Aster about nine months, Penny – who was living in New Jersey – did not like my being away. I decided to leave Thule (losing the tax break) and go to Alaska where a similar site was being built. We flew to Fairbanks and found an apartment for Penny. I moved to the radar site, about 60 miles south of Fairbanks. I would come to Fairbanks once a week for overnight stays. That winter I rented a trailer home near the site, and I moved into it with Penny. The trailer was in a park created by BMEWS employees. It was called LIAHO, which stood for “let it all hangs out’. It was a party cry on nights at the site.
We had bought a Triumph TR3 in New Jersey. The dealer also had a Citroen DS-10 on display. I decided that was a neat car, and ordered one in Alaska. It came up on a car carrier truck, strapped down. They started it up on the carrier and it tired to fuse on its hydraulic suspension, but the straps prevented ith. So it blew out a hydraulic seal. After that, it would go up and down as you drove. Penny badgered a local garage – they finally brought an aircraft mechanic form the airport and got it fixed.
I spent the day we moved to Liaho packing a borrowed VW bus. When we drove out of town, the bank clock showed a temperature of 50 some degrees below zero. When we got to the trailer, the trailer outside thermometer showed -72 degrees. The alcohol was frozen – we don’t know how cold it actually got. But it stayed frozen for about ten days!
Penny hated Alaska for the first few weeks. Then in Fairbanks she volunteered to work at the school, and got to meet Alaskans instead of BMEWS wives, and fell in love with the country.
And just ewhen she was enjoyiing it the most, I got transferred to Colorado SPrings to forf a group to work with the AIr Force crating reports on the performancee of the system.