Island Duty

Island Duty
In the late summer of 1966 I received orders to report to a duty station on an island in the Bering Sea north of the Aleutian Islands. This duty was what was called “Isolated Duty” because there were no provisions for family housing available at the station. The island was home to a small village of Aleut who had been on the island since the Russians had left years ago, but there were no residences for civilian military dependents there either. The only real contact with the outside world was the weekly, pending weather, mail plane.
The Aleuts had been placed on the island to harvest fur seals for the Russian fur market and when the United States purchased Alaska the Aleuts remained as a native resident population on the island and other islands as well. The fur seals still came every summer to breed on the island beaches as they had for probably thousands of years and we still had trade treaties with foreign countries so the Aleuts still harvested some of the seals every year and were subsidized by the government.
The island was well above the tree line so there were no trees or even many shrubs to see anywhere, just grass covered plains dotted with flowers in the summer and snow in the winter. Animal life consisted of a small caribou “reindeer” herd and some Arctic blue foxes and some small mammals or rodents that thrived in the grassland. In the summer birds were everywhere and as the seals returned to breed and have their young, it became crowded with millions of them on the black sandy beach nesting grounds. Their bawling calls sounded all day and night and took some getting used to for the first few days after they returned. In the winter the island was often so quiet you could hear your own heartbeat or it was so windy that you thought the whole place would be swept into the sea.
A year of duty there was very often boring and you soon drifted into a routine that precluded any similarities to life in the so-called “real world”. Work and sleep were often the only two parts of the day and it was a real treat when a new batch of movies was shipped in by plane with the mail. Naturally, hobbies were a big thing up there, things like building model planes or ships, getting the “Ham” radio to contact the outside world and other things like that.
As my hobby, I chose to undertake a project that required some command approval to do but I was persistent and finally got permission to have my 30-06 rifle shipped to me (via U.S. Mail no less since it was still legal then) on the mail plane so I could make a new stock for it. I had my family pack it up and ship it to me and then I ordered a “Bishop” rough shaped stock blank and some files etc for stock work.
I had purchased my Springfield 1903 several years prior to enlisting and had not done much to “sporterize” it other than cut down the military stock and remove some of the hardware that wasn’t needed. I had a friend help me drill and tap the receiver for a scope, so what it needed was a new stock and some polishing and bluing. I worked on my project at a snail’s pace, since I had plenty of time to spare! Eventually I had my stock inletted and then finished with linseed oil. I was no expert so there was a lot of trial and error but I finally got the job done to my satisfaction. Next I bought a scope and rings and bases and mounted that. I only cold blued the barrel for the time being, planning on doing a complete bluing later at home. When the project was all done I received permission to requisition some M-1 ammo from our armory and sight my rifle in before I called the project complete.
I had a wonderful time doing that rifle overhaul and it taught me a lot about fixing up a used military rifle. I count it as good experience for the future. I later actually had a small part-time gunsmith business for several years in New Mexico. Working on guns can be addictive and enjoyable!
When my tour was done I put my rifle in a case and carried it home with me, first on the plane from the island to Anchorage and from Anchorage to Seattle and from there to the Chicago and finally to the U.P., all without a hassle or even a second glance from anyone! I don’t think you would get away with that today. I simply gave it to the stewardess’ as carry-on luggage and they stowed for me until we landed and I carried it through the terminals with not a care.
Chris