BACKGROUND FOR WAR: Alaska: Airman's Theater

BACKGROUND FOR WAR

Just ahead of the winter freeze-up, the broad-bottomed barges cast off from Nome's weather-beaten docks and tagged southward behind their tugs toward the Bering Sea. Townsmen ashore watched the cargoes of Air Force trucks, black oil drums and crated airplane parts disappear into the blue distance. The Air Force was leaving Nome, lock, stock & barrel. On the plains east of the city, Marks Air Force Base—once the hub of several satellite fields and home for 10.000 World War II troops—was deserted save for its housekeepers and the solitary comings...