Kodiak
                                   28 November 1943

this work. He proved a great help in expediting the pro-

ject. Use also was made of Army and Navy planes in pre-

liminary location work for submarine cable landings and 

subterranean cable routes. It was found that openings in 

offshore reefs showed up very plainly from the air, and 

prospecting for possible subterranean cable routes from 

the air in isolated locations saved many days of hard 

hiking.

     In the spring of 1942 a cable plow was received from 

Seattle headquarters and two experts in its operation ar-

rived to train ACS soldiers in the operation of the plow. 

The plow was a type C-48 obtained from the Bell System. 

The two experts were on leave from the same organization.

     The standard procedure for plowing cable had to be 

varied somewhat due to the nature of the ground at Kodiak. 

It was impossible to use a ripper ahead of the plow due 

to miring, and when the ripper was not used the sod fouled 

the Cable plow to such an extent that very little progress 

could be made. This problem was solved by removing the 

tooth from the ripper plow and mounting it in place of the 

blade on the dozer frame of a D-8 caterpillar tractor. 

This contraption not only eliminated the rooting problem 

but was also an extremely useful tool in clearing stumps 

and trees from the right-of-way. The C-48 plow when re-

ceived was equipped with rubber tires. However, when the 

tires were replaced by 20-inch wide Athey trailer tracks 

a great improvement in ground stability resulted.

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