Today is Memorial Day. Americans will have backyard barbeques and relax with friends. Here in Homer, today marks the beginning of the summer tourist season, which is in full swing this weekend. The campgrounds down on the spit are full, tourists are asking where the best halibut fishing can be found, and you can’t find a parking spot at Safeway. This activity is routine for a seasonal tourist town like ours, but having a weekend of recreation isn’t what this holiday was intended to be. Memorial Day was meant to be a solemn day of remembrance for military members who died serving our country.

There will be many ceremonies of remembrance at places like Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, DC, and here in Alaska at Fort Richardson and on the Delaney Park strip in Anchorage, but not all of our honored dead will be remembered. Many of their sacrifices are forgotten. I want to share one of their stories with you.

I grew up at Air Station Annette Island, in the Alaska panhandle near Ketchikan. This military base was constructed during World War II, and when I was a kid, it still had an active Coast Guard search and rescue air station. My father was a civilian contractor on the base.

A relatively small number of Coast Guard members and civilians were stationed there. The Coast Guard provided emergency responses to vessels and aircraft in distress in southeast Alaska. I remember them flying search and rescue missions with HH-52A helicopters and HU-16 amphibious aircraft. They saved the lives of many individuals. Annette Island receives over 150 inches of rainfall annually, and in those days before navigational aids like GPS, the weather conditions made for dangerous and very unfavorable flying conditions much of the time.

On June 15th, 1967, the Coast Guard got the call that a civilian aircraft was overdue and dispatched an HU-16 Albatross aircraft to attempt to locate the missing plane. During search operations in bad weather, the Coast Guard aircraft crashed into a mountainside near Sloko Lake in British Columbia. Three of the six men on board the Coast Guard aircraft died in the crash. The names of the deceased individuals were LT Robert D. Brown, LT David J. Bain, and AT1 Robert W. Striff, Jr. They were well known to everyone on that small military base, including my parents. I remember the incident and how hard their deaths were felt by everyone, given the close-knit nature of our small community. The deaths had a devastating impact on morale at that base.

Unlike the more established memorials in Washington, DC, and Anchorage, there will be no ceremonies to remember these men; their deaths are forgotten by almost everyone. In fact, the entire air station at Annette Island was shut down and moved to Sitka ten years after the crash. So, if there was ever a plaque in their honor, no trace remains. They are long forgotten except perhaps by the surviving members of their families and the very few of us with long memories.

Today, I hope every Alaskan reflects upon the sacrifices people in the military make. Whether fighting in foreign wars overseas or Coast Guard teams conducting search and rescue operations here in Alaska. These individuals put themselves at risk trying to protect us. Sometimes, they do not return home.

So, by all means, enjoy the holiday weekend, and have some friends over for a barbecue, but before you eat your hamburger or hot dog, please take a moment to remember all of the military members who have died keeping us safe. They paid the ultimate price to ensure your freedom. The least you can do today is say a few words in their honor and remember their sacrifice.

The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.

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