Kodiak
                               28 November 1945

     During early 1943 the hand trenching crews were busy 

in the Ft. Greely area, on Woody Island and Long Island. 

The work at Ft. Greely and on Woody Island was done by 

civilians, while Coast Artillery troops did the major por-

tion of the work on Long Island.

     The cable plow was first used on the line between 

Artillery Hill and Shahafka Cove in May 1943. This line 

passed over the top of Pillar Mountain and reached an 

elevation of approximately 1,000 feet. The difficulties 

encountered on Pillar Mountain made most of the remainder 

of the plowing operations seem easy by comparison. It was 

as a result of the experience gained on this section that 

the rubber-tired wheels on the plow were replaced by Athey 

tracks; this change eliminated a great deal of the dif-

ficulty which had been encountered in soft and mushy ground.

     During the fall of 1942 a considerable amount of the 

equipment for project D-2 was received from ACS in Seattle. 

The mission of the ACS included training of Coast Artillery 

personnel in the operation of the fire control equipment 

and it was, therefore, decided to set up a model installa-

tion for training purposes, to include at least one unit 

of each piece of equipment which was to be used in the 

completed system. This installation was made in the ACS 

barracks building at Ft. Greely and served the dual pur-

pose of allowing ACS men who were completely unfamiliar 

with the equipment to gain experience, and providing an 

excellent classroom for training Coast Artillery men.

                        - 10 -