Adak, Alaska - Sept 2015

Adak, Alaska - Sept 2015

Images/Narrative from Larry Byler

As most of you know, the U.S. Government gave the island to the Aleut People,
buildings and all. The Aleut people are given one of those old houses if they will come
and live there. Others can buy a house for $10,000. Four of the old houses have been
turned into restaurants and food is expensive. $14 for a hamburger.
Our “hotel” was one of the old duplexes. $195 a night. It was very clean and
comfortable. We were told that some of the other rentals have rat problems. Our rental
car was a Ford Excursion for $150 a day. There is a store in one of the old buildings but
it is not open on flight days, Thursday and Sunday, the only two days when Alaska
Airlines arrives. The one gas station has two pumps, regular unleaded and diesel. $6.49
a gallon for unleaded when I was there in September 2015.
New buildings have been added at Com Sta, at least “new” since I left in 1967. They
moved the old working spaces to a new building which was built behind the old one. In
the pictures you can see the new building, the one with the blue roof. The other old
buildings are all standing but have been heavily vandalized.
It was fun to stand in the area of my old work station and to walk the hallways of the
barracks. When I was there, we had dorms with metal partitions. That was changed
along the way to rooms, each having its own bathroom. It looked like 4 man rooms
although it could have been 6 or 8.
The antenna array at Shotgun is gone but the buildings still stand. The buildings are still
there at Zeto Point.
We were told by locals that there used to be wild Foxes on Adak but that the Fish and
Game Department have gotten ride of them. They still have Caribou hunts. I could not
find the old dump where we used to “hunt” rats at night!
The trees of the Adak National Forest have gown bushy but haven’t gotten much taller!
The old tower at the airport is not used. The locals can’t afford to have it torn down and
they must keep a red light on top of it. The electric bill is getting too expensive. Catch
22.
Hope the pictures bring back memories to those that survived their tour on The Rock,
“The Birthplace of the Winds.” I have other pictures. If you’re interested e-mail me.
Regards
Larry Byler, CT2
Lbyler5@comcast.net