Alaska Veterans

By Suellyn Wright Novak Colonel USAF RET

Alaska, the last frontier, has many one-of-a-kind stories, unknown often to even her residents. The Alaska Veterans Museum exists to tell and interpret these military history stories to preserve her sons' and daughters' military experiences and to support her veterans. The museum preserves this rich history through exhibits and displays of uniforms, weapons, artifacts, movies, photos and recordings, dioramas and models. All five branches of the US military have shaped "the great land." Journey with us from the last shot of the American Civil War fired in Alaskan water (although it was Russian Alaska then) in 1865 through the Army building our state infrastructure, to the birth of native Alaskan rights, to stories of sons' love for their fathers, to unbelievable heroism when Alaska was invaded and occupied by the Japanese, to an Alaskan love story. If you cannot visit us to hear these stories in person, this book brings them to you to enjoy and to be inspired!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098071363

Book preview

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Alaska Veterans

Suellyn Wright Novak Colonel, USAF, RET

Copyright © 2020 by Suellyn Wright Novak Colonel, USAF, Ret

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

The Last Shot of the American Civil War Was Fired in Alaskan Waters

The Revenue Marine Service (RMS) Cutter Bear

The US Army Explores, Then Builds Alaska’s Infrastructure

The Alaska Territorial Guard (ATG) or the Tundra Army

The Alaska Scouts, a.k.a. Castner’s Cutthroats

US Army Corps of Engineers’ (ACOE) Alaska Projects

A Son’s Love for his Father Creates the Aleutian Tiger Squadron

The Incredible True Story of the USS Grunion (SS-216): Sons’ Love Found Their Dad and His Boat Sixty-Five Years Later

The Forgotten Campaign—The Aleutians

The First American Aircraft Response to the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor

The Alaska Veterans Museum Love Story

To those favored few who know the sacred privilege of protecting our heaven­blessed nation, to those who know the true meaning of love, I, too, am blessed and honored to be one of you!

Acknowledgments

I want to thank Alaska Veterans Museum (AVM) historian extraordinaire, board member, and newsletter editor, George Darrow, for his invaluable sleuthing skills at finding needed photos for this book. I also wish to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of AVM’s superlative secretary, Jann Sherrill, for making copies of documents and for taking photos this book required. Jann always goes two extra miles for you! Thanks also to Bruce Abele for proofing the chapter on the USS GRUNION SS-216, as he was one of the sons of the skipper who found the sub and crew’s final resting place. Persistence was richly rewarded! Thank you also to F.T. Tom Findtner, Army Corps of Engineers for the Alcan Highway photo and caption. And where would I be without the technical expertise of Art Williams, of ACW Productions, who scanned my collected photos, and cleaned up digital photo files? Thank you is also due the Army, Navy, and Coast Guard who made photos available. A final thank you to my beloved husband, Larry Baumgartner, for his artistic sketches.

Introduction: A Short History of the Alaska Veterans Museum

A Short History of the Alaska Veterans Museum (AVM)

We began in 2001 with a dream, a few VFW brothers and sisters and other concerned citizens. They wanted a museum to tell the stories of individual servicemen and servicewomen, as well as showcase the military’s contributions to Alaska, using weapons, uniforms, artifacts, photos, posters, models, dioramas, and more. Forest and Cathy Brooks had helped form a similar museum in Centralia then Chehalis, Washington, and were ready to help start one here.

AVM became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation in 2002, and that’s also when we were awarded our Alaska business license. It took ten years to build support and name recognition, advertising on holidays, marching in parades, supporting local community events to get the name out there, briefing over 212 various community groups. Finally, in spring and summer 2008 we built our first public exhibit on Castner’s Cutthroats: Forgotten Heroes at the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center. We debuted it with a panel discussion featuring the last three living Alaska Scouts, Lieutenant Earl Acuff, Sergeant Ed Walker, Technician Fifth Grade (T/5) addressed as Corporal Billy Buck, and author Jim Rearden. We also paid tribute to T/5 (Corporal) Buck Delkettie who had passed away prior to our exhibit but whose oral history we had collected (playing at our museum are clips from all four of the Scouts we interviewed). Buck Delkettie’s stories were what gave rise to the idea of setting up an exhibit in a museum to call attention to our quest. The exhibit was to be up six months but remained there for nineteen months, and the Anchorage Museum’s historian, Marilyn Knapp, said it was the most popular local exhibit the museum had had. She said when it was taken down, I miss my old friend there in the atrium—it was a great exhibit. School students loved it.

We followed that success with exhibits at the Alaska Aviation Museum on the Aleutian Tigers (the 11th Fighter Squadron), AVM assistance on the 11th Air Force Warbirds exhibit, one on the USS Grunion (SS-216), which featured photos and submarine artifacts, a large model of the submarine and more, plus a movie about finding her after sixty-five years and a Skype session with the skipper’s eldest son. At the Native Heritage Center, we had an exhibit on the Alaska Territorial Guard (ATG) and Major Marvin Muktuk Marston, with many of his items on loan from the Anchorage Museum. We also put up displays on the Aleutian Campaign: A Forgotten War at the Chugiak-Eagle River Library and at the Loussac Library. We placed and dedicated the ATG statue on November 11, 2011, in front of AVM. Winter hours: open Wednesday to Saturday 10 to 5; summer Monday to Saturday 10 to 5.

On April 17, 2011, we opened in a 1,433 square-foot storefront at the Fourth Avenue Market Place, 333 W Fourth Avenue, Ste 227, Anchorage; 907-677-8802. We have now welcomed over 8,100 visitors, and we’re waiting to greet you! We need shakers and movers and folks with power, prestige, and money to help us grow our museum. We are always searching for board members who can help staff a shift or two a week (3.5–7 hours), raise funds, and find volunteers for us, as well as other opportunities.

Images

CSS Shenandoah

US Navy Sketch NR&L (old) 2084, US Naval History and Heritage Command

Revenue Cutter Bear

US Coast Guard photo

Alaska’s Arctic Coast—the patrol area of the Revenue Cutter Bear

Sketch by Larry Baumgartner

Captain Michael Healy, RMS (US Coast Guard photo)

Lieutenant Billy Mitchell on Snowshoes, 1903 Anchorage Museum, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center (AMRC-1981.19.009)

Teikhell [sic] Telegraph Station Anchorage Museum AMRC-662-1-a-447 Crary-Henderson Collection

Eskimos of the tundra defending the shores of Alaska. Alaska Army National