Is new again…
First it was Kef, and now… drum roll…
P-8s are going back into, wait for it, Adak! Sigh…
WASHINGTON: The Navy may begin deploying submarine-hunting P-8 Poseidon aircraft to a small airstrip hundreds of miles off the Alaskan coast, signaling a new emphasis on keeping watch over Russian and Chinese moves in the Arctic.
Full article, HERE.
Word of advice folks, make DAMN sure you carry your foul weather gear with you, and remember to bump up your on top requirements, since your alternate is 2 hours away!
And while you’re there, touch up the paint on the det emblems, please? And don’t forget to add your own!
There are P-3’s back at Hickam.
It still bothers me that the Navy gave up NAS Barber’s Point, but they didn’t ask me before they did that. The P-3C’s went to Guam for patrol duties there, but there is enough activity in the east and central Pacific to warrant patrols.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. We (as a nation) forget that, then we remember it, they we forget it. Then somebody kicks us and we remember it.
Adak. A cousin joined the Navy “to see the world”. Spent his whole enlistment at Adak. Didn’t re-up.
back in the day, adak was a 1 year unaccompanied tour. i loved it so much i extended for 6 months, and would have done another 6 if they would have let me. some of the best fishing, hunting, clam digging and crabbing in the world up there. i worked with the folks from most of those squadrons doing brief/debrief in the T.S.C., 1973-1975
good times…good times
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ps. Merry Christmas!
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Typical. “We no longer need this base.” 10 years later: “OMG! We need a base in (XXXXXXX) to counter the growing threat to freedom of sea lanes” Quick, throw more money at it!
And what’s this about Kef? The most strategic choke point on the planet? You say we need a base there?
An old friend, now sadly passed, was a crew member on P-3s. I gathered he was not very fond of Adak.
I spent the better part of the 10 month Det VP-40 did there with my crew and with other crews allowing married TACCOs to be home with their family for the holidays. I think we did what we all do, make the best of it. When I was there I had a good time. There’s not one bad memory I have of being there. Dets to Elmendorf, BT flights to Barber’s Point and back, Tundra Tavern, first earthquake…
Hey Old NFO;
When I saw the title for your post I immediately though…”Well besides you :D” . I know…horrible person that I am. Seriously though, I see us activating dormant bases and locations due to the Russians and now the Chinese getting real froggy in the pacific. I understand shuddering unused bases when you have to save money, but when we see the money saved being squandered for some other political purpose, like buying votes it does leave a bad taste in ones mouth.
You already know my thoughts on Adak, and its ongoing strategic importance. Some of the facilities there should have been maintained all along; I’m certain the Aleut Corp. would have been happy for that add’l cash flow.
Now what about Johnston Atoll, and some of the islands in the Gilberts and Marshalls?
We need to do this before the Chinese buy the rights using their rather mobish loansharking tactics.
All- Thanks for the comments, Adak wasn’t ‘fun’ for aircrews, but it was a necessary base to cover the north Pacific from. Beans- We still have Kwaj and Guam.
Posted from my iPhone.
Yes, so far we have Kwajalein, but the ChiComs are trying to financially muscle in on the Marshalls. And where the ChiComs go, so do their fishing fleets AND the PLAN. We don’t want the PLAN or their fishing fleets in the Central Pacific.
I wonder if this is how the people all over Europe felt when Hitler and Nazi Germany were looking to just trying to secure their borders, by expanding them
Russian Federation (nee USSR), PRC, DPRK, north slope oil, etc, who the f**k didn’t think it was necessary to keep eyes on the northwest pacific? The stoopid, it hurts.
NSTIW, Goodfellow AFB, Texas, standing out in the smoking area chatting with my classmates after a quiz, when I happened to notice this cute PO2s name tag, and said “Hey, did you just leave Adak?” Turned out she was HH6s cousin, small world she and I were doing classes at Goodbuddy at the same times.
Several years later she was at Whidbey as a CPO, after doing a joint tour in Iraq, apparently I wasn’t supposed to ask if the Army had awarded her a Combat Action Badge for that mortar attack…
(They put her in for it, she never wore it.)
Johnson Island is still ours, complete demil and clean by now, including removal of the stockpile incinerators for old CW munitions stored there. Hey, that’s a great tropical replacement for Gitmo. Much more isolated but good swimming. Don’t worry about any odd UXO that might be in the water, for you guests, it’s only a liquid fill.
We also have Wake and Midway. All good places for the new Gitmo.
Of course, there’s also Bikini atoll…
Actually, Midway is off the list… Now owned by the Park Service. Gotta protect those Gooney birds…
Right department, wrong agency. It’s under the control of the Fish & Wildlife Service as the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and Battle of Midway National Memorial. I believe the runway and some aviation support facilities remain operational under FWS control to support FWS aviation in the area.
NRW- Bill Clinton…
Drang- 🙂 It IS a small world…
PK- LOL.
Clinton, explains it, doesn’t excuse it.
And the Squadron Commander and XO and Training officer, better make dang sure, all crew deployed have their cold weather survival training up to date, and not pencil quals either.
I liked Adak, but I was a dependent working for the housing maintenance company making really good money while Dad was MCPO out at NSGA Adak (separate location a few miles north of the main base. Great hiking, fishing, cross-country skiing in winter. I guess some winters it’s just above freezing most of the time, but both winters I was there, it was mostly below freezing. 212″ of snow the one winter. I remember the wargames in ’83 and the airfield was jam packed with aircraft. That was the only time I saw an S-3 come in. I suppose it had to divert to Adak.