• inr. ana Mrs. umei James R. Ray
Staff Photo
It’s Sea Legs For Storis’ Chief Ray
After Unable To Become A Lumberjack
I Miriam J. Angell
frhe United States Coast Guard
Cutter Storis has plowed Alaskan
waters since the end of World War
II. She first made her home port
at. the Naval Base, Kodiak, in 1957,
the year she became the first deep
draft vessel ever to pass from the
Pacific Ocean through the Arctic
Ocean, across the top of North
America through the fabled and
long sought Northwest passage,
and into the Atlantic Ocean.
For the next two years Storis
broke ice in the Arctic Ocean to
allow supply ships to reach the
Canadian Dewline stations. In 1960
she enforced international fish and
game treaties in the annual Bering
Sea patrol. At all other times when
not employed on long patrols,
Storis stands ready at Kodiak for
Search and Rescue calls, for logis
tic trips to isolated lighthouses and
lor an stations, and for mainten
ance to navigational aids.
The ship is a light icebreaker,
230 feet long, drawing about 15
feet of water, and manned by
eleven officers and a crew of 105.
Her skipper is CDR 0. P. Dawson,
her Executive Officer is LCDR R.
K. Angell, and the man in charge
of her deck force is Bosun Mate
Chief James R. Ray. All three men
are representative of the Coast
Guard and the jobs the service
performs, often in craft so small,
and under conditions so severe as
to astound the uninitiated.
Chief Ray joined the Coast
Guard fifteen years ago after hav
ing served for two years in the
Navy. Had he been one year older
at the time he enlisted with the
Navy he might have had an en
tirely different career; his father
was a logger in the tall timber
lands of Northern Oregon and the
KODIAK
L • ^
E Heating Oils
A Refined to Burn Clean
N
OIL
I r.yr 'ii /.wi/i'iiu
L That Needs No Additives
SALES
E .
R That Eliminates Worry
V
I
C
E
KODIAK OIL SALES
HEATING OILS — BOTTLED GAS — MARINE
SERVICE — LUBE OIL — GASOLINE — DIESEL
Phones
Dock 486-2411 Home 486-2412
son would have become a logger
too but for a state law requiring
a man to be eighteen before he
could work in the woods with ma
chinery.
Movies we have seen always de
picted loggers as enormous brutes
with muscles of steel, a roistering
lot usually embroiled in some sort
of war with nice people who want
them to 9pare that tree; of course
it would come out all right long
before it does were it not for some
dunderhead, or spoilsport with a
yen for arson.
Chief Ray agreed the Hollywood
version of logging was pretty
corny fare, and said it was nothing
like that when he was growing up.
The loggers did their work skill
fully and calmly, and raised their
families. His mother had five girls
and three boys and she moved
them around, setting up a home
wherever the senior Ray followed
the timber. “When I was in my
teens I was a surveyor’s helper
and made advancements in the
same field; it was about the only
job in the woods that a kid of my
age could do.
“You know, logging is danger
ous; in big timber it’s all high
level stuff in trees around 80 feet
tall. They usually top the tallest
■tree on a knoll or hill for a spar
pole, hang block and tackle on it
and work from there; in most cases
they can work out in a three mile
circle before they need to move
to another spar pole. With this
equipment the felled trees hardly
ever touch the ground.”
Chief Ray went on to say that
he joined the Navy on his 17th.
birthday in 1944, was mustered
out as a seaman in 1946 and in the
same rate enlisted in the Coast
Guard a couple months later. His
stations since that time have all
been in the Pacific Northwest and
in Alaska, where he is serving a
second tour. A good deal of his
duty has been around the Colum
bia River, ’’one of the best marked
channels in the world, and one of
the most dangerous. At the mouth
there are two jetties; where the
breakers meet the tide at the jet
ties it sometimes gets so rough
and the current so strong that it
has to be closed to ships of all
sizes. There were ten people
drowned around those jetties in
two weekends of a salmon derby
when I was stationed there.
“It’s rough up river too; the
worst trip I ever had was my first
trip on a Coast Guard cutter in
PORTLAND
SERVICE
CALL
486-2231
1948. The Balsam went out to help
a pilot boat that had lost two men
overboard and had another man
with a broken back. We never got
to the pilot boat because we got
stuck on the bar. It was rough
weather and water broke over the
whole ship; we took so much water
down our stack that it ground out
the bearings. We lost all our deck
stanchions and two life boats. All
we could do was hold our own be
cause we didn’t have enough pro
pulsion and the ship couldn’t turn
in any direction or we might have
foundered. It was at night; we
waited for high tide and got off
then, but I don’t remember how.
