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Tuesday, December 8, 2009
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A different 'Harbor' experience
Staff Writer Many Discovery Channel enthusiasts will recall Dutch Harbor as the starting place for the fishing fleets to take off in search of king crab in the television show, "Deadliest Catch."
While Dutch Harbor, a port located in Unalaska, Alaska, and part of the Aleutian Chain, is known for its commercial fishing, it also has a rich history, notably during World War II. The Dutch Harbor Naval Base was attacked by air by Japanese forces for two days starting June 3, 1942, about six months after Pearl Harbor was attacked.
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Jerry Stromberg (left), of East Gull Lake, showed his friend, Roy Peterson, of northeast Brainerd, where he recently traveled to the Aleutian Islands, about 800 miles from Anchorage, Alaska. Both men spent time in Dutch Harbor; Peterson was stationed there during World War II while Stromberg's daughter lives there. Brainerd Dispatch/ Steve Kohls
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This occurred several months before a northeast Brainerd man was sent with the Navy to the Aleutian Islands to serve 23 months at Attu Island. Attu and Kiska islands were reclaimed from the Japanese by U.S. forces during the Aleutian Campaign. This campaign has been called "The Forgotten War."
Roy Peterson, who turns 87 on Dec. 14, recently recalled his experiences while stationed in Alaska with Jerry Stromberg of East Gull Lake.
The two men have vastly different experiences at Dutch Harbor. Stromberg's daughter, Nancy Patterson, a Brainerd High School graduate, lives in Alaska and a year ago moved to Dutch Harbor to manage the community's only grocery store, a Safeway grocery store. Stromberg and his wife, Lil, spent two weeks last summer in Alaska visiting family, including five days with their daughter in Dutch Harbor.
After Stromberg returned to the Brainerd lakes area he shared his photographs and stories about Alaska with his friend Peterson. The two attend First Lutheran Church together and have often spoken about their Alaskan experiences. Peterson returned to Alaska three times since the war, trips with his late wife Shirley. But they never made it to the Aleutians.
"Anything about Alaska I'm interested in," Peterson said with a smile last Friday as he and Stromberg spoke in Peterson's home. "I think it grows on you."
"I think it would be pretty traumatic to be stationed in Alaska," Stromberg said of Peterson's nearly two years spent on Attu Island during the war. "Until you've been there and seen what it's all about ... It's beautiful but I don't think I could take the cold and the dark."
Peterson, who graduated from Washington High School in 1942, was drafted into the Navy in December, later that year. He went to basic training in Williamsburg, Va., a few months later. He and his fellow seamen were sent by train to California where he was attached to a drydock unit that was sent to Attu Island, located about 1,100 miles from the mainland of Alaska and about 750 miles northeast of Russia.
Peterson and the rest of the crew stayed at Dutch Harbor for five days before they continued on their journey to Attu. He remembers spending most of the time at the docks but did leave to attend gunnery practice at Dutch Harbor. Stromberg said the gun mounts and lookouts, along with observation posts, are still intact today on Dutch Harbor, physical reminders of the war that played out there more than 67 years ago.
Peterson, one of 12 children, had five brothers serving in the war and coincidentally his brother Carl was serving on the Aleutian Island of Shemya, about 40 miles east of Attu while Peterson was there. He was able to get a pass to go visit him. All six of the Peterson brothers made it safely home after the war.
After serving in Alaska, Peterson was shipped to the Philippines in May of 1945 where he worked at a fleet hospital. He was discharged in January of 1946. He spent 26 years as a mason in Brainerd, working on about 400 buildings in this community, including St. Joseph's Medical Center, several state hospital buildings and Riverside and Baxter elementary schools before he retired in 1988. He has two children, Kevin and Marcia; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. His wife, Shirley, passed away in 2001.
The Strombergs have three children who live in Alaska and have been there at least seven times and naturally, plan to return. Stromberg said the crab fishermen featured on "Deadliest Catch" are well known in the Dutch Harbor community and are treated like celebrities when they arrive for the fall fishing season. They load up on supplies at his daughter's store.
JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
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