Engineers In Alaska Defense Program
Must Contend With Everything
From Earthquake to ;Cabin Fever’
By ELTON FAY
FORT RICHARDSON, Alaska,
{#*) — Army engineers who have
/irtually rebuilt and multiplied
the size of most major air and
ground fortifications in Alaska in
a half-billion dollar program have
had to contend with everything
from earthquakes to “cabin
fever.”
And that includes costs ot a
vast amount of material going
into the program—a factor which
may mean materials for the Ladd
Eielson airdrome cost more than
twice as much as back home and
three or four times over the state
side costs for distant and secret
projects out at the far edge of
this huge territory.
Everything conspires to make
military construction more expen
sive and vastly more difficult.
Take the earthquake problem:
Quakes here, in what scientists
call a “zone three,” aren’t dan
gerous but troublesome. In new
concrete and steel construction,
big buildings must be built in
separate sections which can roll
with a temblor, each section link
ed to another by a movable joint.
That also costs money, say the
engineers.
Cabin fever is a problem which
crops up usually out in the bush
, on little projects where a handful
of men work and live together for
long months in entirely isolated
conditions. Quarrels develop —
and work stops.
Then, especially in sub-Arctic
and Arctic Alaska “north of the
range,” there is the cold. It para
lyzes most building outside in .
winter. An old saying here is that ;
it takes twice as many men to do :
half as much work half as well j
in the cold.
Moreover, it is not just this
year’s cold which causes trouble,
but freezing which happened •
geological eons ago. In stripping
ground away for the base of new
bomber runways, engineers en
counter ice which formed millions
of years ago. It causes endless
trouble in locating and construct
ing airstrips and buildings and
utility lines.
Unlike air base construction j
under Army Engineer supervision j
in North Africa, Alaskan defense j
construction has produced no 1
major criticism from Congress.
One reason seems to be it is not
>
a “crash” program which had to
be built in a rush.
Lt. Col. Carl Farrell, deputy
district engineer, tells reporters:
“The Corps of Engineers is proud
of its accomplishments. It has nor
thing to hide. We have made mis
takes but feel they were very
minor and have been corrected.”
For one thing, the Army has
benefitted equally with the Air
Force. Fort Richardson probably
is the only army post entirely new
and modern. When the Air Force
i took over the old fort nearby and
renamed it Elmendorf Air Base,
the Army was provided with its
new home next door.
In the barracks, some of which
already are occupied, the GI is
finding literally he never had it
so good, as far as housing com
fort is concerned. Although short
of luxurious they are a far cry
from the tar paper buildings of
the two world wars. They are
entirely self contained, with quar
ters and feeding facilities for
company - sized units. Squad
rooms sleep 60 men but no longer
are the bunks only inches apart.
Like Ladd, Eielson also shows
little rsemblance to the old “Mile
26” base of World War II days.
Among other things, it now has
one of the longest runways in the
world, over 14,000 feet. A hangar
which is 400 by 400 feet can take
a couple of B-36s at one time for
repair or servicing.
However, it appears even with
completion of current programs
there still will be a housing short
age for servicemen with depend- j
ents in Alaska. Officials are striv
ing to get men out of exorbitant
rent. buildings off the base, which
one officials describes as “little
more than hovels.”
With completion of new run
ways, parking areas, hangars and
repair and supply facilities, three
big fields in Alaska—Elmendorf,
Ladd and Eielson — are able to
handle anything that flies, from
fighters to the largest bombers.
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18 Elderly Patients Perish
In Nursing Home Fire
HILLSBORO, Mo., (JP)—Eight
een elderly patients died Friday
night as fire roared through a
three-story nursing home here.
Most of the dead were trapped
on the third floor of the stone
structure. Other bodies were
found a floor below. _
A nurse first discovered the
blaze about 5:45 p.m. as smoke
and sparks came from a ceiling
of the first floor between the main
building and an annex.
The fire spread quickly up the
stairways and along corridors as
attendants tried to get the 85
residents of the home, several of
them invalids, out of the building.
Hillsboro Fire Chief Richard
King said the blaze apparently
began in a men’s washroom on
the first floor. He made no dam
age estimate on the main building
which he called a total loss.
At least 36 other residents of
the home were reported injured.
They were taken in ambulances
to hospitals in the St. Louis area.
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