“The Balsam had some pretty
rough trips; in November 1949 she
rescued eleven men off a sinking
tug in deep water half way down
the Washington coast. The tug was
towing a big troop transport; her
tow line parted and she slapped
against the side of the transport
and split her fuel tank seams, then
other seams. Six of us were
awarded commendations for the
rescue. We shot lines to the tug
and worked a rubber raft back and
forth, taking two men at a time.
The 12th man jumped from the
Church of God
Fred Mamaloff, Pastor
Sunday School.10 a.m.
Morning Worship.11 a.m.
Evening Service .... 7:30 p.m.
Mid Week Service ... 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday
Youth Service .. 7 p.m. Friday
Located off Mission Rd.
near the hospital.
tug and missed the raft. The man
in the raft tried to get him aboard,
couldn’t, but hung onto him until
we could reach him. He was dead
of a heart attack.
“The transport headed for the
beach but dropped two anchors
(Continued on Page 9)
Christian Science
Society
Sunday School.9:30 a. m.
Sunday Service .... 11:00 a. m.
Testimony Meeting .. 4th Wed.
8:00 p.m.
Reading Room.Wed.
7-8 p. m.
Located on Shelikoff
near Cope St.
Kodiak Assembly
of God Church
Mission Road
Pastor Win. L. Cummins
Phone 486—2491
“Not By Might, Nor By Power,
But By My Spirit, Saith the
Lord of Hosts.”
SERVICE SCHEDULE
SUNDAY
Sunday School.10:00 a.m.
Morning Worship ... 11:00a.m.
Christ’s Ambassadors 6:30 ?.m.
Evangelistic Service .. 7:30 p.m.
MONDAY
Missionettes.1:30 p.m.
TUESDAY
Women’s Prayer !
Meeting.2:00 p.m.
WEDNESDAY
Prayer & Bible Study 7:30 p.m.
FRIDAY
Youth Meeting.7:00 p.m.
nommunity Baptist Church
Rev. Lewis White
“The Big White Church on the Hill”
lay School—9:45 a.m.
tiing Worship—11:00 a.m.
th Fellowship Groups—6:30 p.m.
Evening Worship—7:30 p.m.
Mid Week Service—7:30 p.m. Wednesday
"HOLDING FORTH TOE WORD OF LIFE”
KODIAK DIRECTORY
BARTENDERS LOCAL 875 A.F.L.
Meets on 2nd Sunday of every
month, 12 noon at Fishermen’s
Hall.
KODIAK
BMBLKM
CLUB
No. 187
Meets 1st & 3rd
Thursday at
8 p.m. at the
Elks Club.
KODIAK LODCiE NO. 1772 BPOE
^ >A Meets every Friday
evening
^EEr at 8:30 p.m.
Visiting Memheii Welcome
ALASKA COMMUNICATIONS
SYSTEM
Honrs of Business
Monday thru Friday, 9 am to 6 pm
Saturday, 9 am to 12 noon.
Sundays and Holidays, Closed
Emergency wires may be filed
during the closed office hours at
the message center.
KODIAK ISLAND JAYCEES
Meet the 1st. and 3rd.
Wednesday of each
month.
7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
In the Montmartre
Basement.
KODIAK
LODGE
F. * A. M.
No. 295
Meetings — Stated 3rd Monday,
8 p.m. at Kodiak Masonic Tempi*
BUSINESS Jb PROFESSIONAL
WOMEN’S CLUB
Business Meeting—1st Monday at
7:30 p.m.
Dinner Meeting—3rd Monday at
7:00 p.m. at Island Fountain.
VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS
Regular meetings 1st and 3rd
Tuesdays. 8 p.m.,
at the VFW Hall.
JACK ALLMAN POST NO. 17
AMERICAN LEGION
meets the 1st Thursday o( every
month at 7:30 p.m. at the
American Legion Dug-Out
above city hall.
KODIAK ISLAND
TOASTMASTERS CLUB NO. 1968
Dinner meetings every Tues.
from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
In the Montmartre Basement
Visitors are cordially invited