"Soldiers of Today and Yesterday"
" Honor,Dignity & Hope "

--During the winter of 1992 our office was managing the installation of new equipment throughout our worldwide system. Our biggest site as an AFTAC detachment on Elison AFB near Fairbanks, Alaska. We always used Alaska as a testbed – if it could work there, it could pretty much work anywhere.

So in late January I left for Alaska. At the airport in Orlando it was very muggy, 85* F in the morning. There I was boarding the plain in shorts, a Florida shirt, sandals and carrying a "war’ bag full of my gear. Each stop along the way - Dallas, Seattle, Anchorage - I lightened the "war" bag by putting on more gear. By the time I arrived in Fairbanks, it was 2300 hours, -38* F and falling fast. I had on extreme arctic long johns, fat-boy parka pants, mukluks, a parka, and whatever else I could get on. We had to rush to get our luggage because the base gate would lock down at –40* F and no one could get on or off base. That night it got down to –57* F.

The next day we set up and tested the indoor equipment. Eventually we would have to test the outdoor equipment. The problem was that our outdoor equipment test facility was at a remote location about 30 miles off-base with no power except that provided by a TEG (Thermo-electric generator) powered by liquid propane, and at –40* F liquid propane becomes a gel and gums up the TEG.

So, there I am the next day with the det maintenance shop supervisor. We had already driven about 20 miles in a 4X4 when we parked, switched vehicles and started riding in the Arctic Cat track vehicle that we had towed from Eilson. This was really cool. A few days before I’m on patrol manning the binoculars looking for bikinis at the NCO pool and today I’m riding in the middle of nowhere riding in an Arctic Cat! We had ridden for about an hour up a pretty steep slope when I asked how far we had gone and was told about 7 miles. "How much farther do we have to go," I asked? "Oh about three more miles," he said as he pulled into a clearing and parked the Arctic Cat. "I thought you said we had 3 more miles to go?" "I did, now get on out and strap-up!" We got out and walked to the back of the Cat to a storage compartment behind the cab. That’s where they kept the Snowshoes!

After struggling to strap-up, we gathered our equipment (including a propane torch that had been stored in a pre-heated thermal carrying kit) and hiked up an even steeper hill the last 3 miles. When we finally arrived, our first task was to use the warm propane torch to heat up the frozen propane tank to un-gel it so we could get operational and test our the new outdoor equipment. The TEG began to work, we installed the test gear, and it work too. HALLELUJAH! --

That was in 1992 and I was working as a logistics specialist in the Acquisition Directorate of HQ AFTAC at Patrick AFB, Cocoa Beach, Florida. Our HQ building was on the westside of the U.S. A1A and the NCO club’s swimming pool was across the street on the beach side. Our office was on the 3^rd floor. Every afternoon at 1530 hrs. the office would pretty much shut down for a "hot-air popcorn" break. As a SSgt. in a room full of officers I had the duty of patrol/watch. I ate my popcorn and manned the binoculars, keeping an eye on the pool and looking out for any promising females sunning themselves. As you can tell it was hard luck assignment.