North to the Future

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The Alaska Territorial Guard
When WWII reached Alaska’s doorstep, there weren’t enough soldiers to defend a 6,000-mile coastline. So Alaskans stepped up. Not drafted. Not paid. Just answering the call to protect home.
Over 6,300 volunteers joined, most of them Alaska Native: Inupiat, Yup’ik, Athabascan, Aleut, Sugpiaq, Haida, and Tlingit hunters, mushers, elders, whalers, and teenagers who had grown up reading weather in the wind and the ice. Organized in 1942, they patrolled the coasts, reported enemy movements, guarded radio stations, rescued downed pilots, and moved supplies by dog team across terrain that broke trained Army units. They were the first line of defense in the Aleutian Islands campaign and often the only protective presence in remote communities.
They kept watch while the world forgot we were a battleground.
And here’s the part most people don’t know:
They weren’t recognized as U.S. veterans until 2000, and some did not receive full honors or benefits until as late as 2017. Yet their service changed military strategy forever. Their surveillance work helped shape Arctic defense networks that still exist today, including the early warning systems that eventually became the backbone of NORAD.
They were more than volunteers.
They were soldiers of the North.
They were Alaska."

Grandpa was a member.
 
"Fifty-two years ago today, President Richard Nixon signed the Trans Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act, a pen stroke that left an indelible mark on a state just 14 years old.
The act authorized the building of an oil pipeline connecting the North Slope to Port Valdez, and specifically halted all legal challenges, including ones filed by environmental activists. And, as the President had requested, federal and state agencies were not allowed to regulate the pipeline’s construction.
The act was supported by Alaska's congressional delegation – Don Young, Ted Stevens and Mike Gravel – but it was Washington Senator Henry M. Jackson who actually introduced it because the Alaska legislators were all too junior.
The first pipe was laid on March 27, 1975, at the Tonsina River, marking the second significant milestone in the pipeline's construction, which had officially begun the previous year with the construction of a road from Prudhoe Bay to the Yukon River.
Since TAPS startup on June 20, 1977, the pipeline has delivered 19 billion barrels of oil to Valdez and generated an estimated $180 billion in revenue to the State of Alaska."
 
Introducing Art Davidson! In the winter of 1967, Davidson climbed Denali in winter with Dave Johnston and Ray Genet; and later wrote Minus 148: First Winter Ascent of Mt. McKinley about their experience. Since then, he helped create Chugach State Park and protect other wild areas in Alaska. He has also worked with indigenous people both in Alaska and elsewhere, writing Endangered Peoples about their struggles to survive. When Russia invaded Ukraine, he co-founded Assist Ukraine which provides tactical medical supplies, surveillance drones, rescue vehicles, and other life-savings supplies and equipment to people on the front lines. He is the owner-CEO of the Best Storage companies and lives in the mountains near Anchorage with his wife Anna and their three children.

Read "Minus 148 Degrees" for Art's comments on that first winter accent.
 
"
The Alaska Territorial Guard
When WWII reached Alaska’s doorstep, there weren’t enough soldiers to defend a 6,000-mile coastline. So Alaskans stepped up. Not drafted. Not paid. Just answering the call to protect home.
Over 6,300 volunteers joined, most of them Alaska Native: Inupiat, Yup’ik, Athabascan, Aleut, Sugpiaq, Haida, and Tlingit hunters, mushers, elders, whalers, and teenagers who had grown up reading weather in the wind and the ice. Organized in 1942, they patrolled the coasts, reported enemy movements, guarded radio stations, rescued downed pilots, and moved supplies by dog team across terrain that broke trained Army units. They were the first line of defense in the Aleutian Islands campaign and often the only protective presence in remote communities.
They kept watch while the world forgot we were a battleground.
And here’s the part most people don’t know:
They weren’t recognized as U.S. veterans until 2000, and some did not receive full honors or benefits until as late as 2017. Yet their service changed military strategy forever. Their surveillance work helped shape Arctic defense networks that still exist today, including the early warning systems that eventually became the backbone of NORAD.
They were more than volunteers.
They were soldiers of the North.
They were Alaska."

Grandpa was a member.
This was one of the P-40s patroling Aleutian skys that your grandfather would have no doubt seen.
https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th/id/OIP.nU2S6gKBlM-QKf7CcVD5cwHaFC?pid=Api&P=0&h=220
 
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