ICE DREAMS - CHAPTER C

I will be posting one chapter per week of my latest book, ICE DREAMS. Please note that the numerical chapters are autobiographical. The alphabetical chapters are pure fiction.

May 1960 began with the U-2 incidents followed by threats of war. Toward the end of May, I was walking along the beach. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining on the ocean and our Island. The water was calm and waves were lapping gently against the shore. The sky was blue with white puffy clouds. I hadn’t seen many days like this in Alaska. I guessed that the tundra would be greening soon if it wasn’t already. The birds were flying overhead. Where did they come from and where were they going? At least on this side of the Island they wouldn’t be burned to a crisp if the radars were turned on.

I kept looking up into the sky and out over the ocean. I should have been watching where I was going. I tripped over something solid on the beach and pitched head forward. I was knocked out - for how long I don’t know. When I came to, I was being carried on a litter by two men of the cave dwellers. Tatyana was walking alongside the litter. When I came to, I thought in my mind that she said to me, “I’m so glad that I found you, but not like this. Starshij needs to see you on an urgent matter.”

When we reached the cave entrance, the men carried me down the slope into the great room. An elderly man came into the room carrying a bag. He handed a little leather pouch to Tatyana and snapped his fingers. One of the men took off my boots. When he removed the left boot, I screwed up my lips and frowned in pain.

The old man grunted, then went around to my left foot. He ran his hand up and down my leg, then grunted again. He pulled a jar out of his bag and smeared some dark ointment around my foot where the ankles are. He took out a packet of gauze bandage and wrapped the strip around my ankle and then tied it off just like I had seen the medical corpsman do.

Tatyana had returned with a cup. She gave it to me and communicated, “Drink all of it. It’s your medicine.” I drank the cup of hot herbal tea. It had a peculiar, but not unpleasant taste. Soon, I relaxed, was drowsy, and dozed off to sleep. I don’t know how long I slept. When I awoke, the old man was removing the gauze from my ankle. He motioned to me to put my socks and boots back on. There was no pain in my ankle at all. I thanked him profusely. Although he didn’t know English, I think that he understood me. He smiled and left the room.

Starshij came into the room after I had put my boots on. He brought Gretchen, our English interpreter with him..

“I have asked Gretchen’s assistance because we have a matter that is             urgent and important to discuss. I don’t want either of us to misunderstand because of our language differences. Our community is in danger.

“Yesterday, some Russians came ashore near our cave entrance and came down into our cave without an invitation. They demanded to see me. There must be someone who has told them all about us. However it was they obtained their information, they know that our forefathers were Cossacks who fought for the Czar in the Russian Revolution. They know that our people assisted the American forces stationed here during World War II. They know that there are now American forces on this Island. In fact, they know of our relationship to you. They assume that the U.S. military’s purposes here are directed against the Soviet Union and that we are helping you just as we helped American forces fifteen years ago.

“They left ten knapsacks containing C-4 explosives with elaborate detonator wiring. They have demanded that one week from today we have all of these planted where they will blow up the Operations Building, the radar shack, the Comm Center, the huge radars, and the airport control tower. They will detonate them from a ship anchored several miles away from here. If they see these targets explode, they will leave us alone. If they don’t see these targets blow up or if they see the explosives blow up harmlessly on the tundra, they will send some men onto the Island who will toss explosives down the tunnel and blow our cave complex to smithareens.”

“What do you want me to do?

“I want you to go to your officers. Make them aware of the threat.

“We cannot remain in our cave because they could do what they threatened at any time. We are American citizens since we and all of our parents were born on Shemya Island. None of us have papers, but someone in government can fix that. I would like for them to move us to some place in Alaska where we will be safe and can rebuild our community. I want their demolition experts to remove these knapsacks!”

“Okay, Starshij. I’ll relay your message. I hope they believe me.”

“Do you want to take one of the knapsacks with you?”

“N-o-o-o thanks! I’ll do the best that I can. Do I have your permission to bring one or more military personnel back here with me?”

