encore
Barred Entry
A Coast Guard officer on temporary additional duty orders in Alaska is surprised by the treatment he receives from an Air Force officer when his identity is not immediately confirmed.
In 1959, I was given temporary additional duty (TAD) orders to inspect contract buoys on the Kuskokwim River in Alaska. I was stationed on USCGC Clover, a 180-foot buoy tender-ice breaker home-ported in Adak, Alaska. It was my first assignment after OCS.
I flew in a Coast Guard airplane 1,043 miles from Adak to Kodiak and then in another plane 391 miles from Kodiak to Bethel, where I was picked up by the owner of a tugboat, who was the civilian paid by the government to maintain the buoys.
After the inspection, the tugboat owner dropped me off at the Air Force Distant Early Warning station outside of Bethel to spend the night. To my surprise, there was no gatehouse with a guard in it.
I walked into the building and saw light coming from an office. There was a first lieutenant sitting at a desk. He looked up at me and in a surprised tone asked, “Who are you?” My uniform did not seem to make any difference. I gave him my name and told him why I was there. He asked for my ID card, which I gave him. He then asked for my shot record, which we had to carry back then. After looking at it, he picked up the phone and called the station commanding officer.
A major came through the office door on the double, looked at my ID card and shot record, then questioned me for some time. He then called someone to raise Adak Naval Air Station on the radio to confirm my identity. In the meantime, he told the lieutenant to put me under house arrest until my identity was confirmed. I was a bit unnerved and thought I was going to be locked up in a brig.
The lieutenant told me to pick up my flight bag and follow him. He took me upstairs to a second-floor bedroom with two bunks and told me to leave my flight bag there and follow him. I thought he was taking me to a cell. We walked to the end of the hallway, he opened a door, and we walked into a big room that had a bar. He told me to sit on one of the bar stools and asked me what I wanted to drink. He poured it and poured one for himself, and we had a nice conversation.
We were in the bar for quite some time because they could not pick up Adak on the radio. One of their sergeants was a ham radio operator, and he finally reached a Navy ham radio operator at the naval air station, and my business and identity were confirmed.
The following morning, the lieutenant drove me to the airport. When we said goodbye, I thanked him for the Air Force’s very hospitable imprisonment.
MO
— Robert V. Ricard is a retired Coast Guard lieutenant commander and a Life Member of MOAA. He lives in Eastpointe, Mich. For submission information, see page 6.
Tell Your Story Submit your service-related adventures (or mishaps) of approximately 450 words by email to
encore@moaa.org or by mail to Encore Editor, 201 N. Washington St., Alexandria, VA 22314. All submissions will be considered for publication.
88 MILITARY OFFICER JANUARY 2014
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