Fort Wainwright

You know, it took some adaptation.

So I graduated, and my first duty station was Fort Wainwright, Alaska, which I left Atlanta, it was 60 degrees.

I got there, it was -50 something.

Dude, where is that in Alaska? That's gotta be super north.

[laughs]

Yeah, boot camp was pretty gay.

But, [laughs] the, uh, so the first barracks we moved into, Fort Wainwright is, it's not a very big base, but it's divided in half.

So on the right side you have all the training units and, like, almost everything.

Alaska, the White House says, is about national security as much as it is about energy, and Alaska's location, they say, makes it, quote, "strategically important for American military operations in the Arctic." The White House has talked about this.

And that's why they've also announced on this trip 208 million in new barracks at Fort Wainwright, 152 million for a training center at Joint Base Richardson there, 54 million...

Excuse me, I'm dyslexic.

Let me say that again.

Yeah.

[laughs] During, during my tenure up at Fort Wayne, right, we were striker unit at the time.

They're not up there anymore, thank God, because those vehicles do not belong in that type of weather.

Um-

And, um, so there was always a lot of testing going on.

And it was also, um, you know, Fairbanks is the home to both Eielson Air Force Base, one of our really, like Elmendorf down south, uh, near Anchorage, um, one of the really major Air Force bases in the United States, and also, um, Fort Wainwright, a large Army base.

And so both of those, um, uh, you know, facilities needed to have a means of understanding the atmosphere as they, you know, had daily flights doing reconnaissance across the country over, you know, going, going up against Russia, et cetera.

So that's why it was initially very useful.

We've all had these experiences.

And when I go and talk to students about writing and stuff, that's one of the points I bring up to them is like, who here has been to like Fort Bragg? Who's been to Fort Wainwright? Or who's been overseas to Germany or Japan? And like, listen, you all have a variety and vast differences when it comes to experiences.

But if you don't tell your story, it's locked to you.

And you're not able to grow from that.

Staff Sergeant Thomas J. Winklevoss, 36, was killed last Thursday, but details of his death were unknown to the family.

Sergeant Winklevoss said, A veteran of 18 years in the Army had been in Vietnam since April 10th after leaving his German-born wife and daughter Sylvia at Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

The Army veteran had been assigned to Fort Wainwright prior to joining the 25th Infantry Division of Vietnam.

He met his wife while stationed in Germany where he spent 10 years.

And that's, you know, imagine being in Germany.