“Yes, but please try to protect us.”

When I returned to the barracks/mess hall area it was lunch time. I went in and filled my tray and got some coffee. As soon as I had eaten, I went to the Orderly Room. I told the First Sergeant that I had to see our Commanding Officer immediately on a matter that involved the security of the base. He looked at me quizzically.

“Suppose you tell me first.”

“I don’t mind if you are present when I talk to the Commanding Officer, but I don’t want to risk that you might decide not to let me see him.”

When I was taken into the office, I saluted.

“Airman, what do you have to tell me that is so urgent?”

“Sir, please hear me out even if this is hard to believe at first.

“There are people who have been living on this Island for several generations or more.” I told him how their forefathers came to Shemya and about the cave in which they dwell.

“During the Second World War, they helped the American forces stationed here in many ways. Before that, they helped rescue our soldiers and marines who were casualties in the battles on Attu. They have several letters of appreciation from military commanders.

“All of them and all of their parents were born on Shemya. That should make them American citizens. A couple days ago, some Russians dressed in black rubber suits landed on the shore near their cave. The Russians brought ten knapsacks filled with C-4 explosive. The explosives are wired to be detonated remotely from a ship that will be anchored several miles away.

“The Russians demanded that the cave-dwellers (as I call them) plant these knapsacks close to the Operations Center, the Comm shack, the radar building, the large radar antennas, the mess hall, and the airport control tower. They told them that if they did not see these places blown up the night they trigger the explosives, if for instance they were just placed out on the tundra where they would do no damage, or if they notified the American authorities of what they planned, these men would come back and throw explosives into the cave and wipe out their community.

“They want the government to give them documentation of their citizenship and allow them to settle someplace on the Alaskan mainland where they would be safer from Russian retaliation than they would be by moving to another island. They want military demolition personnel to take charge of the ten knapsacks. They must move out of the cave before the Russians can carry out their threat of blowing it up.  There are fifty-two people.

“Their leader thinks there is reason to believe they have a traitor in their group who has been giving information about Shemya to the Russians.”

“Airman, there are going to be a lot of questions you will have to answer about your association with these “cave-dwellers” as you call them. I am temporarily suspending your clearance until those questions are satisfactorily answered. However, giving you the benefit of my doubts, let us go to the cave and meet with the man you say is their leader.”

The Commanding Officer, CPT Goetz, followed me as I led him out across the tundra to the beach and then to the cave’s entrance. We descended to the cave’s great room. There was tumult inside the cave. Starshij was lying on the floor, his head bloodied. People were milling about. Some of the women had their hands over their heads wailing. I looked for Gretchen, Starshij’s interpreter. I didn’t see her. I saw Tatyana and beckoned to her. She shook her head. I asked her by thought, “What happened? Where is Gretchen?”

“Gretchen and Ilya took two of the knapsacks and fled after Ilya hit Starshij over the head with a whale bone. Starshij tried to stop Ilya and said, ‘So you are the traitor.’ Gretchen replied, ‘You are the traitor wanting to save the Americans who are spying on our Russian brothers.’ Then both Ilya and Gretchen fled, each of them carrying a knapsack with them.”

Captain Goetz said, “Great! We have two Communist collaborators running around this base with enough C-4 to blow up Operations and some other sensitive target. Have eight of their men to follow us out of the cave carrying the remaining eight knapsacks with them. We will put them down on the rocks at the end of the runway. They won’t hurt anything if they blow up there. I’ll post a guard to watch them day and night through binoculars at a safe distance.”

The men followed us to the end of the runway and placed the C-4 packs between the rocks. Captain Goetz thanked them, though they couldn’t understand him.

“Sir, the lives of all the people in that cave are now in danger. If Ilya and Gretchen contact the Russians, those knapsacks could be triggered at any time. I feel sure that no matter what the Russians tell Ilya to do with the knapsacks, he will throw one of them into the cave and kill all the others whom he believes collaborate with the Americans. Let me go back and lead the rest of them out.”

