Page 68 - Winterling's Chasing the Wind

towards the runway. Suddenly, there was a brief lull in the winds when he was 400
yards short of the runway and in a couple of seconds, the aircraft plummeted to the
loose gravel safety zone at eh end of the pavement. When I briefed the pilot about the
weather, he told me that on that approach, his navigator was lying on his bunk and
suddenly was thrust against the plane’s ceiling. He was shaken up but fortunately was
not injured. A few days later, the plane from Elmendorf, having been held up by foggy
weather, came in so late with its 2,000 pounds of mail that we had to wait until the next
day for it to be sorted.

CHAPTER 18 - Shemya – A Place NOT God-forsaken
Living on the island was like a religious experience. Walking southward along the
road, I stepped out from our living quarters was inspired by God’s creation of this
sparkling white snow-covered island bordered by the deep blue Pacific Ocean. When I
walked around the building and climbed a few hundred feet higher to the northern peak
of the island, I caught a similar breathtaking view of the Bering Sea. Sometimes the
main road across the island had to be plowed more than once a day. The road which had
piles of snow six to eight feet on each, so it required a large Snow Blower to blast the
snow far enough to keep it falling back into the roadway. If a jeep ran off the road
during blizzard conditions, it often could be found until the snow melted in the spring.
The roadbed was constructed of ground rock because the island was mainly covered
with spongy tundra. There was a rock grinding operation a quarter mile away that
provided gravel to maintain the roads when they were not covered with snow.

Speaking of snow, we lived in the old wind-swept hospital complex not far from the top
of the island. The windward or south side of the building was where we had no trouble
finding access. It was on the back wind-protected side of the building that snow
collected nearly roof high. When I first arrived, I was led to the back of the wing that
had formerly been the psycho ward during World War II. My bunk was about 8 feet
from the back door. Someone had recently opened the door and snow tumbled from a
huge snow bank into the doorway. The snow was so dense that it took more than a week
to completely shut the door.

Between working, walking, and looking at the unfamiliar features of this volcanic
island, I found time to read the first 35 chapters in my new RSV Bible. I compared it
with the King James version and hardly noticed much difference. The building that we
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