Fred's Place - The Place To Meet Old Coast Guard Shipmates

One Man, One Island, One Story ...

LORSTA Sitkinak 1974

My name is Don Harms. I was an EM-2 in 1974 with the Coast Guard on Sitkinak Island. I just recently found my old box of slides from Sitkinak and have transferred them to digital format. The memories came flooding back as I was doing this. I will be happy to send anyone who desires one, a copy of this CD. All that is required is a mailing address. Email me at DonHarms@msn.com Really would like to hear from my old shipmates again!

I look back today at my year on Sitkinak with pride. It was truly a tough time being away from my family for a year but I had a lot of great experiences there that I will always remember.

I made 1st class (EM-1) and eventually Chief before leaving the Coast Guard in 1980 after 12 years of service. It was a wonderful time for me and I wouldn't trade the memories for anything!

I am terrible at remembering names now much less names from 30 years ago! My apologies to my shipmates on this matter!

96 Photos

Dan Harms March 1974.

LORSTA Sitkinak - Gateway to a great adventure!

The first thing you see after landing at Sitkinak. Gateway to a great adventure!

Only means onto or off Sitkinak Island and a welcome mail plane! Sometimes went 3 or 4 weeks in the winter without a mail plane but that just made it all the more enjoyable when they did come.

View of our fresh water lake from between the barracks and generator building.

Looking across the runway. The object on the peak up there is "the dome" and you can just see the road snaking it's way up the mountain.

View of "the Dome". The easiest way to get there was by truck (3 or 4 trucks on the island). Later learned that this was some kind of station for the Air Force but was never completed.

View of "the Dome".

View from "the Dome".

Looking down on the Coast Guard Loran Station. You can see the fresh water lake in the center, runway just in front of it and the loran station on the left with the tower. I believe we were a slave Loran C and a Master Loran A. Our entire mission is to keep the antenna tower radiating 24/7!

More views of the island.

View from the transmitter building looking up to the generator building and barracks building.

View of the barracks.

This area was between the barracks and generator buildings.

Many ways to keep one's time occupied! Movies every night and as much food as you could eat anytime of the day or night. You just had clean up after yourself if not a normal meal.

Many ways to keep one's time occupied!

View of the transmitter building looking towards the runway. You can also see the fuel tanks where fuel for the generators was stored. Gravity feed to the generator room.

Generator, work shops and at the far end is the domain of the ET's where they monitor the Loran transmissions. You can see the 3 exhaust stacks for the 3 generators through the roof.

This is my domain. I was an EM-2 at the time and was responsible for keeping the lights on! One of the three generators was running on line all the time, one on standby and the third in a maintenance status. The generator sets are Caterpillar engines and generators. We rotated the status of each generator each Monday. By performing a paralleling procedure we could bring the new generator online and drop the off going generator with even blinking the lights. This was vital as we eventually earned an award for having the Loran C transmission online for 99.99% of the time during the year I was there. Much credit for this went to the ET's as I only had a small part in it.

This is my domain.

Views from around the island. Many things to do and it was good to get away from the station for a while on a hike or something. Once you made up your mind that you were stuck for a year the time passed quickly enough.

Views from around the island.

Views of "The Ranch". This was probably used by construction crews during the building of the "Dome" and the Loran Station. Sometimes small groups would stay here overnight to get away from it all.

Views of "The Ranch".

I saw this view from my window one night and had to get a shot of it!

The "Cool Barge" arriving. I have no idea why it's called the cool barge but it was. They brought supplies that were unable to come by plane. Mostly in the form of fuel for the generators. I have forgotten how the fuel actually made it from the beach to the 7 storage tanks! A distance of 3 miles I would guess.

The "Cool Barge" arriving.

Beach scene

Blue!!! He was a fine dog. If anyone went hiking or exploring away from the station more than likely Blue was with them. In this case I went in search of a rumored plane crash high in the mountains. After we found it many other guy's made the trek. Never did learn what kind of plane or why it crashed.

Blue!!! He was a fine dog.

Views from around the island.

Views from around the island. I must confess this is one of my all time favorite photo's. You can see the station including the tower on the right side. Colors are outstanding with the sun behind me and late in the day.

Wow a Coast Guard C130. Probably bringing supplies that can't come on the mail plane. FOOD!!

Wow a Coast Guard C130.

Wow a Coast Guard C130. As I snapped the shutter on this one the aircraft engines had the props thrusting for takeoff and the entire runway behind the aircraft lifted up and blew away. This was the last C130 to land on Sitkinak Island I am told because of the runway condition. After that only small mail planes or helicopters. Missed a great shot by ½ a second!

The annual salmon run. Big fish but poor eating by the time they got here.

A Coast Guard Helicopter lands and I don't remember why!

Winter moving in and the sports are moved indoors!

Halloween 1974. As you can see some of these guy's had TOO MUCH free time on their hands!

Halloween 1974.

Winter officially arrived on Sitkinak

Christmas 1974.

Outdoor barbeque just for fun!

Winter settles in!

March 1974. Yours truly with the "Number 1 Short Timers Badge" which was bestowed on the next person due to rotate back to the real world. As I remember I had the badge for 7 to 10 days before I left.

One of the happiest day's of my life and also a sad one. I left behind a lot of good friends and returned to my family. This is the last that I ever saw of Sitkinak Island.

Views from around the island.

Halloween 1974.

Christmas 1974.