[Milsurplus] Aleutian campaign factoids

[Hue Miller]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lloyd KK7IZ" <kk7iz at cox.net>

> I was stationed at Cold Bay on 1984 as part of a helicopter support team 
> drilling off the Prebilof Islands (sic?) .
> There were many "artifacts" still in existence. 

When i was working in a surplus store ca. 1977, a fellow came in to 
sell some stuff. I think he worked in construction. One of the things
he had was one of those FFR ( i think) receivers built by the same
company that built the GPR-90, Temco (?). That was the little receiver
with 4 or so tuning units that provided variable tuning altho the dial
resolution was an afterthought for this mainly TTY receiver. Anyway
the guy had scooped it up in the Aleutians, genuine gov't abandoned,
along with other stuff. He wanted to trade it in for something. However,
also present at that moment was a local guy disrepected by all as
a BSer and loser. I noticed him turn the Alaska guy aside and heard
him in a low voice, explaining, "See, I work with the local Boy Scout
group, and we always are needing  radio gear to help teach them, etc.
etc." and then, in a jiffy, there was a change in ownership.
Was this a waste of government money? Less so- your government
didn't spend money to have a bulldozer crush and bury the gear, and
it i'm sure eventually was traded on the civilian market. -Hue M.