“All right, Airman. Take them to the makeshift barracks until we decide what to do with them.”

I returned to the cave, found Tatyana, and communicated to her that it was very important that everyone leave the cave and take with them only what they could carry. I was certain that the Russians would blow up the cave. No one could know when they would do it, so they must leave now.

Two of the men carried Starshij on a litter. He was not conscious. I didn’t know if that was caused by the blow to his head or the effects of the medicine man’s herbal tea. The people obeyed Tatyana’s instructions. There were women carrying babies. Others had clothes in bundles on their back. One of the men filled a wheelbarrow with tools. Tatyana and I led the group. She knew her way across the tundra even though it was dark.

The makeshift barracks no longer had any military residents. The stoves had been left in place, but there were no cots. However, soon after we arrived, a truck pulled up with fifty racks, mattresses, pillows, blankets, and bed linens. The truck driver told me to report to the Orderly Room. The First Sergeant and CPT Goetz were waiting for me.

“I have been on the phone to Elmendorf for almost an hour. They have a bomb squad on its way. Also on their way out here are an agent from the CID and another from the FBI. They will initially question you and the people here. Then you and the people will be sent to Elmendorf for further questioning. Go to your barracks and get some sleep, you will have a busy day tomorrow. As soon as you have breakfast come back here.”

The next morning, when I entered the Orderly Room, I could tell something had gone wrong.

“The bomb squad arrived, but the eight knapsacks we put at the end of the runway are MISSING! The guards were found bound and gagged; their rifles and ammunition are missing. We have men searching all around the Operations Building, the radar building, the Comm center, the airport control tower. No one has yet found any of the ten knapsacks.”

“Sir, has anyone looked on the roofs? Someone with a strong arm could stand outside the fences around those buildings and toss the knapsack onto the roof.”

“First Sergeant have the men check the roofs of those buildings. As soon as anyone finds a knapsack, call us here and we’ll send the bomb squad to them.”

It turned out that my guess was right. Eventually nine knapsacks were found. I was sure the tenth was inside the cave. The nine were disarmed by the bomb squad. Next morning there was a tremendous explosion that rocked every building on the Island. The cave was destroyed. The earth on top of it sank down leaving a depression ten feet deep.

The cave people and I were flown to Elmendorf Air Force Base. They were temporarily housed in some old barracks while all of us were being questioned. I told them about coming to Elmendorf with Tatyana, about the “friend” who met us at the airport and let us sleep overnight at his house. I was able to show them his house. He was taken away by the FBI for questioning. The man whose address in Takoma was used was also picked up by the FBI for questioning. With Gretchen writing the letters for Tatyana, I could see the possibility that Gretchen was using the letters to supply information using an extra sheet enclosed with Tatyana’s letter.

The questioning was an investigator’s nightmare. The only interpreter of their language into English was Gretchen and she was one of the two spies for the Russians. Also, her whereabouts were unknown. They had to rely on Tatyana and I. They would ask someone a question, Tatyana would understand it from my mind and would ask the question in their language. Their language truly was unique. It began as the Kazakh language, picked up Russian words, then words and expressions from native people in northern Siberia as well as words from the Alaskan native people with whom they traded.

When a person answered the question, I understood the answer from Tatyana and relayed it to the investigator in English.

Meanwhile, someone heard of their plight and it was carried in a television news story on the Anchorage television station with pictures of poor, displaced people who had only the clothes on their backs being housed in a couple of old, run-down barracks. National news picked it up. Veterans who had been stationed on Shemya in World War 2 remembered how these people had helped them.

Soon, bureaucrats were working under pressure from above to issue birth certificates to each of them. The Agriculture Department sent a team of men to find a suitable area for them to start a new community. Trailers that had been purchased by FEMA for disaster use were moved onto this territory. The Interior Department designated it the Shemyites Reservation so that no one else could settle or hunt and fish on that land.

I was cleared of wrongdoing, given my clearance back, and was sent back to Shemya. Before I left Tatyana gave me a kiss.

“Tell your wife she found a wonderful man.”