
Kodiak Alaska Military History
The official web site of the Kodiak Military History Museum
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Rodger Schwind's communications station pictures |
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First batch received in small size 51 images
First batch received original size 51 images
All photos in medium resolution 184 images received April 2011
The two below may duplicate images in the above batches.
Batch 1 received June 2013 in small size 86 images
Batch 2 received June 2013 in small size 173 images
Thoroughly enjoyed your website. It brought back some interesting memories.
I was stationed there as an ET3 in 1954-55 at the new transmitter station at
Buskin Lake. When I arrived there we were just beginning the set up of the
station and were still using the old station just across the river. Some of
the fellows that were there at the time were (last names) Handy, Cronister,
Barry, Chief Pitt, and CWO Skarda. We lived in the old station and walked
daily to do our installation work in the new station. We started with a
bare, huge concrete building and filled it with the latest in transmitting
equipment including a 250kw RCA transmitter that was attached to a 600 foot
antenna out in our antenna field surrounding the lake. I had charge of the
supplies and parts for the building of the transmitters and had my office in
the basement of the buiulding. I can remember having to make daily runs to
the base for our supplies and mail. Quite a trip! The CBs came in during
that time and completed our road that connected with the base road leading to
Kodiak. I read a letter listed in your guest book from May 1999 sent by a
fellow who was a young Marine at the time. He told of having problems with
the CB unit. Well let me tell you first hand why they had such a problem.
The Marines on the base were required to be sticklers for doing their duty.
They would actually arrest the CBs way out in our area for exceeding the
base's 25 mph speed limit! The harrassment went on all the time the CBs were
there. That last night before the CBs were to ship out, we were at the EM
club and the some of the CBs who had a bit much decided to go down to the
marine barracks and clean it out which they did. By 4AM that morning the
were all on their ship and headed out. I had a jeep while I was there and we
had a great time driving out to Cape Chiniak as well as anywhere else we
could go. There was an abandoned airfield on the road out to Chiniak made
out of metal matting. Several of the old Army barracks were still in our
area although totally unusable. We did a lot of skiing at the Chalet just up
the road from the lake and really had a great time overall. Have a great
deal of sea stories to tell but there just isn't the space. Unfortunately at
74 my memory's getting a little hazy but I'd love to go back and visit the
place again. By the way I have a TON of photos (slides) just rusting away if
you need any for the website.
Here are a few jpg formatted photos I took on Kodiak back in 1955 when I was
at the Buskin River transmitter station. We were in the process of installing
the new station - up on the hill - and were still using the old station
across the river. I am enclosing a photo of the whole gang that was there at
the time showing CWO Skarda, Chief Pickerell, Dameron, Handy, Bodle, Barrows,
Barry, Cronister, and the rest... Also there is a photo of the men at the old
station at mess, I'm the guy at the head of the table.
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By the way, in the photo of the old station, we lived in that little shack in
the back! As a note: The photo of the jeep on the air strip was taken on the
road to Cape Chiniak... Included in this group are a couple of town photos as
it used to be... The base pix speak for themselves... The interior shots of
the station show the new installation and the 250kw transmitter that used the
600 foot antenna. The two guys are standing on the top platform of the 600
foot antenna... The fellow with the duffle bag is R.F. Handy who was
leaving... The fellow with the little dog is Cronister, who I understand now
lives in Las Vegas... That odd view of the new bridge is part of the road
that the CBs were building for us at the time... These were the guys that
tangled with the Marines...
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Here are a few more photos I had of Kodiak in 1955...
This is a large (3meg) file so I hope it comes through ok... There are some duplicate photos that you'll see, just delete them at your end or whatever...
The way they came out on my computer when I sent them to myself and downloaded them were in this order:
attachment00.jpg is the old station shack that we lived in...
attachment01.jpg is the old station
attachment02.jpg is a view of our antenna field
attachment03.jpg is a repeat pic of our gang there... I sent it to myself so I could do some enlarging on it.
attachment04.jpg is R.F. Handy with a fish he caught.
attachment05.jpg is The guys at the EM Club, that's Delaney in the back...
attachment06.jpg is another of the antenna field.
attachment07.jpg is an aerial view of the old station
attachment08.jpg is a pic of Mt. Barometer behind our station.
attachment09.jpg is a pic of me and my jeep...
attachment10.jpg is Delaney with a salmon he just picked up out of the river.
attachment11.jpg is a photo taken on the road to Cape Chiniak..
attachment12.jpg is a view of the town of Kodiak taken from the hill behind it.
attachment13.jpg is taken on the road to Cape Chiniak.
attachment14.jpg is another photo of the air field we came across, again on the road to Chiniak.
attachment15.jpg again on the road to Chiniak.
attachment16.jpg this is a pic of me with our dogs at the top of the peak behind the old ski chalet.
attachment17.jpg the ski chalet
attachment18.jpg a repeat of 12
attachment19.jpg a cold marine in the shadow of Mt. Barometer behind the old station.
attachment20.jpg on the road to Kodiak
attachment21.jpg ditto
attachment22.jpg This is the old Russian Orthodox church in Kodiak, I knew the priest there very well, he was a former White Russian naval officer.
attachment23.jpg pic of me working on one of our transmitters (oh to be that young again!)
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attachment27.jpg
I am attaching an enlargement of one I already sent. It's the transmitter station gang in mid-1955... CWO Skarda is the CO...
kodiak_gang02.jpg
Attached is the enlargement... Hope it come out better...
kodiak_gang21.jpg
On the photo, taken when CWO Skarda was leaving the names I can remember are:
Top row: Larsen, Delaney, unk, unk, unk, CWO Skarda, Chief Pick, Regalado, Dameron, Berry
Bot row: unk, unk, Jurek, Korky, Handy, unk
I wasn't in the photo as I took it....
kodiak_gang22.jpg
The Crew members at the Buskin Lake Transmitter Station 1955
A few known details are listed.
Cdr Ingham CO
Lt. CDR Grant XO
CWO Skarda (Monday August 1 left Kodiak)
CWO Griffiths (Replaced CWO Skarda 8/1/55)
Chief Clark (Senior Chief)
Chief Pickerel
Cronister (ET2)
Handy (ET3)
Barrows (Thursday March 31 left Kodiak)
Bodle (Friday May 27, 1955 transferred to Adak)
Berry (married on July 2, 1955)
Dameron (wife had a baby girl Wednesday October 26, 1955)
Jurek (ETSN)
Thorington
Brennan (ETSN)
Tribulet (ETSN)
Delaney (ET3)
Boyland
Elliot
Larsen (ET1)
Stewart
Conrad
Ray
Buffham
Stall
Regalado
Korky (ETSN)
York (came aboard Tuesday Sept 27, 1955)
Hubert
Schwind (that's me - left Kodiak Tuesday December 13th 1955)
Rodger Schwind
oldfolkhom at aol.com
112 Clark St.
Walnut, IL 61376
815 379-2172
First batch received in small size 51 images
Second batch received original size 51 images
All photos in medium resolution 184 images received April 2011
Main index
http://www.kadiak.org/photos/schwind/index.html
This page created 2009 March 13, updated 24 June 2013
