I love Alaska; served two tours at Ft. Wainwright. My first tour was cut short by a winter-over tour at Amundsen-Scott Station (South Pole) and my second tour ended early by being assigned to complete my MS and teach ROTC at Georgia Tech. The “Polar Bears” job was to train for Arctic warfare, (with frequent maneuvers in Canada and Norway) and rescue Air Force types. Although the Arctic Survival School (“Cool School”) belonged to the USAF at Eilson AFB, many of the instructors such as myself were Army.
I fondly remember the haunting beauty of the Aurora Borealis (you can hear it, too). The ice rugby games, the Midnight Sun baseball game with the Alaska Gold Panners (many major league players have played in this game), sunbathing at 10 PM. The exploits of the UAF “Nanooks” hockey team. Our helicopter rescues of downed flyers, both sides of the border, since the Canadian choppers lacked the range of our Chinooks.
All that kept me from retiring there are my solid New England roots, my business interests are not portable and I’d have a hard time earning a living there. A breathtaking place.
Sarah Palin? Meh. Doesn’t even represent the real interests of Alaskans.