Saturday, March 19, 2011

Looking For Wakkanai?

I've been getting a lot o' hits the last week or so from folks searching for Wakkanai Air Station or variants on that theme.  One of the very first posts I put up on EIP was about Wakkanai and that post ranks high among Google searches for the term.  Every Wakkanai-searching visitor I've had of late clicks out to "Wakkanai Was My Home," which used to be the definitive website on the subject, and it was a real jewel.  David Lynch, the creator of "Wakkanai Was My Home," did a bang-up job and his photo archives... which featured many contributors, a few o' whom were my contemporaries back in '68 ~ '70... were a treasure for those of us who served there over the years.

Alas, the site is no more.  All you get when trying to go there is the shortest of messages informing you "This website has been cancelled (sic)."   There used to be an app for that... or rather an app to overcome that.  While Google Cache will show you the main page of "Wakkanai Was My Home," the links to the photos and other pages won't get ya to where you wanna go... they're all dead  The same thing holds true for a Google image search; there's a dearth of pictures of Wakkanai AS where there used to be hundreds.  That's a damned shame.  One of the best... arguably THE best... Wakkanai resources has gone dark.

Update, 1545 hrs:  I was doing some looking about on the net and came upon this lil gem:



This video is from 8mm home movies shot in 1962.  Although the time-frame precedes my time at Wakkanai by about six years it appears little had changed in between the time this video was shot and my arrival at WAS.  I'll say it again:  despite the weather and the isolated location, Wakkanai was one of the best assignments I had in my 22-year USAF career, topped only by London (RAF Uxbridge) and Tokyo (Yokota AB).  It was really one of those "ya hadda be there" experiences.

4 comments:

  1. That is one cool video indeed!

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  2. Thanks, Moogie. The shots in and around the city and air station are exactly as I remember the place.

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  3. Moogie (?)
    Sox (SSgt Terrence Hartsox back then) here. Wakkanai 1967 - 1969. Please tell me that nothing bad has happened to Dave Lynch!

    I had some pictures posted on "Wakkanai was my Home" and could probably find 'em again if your interested.

    Er.. I was a computer programmer in the 'pound, worked for Moon Mullins. Did I know you?

    Sox

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  4. I'm happy to report that the Wakkanai was my home website is back up. I hope to keep it going, but I have been sporadically employed in the past 18 months, so it may be touch and go until I am fully employed again.

    I hope you will visit the site.

    Best regards,

    David Lynch
    Website facilitor
    Wakkanai Air Station Website

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Just be polite... that's all I ask.