Alaska War Memorial

   Alaska War Memorial

We spent the night near here at a campground called Byers Lake.  It was raining, and  the mosquitos have no regard for bad weather -- in fact I think they like it.  We got there late, and didn't explore, but the next morning we left the campground and made an immediate turn into the Alaska War Memorial.

This seemed like it was out in the middle of nowhere, but it is halfway between Anchorage and Fairbanks, two major population centers, and it was determined that the largest number of veterans could get to it.

There is a lot of history here, and it is very well done.  In fact, one of the most thoughtful memorials I have seen.  There are stories going back to the Civil War, when the South actually went to England and bought a Steam Boat that they used to destroy the whaling industry, because it was supplying oil to the North.   There are several Medal of Honor recipients , some of whom were born here, some who were transplants, each with a poignant story from different wars.  There is even a memorial to an Alaskan soldier who died in Alaska in combat with the Japanese.

While we were there, a busload of veterans arrived and solemnly read the signs and looked at the names of their comrades on the different branch of service tablets.  Then they had their picture taken.

During World War II, the Japanese had invaded and captured the Islands of Attu and Kiska at the end of the Aleutian Islands. The US responded by taking all of the natives off the islands and sequestering them in camps which turned out to be even more despicable than the internment camps where we sent Japanese American citizens.  Then, at the battle to retake Attu, three years after its occupation, 2300 Japanese were killed and 3900 American troops died.  The native Alaskans helped plan and execute the invasion, in which more soldiers died from weather related problems than battle wounds.

There was an Alaskan Territorial Guard, which was kind of a home militia,  made up of those who were too young or too old to be drafted.  The ages ranged from 12 to 80.  The resultant contact among members of the various ethnic groups in Alaska changed the dynamics of their cultures after the war.

The statue that stands in front of the memorial honors the Alaskan Territorial Guard.  Many were children. The Guard with the binoculars has it trained precisely on Mt. McKinley, some 35 miles away.  This isn't mentioned at the memorial but appears on several on line descriptions.