On top of Mt Ballyhoo on Amaknak Island
Winter 1942Dearest Reader,
This photo tells more of my father’s story in the Aleutians.
On the back of the photo, my father wrote:
“ON TOP OF MT. BALLYHOO (BARRACKS HOUSING HQ BTRY 264TH CA) ON AMAKNAK ISLAND OVERLOOKING DUTCH HARBOR IN ALEUTIAN ISLANDS WINTER OF ’43”
This placed my father on Mount Ballyhoo, the steep volcanic rise that towers above Amaknak Island and Dutch Harbor. At its summit stood the barracks and headquarters of Battery 6, 264th Coast Artillery.
By the winter of 1943, when this photograph was taken, the Aleutian Campaign was still very much part of daily life. The harbor had been attacked the previous summer, and the occupation of Attu and Kiska had underscored how real the threat was.
The winter of 1943 was not incidental. Aleutian winters were relentless. Snow, ice, freezing rain and dense fog combined with high winds made Mount Ballyhoo an unforgiving place to live and work. Barracks perched high above the harbor offered visibility, but little comfort. The cold seeped into everything, isolation was magnified by weather that could ground planes and delay ships for weeks at a time.
Both photos reflect where my dad was stationed, at the far edge of the nation, standing guard in a place few Americans ever saw. From the top of Mount Ballyhoo, in the winter of 1943, my father captured the world he inhabited: cold, isolated and exposed
Dr. Nancy Watson
Rambling With Nan
Washington
Read More From Nancy
Dr. Woods – Ophthalmologist
“I would like to get you under Dr Woods who, I understand, is the head of the Wilmer Institute” Dr Alan Woods was one of the most respected ophthalmologists of the mid-20th century and a leading figure in American eye medicine. A graduate of Johns Hopkins, Woods trained under the pioneering ophthalmologist William Wilmer and went […]
Presidential Campaigns
My mother’s letter of July 11, 1944, contains a single line that instantly reveals just how different presidential campaigns were then compared to today: “I see by tonight’s headlines that Roosevelt says he is going to run for a fourth term very reluctantly. Humph!” There was no televised announcement, no rally, no choreographed campaign rollout. Instead, Americans opened […]
Information from an Envelope
In October 1942, my grandmother’s letters to my father were address to Battery B, 264th Coast Artillery, Fort Worden, Washington. This places my father within the coastal defense system, of the Pacific Northwest during World War II. Fort Worden is located at Point Wilson in Port Townsend, Washington, guiding the entrance to Puget Sound. Along […]
