[Milsurplus] Adak and other

[Hue Miller]

Lloyd, while at Cold Bay did you ever hear  about Japanese equipment 
captured at Attu - Kiska
being brought to Cold Bay and stored until 1948, then buried? GIs were 
prohibited from taking
anything, even at that date, but at least one pair of field glasses were 
liberated and (maybe ) a
radio set  I have, which was exhibited for years with a tag, clearly 
somewhat incorrect, "Found
in a cave at Cold Bay". ( I suspect actually, "Holtz Bay", which sounds 
something similar....)
Okay, I can see you don't want maybe a bunch of Nambu MGs floating around, 
but what
sense to destroy other non-lethal equipment? Idiots.

Many years ago I worked at a surplus store in Seattle. One of the regular 
sources of "stuff" was
people just coming in, or phoning in to make an appointment, and selling 
their stuff to the store.
One day a fellow who identified  himself as an Alaska fisherman came in with 
some things to
sell. He had a couple of those TMC type FFR receivers, the little grey 
things with the plug in
front ends, with the crummy bandspread, that were actually intended for 
crystal controlled
TTY reception. The store boss went out to the parking lot to have a look. 
Unfortunately at that
moment, K., a lifelong underdog-loser and professional BSer, was just 
getting out his jeep
in the parking lot.  The boss dallied getting out there, maybe just thinking 
that this was a really
minor purchase and nothing to get hurried about.  K. took the fisherman 
fellow aside and
I heard him earnestly confide in the fisher fellow, "I'm working with a 
group of local Boy
Scouts and we really need equipment....training.....etc.....etc."  Anyway K. 
ended up with the
gear, driving off; the fisherman I suppose walked away with no money, 
contributing the
stuff he came to dispose of, after hearing about the noble cause.  Oh, the 
point, and it's not
just to gore one moron. The fisherman fellow said he had picked them up at 
some
abandoned installation. Yes, they were in nice condition, could have been 
proudly sold at
any surplus store. Your tax dollars at work, indeed.
story via: Hue Miller