Chuck's Stuff

I flew out to the 719th Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W)Squadron, Sparrevohn, Alaska from Elmendorf AFB near Anchorage, around January 5th 1955 on a C-119 "Flying Boxcar" similar to this one:

Sparrevohn was home to around 130 guys who were manning a radar station in the middle of nowhere in the territory (now state of) Alaska. Our roll was to give an early warning of any attack on the USA. This was during the cold war with the USSR. My particular duties were confined to the Communications Center operating the teletype machines, switchboard, and spinning records in the AFRS (Armed Forces Radio Station). It all seems so long ago....Hey, it WAS long ago. I arrived at Sparrevohn in January of 1955 and left in January of 1956.

Below are some pictures I took with my Argus C-4 35MM film (remember film?)

The Welcome Sign The Squadron Patch

Quonset Huts for Sleeping, Yours Truly in the Comm Center

Eating, Living (?) HERE is a link to an operating

Connected by a Hallway teletype machine similar to one
that we used.

Officers & NCO Quarters The Armed Forces Radio Station

The PX / Pool Hall The Weasel

Army Engineers Tents Mess Hall

Cooks in the Mess Hall Guys at the Weather Station

Weather Baloon Cairn Mountain Beacon

Located near Wx Station

Looking towards "Opportunity", Stuck Snowplow

a radio relay station

Yours Truly on a sunny day.

Lime Hills in the background.

The Radome on Hilltop

Looking down the mountain

from Hilltop.

Cordova DC-3 touchdown

Perfect Landing

Taxi to a stop - note switchback road

going up to the radome on Hilltop

Cordova Airlines DC-3

Alaska Airlines C-46 (callsign 44NAN)

USAF C-47

SA-16 on takeoff

C-124 Globemaster and C-119 ....Globemaster ready to takeoff

Aerial view of Sparrevohn...road to Hilltop on upper left.

Runway on right.

Power house upper center, Quonset huts in center. Motor pool to right of quonset huts.

Aerial view of Hilltop. Note switchback road to radome.

Lime Hills in upper left

Fast forward to 2009.

Two geodesic domes used for living quarters in 2009. The site
only has a few people now. Note radome at upper right on top
of the mountain.

The interior of one of the domes.....quite a a contrast
from the quonset huts we occupied in 1955....

Another view of the 2009 living quarters and maintenance area.

Namesake Col. Fred Sparrevohn (ret.), third from the left,

on a fairly recent visit to Sparrevohn with friends/family.

A pilot's view of landing at Sparrevohn, Alaska. Note the low lying clouds at the end of the runway.....also note that the runway runs uphill....found this photo on the web somewhere.

For some more great pictures of that terrible runway at Sparrevohn,

click HERE.

Here's a video of a DC 3 taking off from Sparrevohn. The date is unknown, but it's obviously in the summertime and fairly recent (2008 ?). The runway and the area around it look much neater (where are the oil drums?)

Patrick Super DC 3 takeoff ...

TransNorthern Super DC 3 takeoff from Sparrevohn in Alaska just West of the Alaska Range. The runway has a 5% uphill slope. You land uphill into a deadend valley where a go around would be impossible. You take off downhill, typically turning right to follow the gentle downslope of the valley. On this flight which departed empty and with only about 1200# of fuel, the aircraft turns left easily outclimbing the terrain. The landing zone of the runway is a very gentle upslope, with the rollout a very steep hill. I assume the % slope indicated is an average over the entire length. The video does not reveal how steep the runway actually is. There is a radome on the 3800' mountain that you face as you land. TransNorthern operates 3 Super DC's and other aircraft which can be seen at www.transnorthern.com .

HERE is a great video of approach and landing at Sparrevohn.

HERE is a video of the same plane taking off.

WHAT TIME IS IT at Sparrevohn?

HERE is a video of a ride up the mountain to Hilltop and Opportunity.

HERE is a video of a walk down Weasel Ridge in 1953-54

Thank you Carl.

HERE is everything you wanted to know about today's

LRRS station at Sparrevohn

HERE is the latest weather report from Sparrevohn.

HERE is the latest weather RADAR from Sparrevohn.

HERE is current activity (takeoffs and landings) at Sparrevohn (PASV)

HERE is the Wikipedia link to Sparrevohn AFS history.

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I live in Minneapolis, a couple of blocks from Lake Calhoun. It's a nice area to live in. It's close to the Lakes and Uptown, and right next to the Midtown Greenway Bicycle Trail.

Lake Calhoun nearby

I belong to the Twin Cities Bicycling Club (TCBC). Between club rides and other rides, I logged over 2,250 miles in 2011,
Down a bit from last year....must be slippin'. You can click on the logo below for more information on TCBC.