Van E. Harl

VOLCANIC CHRISTMAS IN ALASKA

Eruption of Mt Redoubt, Alaska: January 05, 1990
View the north flank and summit crater of Redoubt Volcano. The largest dome of the 1989-90 eruption had failed 3 days earlier on January 2, 1990. Picture Date: January 05, 1990. Image Creator: McGimsey, Game. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.I lived on Kodiak Island, Alaska with my father the Navy Master Chief, as a child. Because of early imprinting on my young mind I have always had a love for all things Alaskan. My wife and I drove up the Alaskan Highway for our honeymoon. I joined the Air Force hoping someday to be stationed in Alaska.

In 1988 I got the call. I was headed to Elmendorf Air Force Base, Anchorage, Alaska. I drove up the last week of December. It was like being in a seven-day-long Christmas card. Everything was covered in snow and ice. Our first Christmas in Alaska was 1989. It was suppose to a quiet little event involving only my wife and I, and our three dogs.

Anchorage is a town of 250,000 people, but most are first generation Alaskans. Very few people have extended family in Alaska. For the military station in Alaska, the lack of local family can be an even bigger issue. The military tries to have what they call, a liberal leave policy, which lets as many people take vacation during Christmas time as possible. There are a lot of airline tickets with lower “48” destinations purchased by military members, for trips out of Alaska in December. There is also the issue of college age children trying to get home to Alaska for the holidays from their campuses in the south. Plans made, tickets purchased, then nature strikes and changed everything that Christmas of 1989.

There is a volcano called Mount Redoubt less than 100 miles due south of Anchorage. On 14 December 1989 Mount Redoubt had what was called an ash-rich explosion. Sitting in Anchorage watching it erupt was just like watching a nuclear explosion. In fact if you did not know there was a volcano eruption, as some people who lived in the “bush” did not, you very easily could have believed Alaska was under attack.

The mushroom cloud it created looked just like something out of a military film clip. There were a total of 23 major explosive events in the next couple of months. This turned out to be the second most costly volcanic situation in US history, with an estimated economic cost somewhere near $160 million. What is did for Alaska was shut down the entire state during Christmas. The ash cloud in the air made it impossible to fly jet aircraft. In fact a Dutch KLM 747 aircraft lost all four engines in the ash cloud. The crew was able to get them started at the last minute and landed safely at Anchorage. That aircraft was still sitting there the next summer waiting to get all new replacement engines. There were no flights in or out of Alaska after that.

We had a number of Air Force friends who were suppose to be headed home for Christmas, with no back-up plans to celebrate the season in Anchorage. We started calling around and found five military families and a couple of single GIs who were now without holiday plans. We invited them all to our house and that year we had 22 people for Christmas dinner; twenty more than we had planned for.

It turned out to be a picture perfect holiday meal. Roaring fire in the fireplace, house in complete Christmas trim and three foot of snow in the yard, but most importantly our Air Force family was safe. This started a new tradition in our Alaskan home for the next three Holiday Seasons. We put the word out early in the fall that we were having our large Christmas dinner and anyone who was not going on leave to the “lower 48” was invited to dine with us. The rest of the time we were in Alaska we had an average of 18 to 20 people for Christmas dinner. We even had a few civilian Alaskan friends over.

Our daughter was born during our last October in the state and she was sitting (sort of) at the table for our final Alaskan Christmas dinner. When you are military and far from home during the holidays, having your “military family” for Christmas dinner is a wonderful experience. In fact if you are career military, your “military family” is more likely to be closer to you than a lot of your actual family back home. They share your service to country, your constant moving about and they understand what a Volcanic Christmas is, without having to have it explained.