09. Pauls Perambulations

April 23, 1994

Greetings to everybody, with more notes from North Pole:

Paul's perambulations continue. I mentioned that I was departing for Albuquerque and I have also noted that air travel can get very interesting from up here. I believe that the gods of air travelers have decided that Alaskans either need constant tempering, or that we are simply better able to cope with aerial frustrations than those who fly less often. So are given a larger measure of problems. Now and then however, you just get lucky. Upon leaving Albuquerque, I arrived in time to be placed on an earlier flight. With all my recent experiences, and recalling the admonition of one of my history teachers that those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it, I accepted the airlines offer to be placed on an earlier flight (even though I could not get out of Denver any earlier) and thus moved a little further along on my trip. Just as this flight was leaving they announced that my original flight was canceled due to mechanical failure and there was no hope (on the day before Easter) of these passengers getting out of Albuquerque before Monday.

Anyway in the land of enchantment, the temperatures were mild, food was great, and I met a lot of old friends. I had gone to Albuquerque to assist in a plan for the implementation of a new career ladder for park rangers. A friend of mine in the Washington office had asked that I be appointed to attend this session. I went down to tell him that it is going to be difficult to organize, expensive to implement and traumatic for those not in the ranger series. Generally, they did a poor job of planning its birth. I soon learned that I should keep my mouth shut.

The gods must have made a mistake, in Albuquerque, deciding I was seasoned enough, or the experience was aimed at someone else, as a week later I was headed for Tucson. I was on an Alaska Airlines plane that only made it 50' from the gate. Couldn't get one of the engines to start. None of us passengers were encouraging them to keep trying. Although we were frustrated and unhappy, we thought it might be better to have a failure at the gate than in the air. However, Delta Airlines was happy. We were herded off of Alaska Air and onto an almost empty Delta plane for the trip to Anchorage. There I switched back to Alaska Air and continued my journey to the land of sunshine.

The middle of the next week was spent at Anchorage where I learned I should have kept my mouth shut in Albuquerque. My trip to the big city was primarily to meet with the Air Force concerning a conflict of planned operations. I made a quick stop at the regional office and met with the Regional Director about the problems in Yukon-Charlie skies.

He listened quietly and said, "Good luck with the Air Force." and followed up with "How well do you know the Director (of the Park Service)?"

I said, "I have met him on a couple of occasions. But, doubt that he knows more than my name as one of his Superintendents. Why?"

He told me he wants you as Captain for the "Ranger Futures" program for Alaska."

"That is strange," I commented. "I spent one evening explaining to Jim Brady why the program was a bad idea."

The Regional Director laughed and said, "That's it then. This is the work of Jim Brady. Known him long?"

"Too damn long apparently!" I observed.

Glancing at the clock, I realized there was time for a phone call to the Washington Office before closing time.

I called and Jim Brady came on the line, "Hello Team Captain. How are things in Alaska."

"What the hell are you trying to pull? You know I do not believe in this program."

"Paul, we have known each other a long time. I know that whatever job is assigned you, will be accomplished. There is some resistance to this program among the Superintendants. I talked it over with the Director. You are it my man. Sell the program. All you have to do is go to each area and present information on what the program means. Just don't end it with, 'This program is crap and I am all against it'."

The next few days were spent in consultation, confabulation, confrontation and several other "cons" with the Air Force. It seems that they have planned supersonic training and we have planned a helicopter slingload operation in the same airspace at the same time. Both of us assured the other of the importance of our activity and the uncompromisable nature of the schedule. After we compromised and were ready to depart, I played my final ace; I told the commanding officer that I needed him to appoint one of his people to assist in handling of a $65,000 grant USAF had given me for peregrine falcon studies. Now that we had agreed on a modum operandi; I would not have to return the money. You should see the look on a "bird" colonel's face when the game is over and his opponent did not play the winning card. He was only somewhat consoled by being able to take credit in the implementation of the grant. Occasionally, the gods of air travel are kind and I felt very safe in flying back to Fairbanks on a large jet with lots of other folks. May be a little more apprehensive flying around Yukon-Charley Rivers in my little "bug smasher" with all those "lawn darts" going past at supersonic speed. They don't carry live ammo, do they?

A short time later I made a trip to Tucson which started off in an interesting fashion and got, to quote Alice, "curiouser and curiouser". A training facility, for fighting wildfire, located in the middle of the desert, at an old air base, is not something that seems ordinary. I arrived in Tucson, after dark, and drove out about 30 miles into the desert along some deserted roads. Certainly, I am used to entrance stations so I pulled up to the stop sign (I did think it was unusually large) and watched the guard come up to my car (I did think it looked more like he was making a felony car stop). When I informed him that I was here to attend a fire fighting course, he invited me into the station (I did think it sounded more like a command). As I stepped into the building, I heard his radio come on and a voice giving the urgent information "Warning! Warning! Intruder alert in zone 6" (I did wonder what kind of intruder invaded a fire-fighting training facility). As I watched a bunch of 4x4s go charging off into the desert at a high rate of speed (I did notice that they were not fire trucks), my memory recalled information acquired while we lived in Tucson. This had been (still is?) a CIA base for Evergreen Air. The radio kicked back on with information from the "Intruder Intercept Force", "It was just goliath!" I looked skeptical and one of the guards informed me that Goliath was a giant jack rabbit that kept setting off the alarms.

Actually, the guards were very nice and I felt very safe with an armed escort to the fire fighting area. With this kind of service, I was inclined to accommodate their request that they would appreciate my cooperation in not entering certain areas of the air park. I also became aware of the ability of a desert night to cause hallucinations. One morning I asked a lady, serving breakfast at the chow hall, if she had seen that flight of helicopters come in last night without any lights showing. She looked quickly around and then, looking me straight in the eyes, informed me that there had been no flights SCHEDULED for that night. Ah, the impact of a clear desert night on one's mind.

One thing that was not a hallucination was the 747 that carries the space shuttle back and forth. It is stored here when not in use. Sure looks strange with all of the support mechanism for the shuttle. I thoroughly enjoyed my return to Tucson and the desert. It is a tremendous magnet for those of us who have learned to love it. The return flight to Alaska was uneventful.

And in Alaska changes were underway. Gates of the Arctic National Park came to Diana and asked her if she would come to work for them on an emergency appointment. They needed a replacement, for a short term, that would not have to be trained, and who could start immediately in their operation. She will work for two weeks now and be available for call-in work in the future.

The extremes of Alaska also continue. A couple of months ago we had almost no daylight. Now it is light from about 5:30am until 10:30pm. Everything is melting and Alaska is ice, water, and mud. Diana and I were returning from town and she was reading the mail. I turned onto one of the main routes to our house when she looked up at the road and said, "I'm not getting out and turning the hubs!". It did look like we might require 4x4 to get home through the axle deep mud. Temperatures have moved up to the 60s during the day and are above freezing most nights. Complaints about the heat have already started. We are also experiencing the first mosquitoes of the season. It appears that this might be a bumper year. Those of you planning a visit should be prepared. I was assured that if you have a hat, headnet, long sleeve shirt, bush jacket soaked in DEET, cotton gloves, long trousers and sox that can be pulled up over the pant legs; you are prepared for the great Alaska outdoors. All I can say is, "come on up, it's worth the inconvenience!".

So the saga of life in Alaska continues and once again it is time to end this epistle from Paul.