Tonight after work we walked Chico in the valley and went to an outstanding lecture/slideshow by the Unalaska High School History teacher Jeff Dickerell on the bombing of Dutch Harbor by the Japaneese during World War II. That subject is especially interesting to us because we live in a 4 plex that was originally built in 1938 as a 24-bed Native hospital. The building - indeed, the very unit we live in - was struck by a bomb and Jeff always gives his lecture on the anniversary of the event. I took the top picture tonight showing the foundation under my place; you can see where they rebuilt as the foundation to the right is new and the foundation to the left is original from the hospital.The bottom photo is from the University of Alaska photo archives and shows the damage that occured right where I live. Goldfish and I are going to order a re-print of that photo to hang in our living room - it is an amazing piece of history! You can view more vintage Unalaska photos here. The lecture was two hours long, every minute of it fantastic - Jeff, you did a great job! Thanks for your service to the school and the community - Jeff spends his vacations flying all over the United States talking to vetrans and digging into the National Archives - we're lucky to have him out here.
3 comments:
Nice - would of loved to hear his lecture. I have seen a documentary on the History channel about Alaska which got into the story of WWII and the bombing of Dutch Harbor - the Japanese take over, the events leading us (the US that is) to get it back, etc. Very imteresing and lots of good film footage!
How neat to have such history in your home. I think hanging a print of that photo is an awesome idea!
Lori, if you saw that documentary, you saw Jeff Dickerell, the guy who gave the lecture. He was on there for three minutes and seventeen seconds (by his count) - he truly knows his stuff, I'll be going to the lecture every year for sure . . .
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