Go here to read “On the Bridge,” my most recent article in Alaska magazine. This one is about the marine pilots of the Southwest Alaska Pilots Association, the guys who steer the container ships into Anchorage and the lumber ships out of Kodiak and the cruise ships out of Whittier and the supertankers into and out of Valdez. I got to ride with the captains over the past year and it was a phenomenal experience. Life in Alaska would not be possible without these guys. The best story I’ve ever written for Alaska magazine, very probably the most important, and absolutely the most fun.
And you think maybe a marine pilot might show up in a Kate Shugak novel someday?
Photo is of me boarding the Polar Discovery going into the Port of Valdez to pick up a day’s production of Prudhoe Bay crude, for transport to refineries Outside. Photo taken by Andy Hall, editor of and writer and photographer for Alaska magazine.
2 Comments
Hi Dana… Read your article “On the Bridge” about Alaska marine pilots in “ALASKA” magazine. Very informative. Years ago I was a ‘grunt’ loadmaster on an Interion Airways C-130 hauling cargo to North Slope. A gal journalist went along for a flight. Of course the pilot and copilot were busting their buttons trying to impress her and I was in the background dozing off on the flight engineers table, resting when I could. I never forgot her because she spent some time talking to me and taking notes on what I thought. I was young then ( 20 years old in 1971) and it’s only been in recent years that I realized she was getting the whole story by interviewing me. Maybe you were that gal ? Jim Cambron
I was in at UAF in Fairbanks in 1971, didn’t get to the Slope until 1974, so nope, not me. I wish, woulda been fun. I didn’t get my first ride on a Herc until twenty years later, drat (went on a Guard Santa trip to Savoonga).
Glad you liked the story. Do me a favor and write/email Alaska magazine and tell them so. It’s bit of a departure for them in re subject matter and length and I’d like to do more. I rode with the pilots to research the story and it was an enlightening experience, to put it mildly.
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