RED DOG TOUR PART ONE: RETURN TO KOTZEBUE
Wake up alarm at 4:00AM yesterday! I had accepted an invitation to tour the Teck-Cominco Red Dog zinc and lead mine way north of the Arctic Circle. Enroute, we toured the vocational school at Kotzebue – 28 miles north of the Arctic Circle (I know it is 28 miles because during 1964 and 1965 I lived I was assigned to the radar site at Kotzebue as Operations Officer and Second -in-Command).
The Tech School is providing tremendous opportunity for students in this part of Alaska. If we are to have the skilled work force needed to build a gas pipeline – or many other good things – we simply must educate folks with the skills essential to the job. I’m a big time supporter of vocational education conducted in public schools, vocational schools, by the unions, and others. We lose good people when vocational education is made second-class.
The primary need for the Kotzebue Trade School is beds for students coming into Kotzebue from the smaller bush communities. Unfortunately, the radar site (748th AC&W Squadron) quarters where I served was torn down a few years ago. The radar information is now remoted into Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage – and the 100 men who once inhabited the radar site are no longer needed. Obviously, those beds could have been put to good use at the new Kotzebue trade school. That’s government for you – reminds me of the time at Great Falls Air Force Base when the painted a new centerline on the main street, the re-paved the same street the following week – but digress.
I met the Mayor of Kotzebue (see photo). He was about four years old when I served my remote tour at the radar site (my family had to stay in Dexter, Missouri). It was fun to talk about Kotzebue in 1964-65 versus 2007.
The Tech School is providing tremendous opportunity for students in this part of Alaska. If we are to have the skilled work force needed to build a gas pipeline – or many other good things – we simply must educate folks with the skills essential to the job. I’m a big time supporter of vocational education conducted in public schools, vocational schools, by the unions, and others. We lose good people when vocational education is made second-class.
The primary need for the Kotzebue Trade School is beds for students coming into Kotzebue from the smaller bush communities. Unfortunately, the radar site (748th AC&W Squadron) quarters where I served was torn down a few years ago. The radar information is now remoted into Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage – and the 100 men who once inhabited the radar site are no longer needed. Obviously, those beds could have been put to good use at the new Kotzebue trade school. That’s government for you – reminds me of the time at Great Falls Air Force Base when the painted a new centerline on the main street, the re-paved the same street the following week – but digress.
I met the Mayor of Kotzebue (see photo). He was about four years old when I served my remote tour at the radar site (my family had to stay in Dexter, Missouri). It was fun to talk about Kotzebue in 1964-65 versus 2007.
Photos show and electrical identification display, and me with the Kotzebue mayor.
posted by Blogs by Rep Bob Lynn | 2:55 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home