this page updated 2001 September 10

CHINIAK

"A hilarious but accurate account of life and the related humorously funny events that occurred at the Kodiak Tracking Station on Kodiak, Alaska during the 1950's and 1960's."

Compiled and Written By:

TONY SMAKER

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

AC&W	Abbreviation for Aircraft Control and Warning Squadrons, more popularly known by Air Force personnel as Always Cleaning and Waxing Squadrons.
AFRO_ENGINEERING	Work just thrown together without any thought, rhyme, or reason behind it. Also known as N_____ Rigging.
AFRTS	Abbreviation for Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.
AGENA	Name of a Lockheed secondary stage earth-orbit satellite system capable of a nose-cone recovery system.
ARC	Alaska Road Commission, pre-statehood days. Known now as the Alaska Department of Highways.
ATLAS	Name of one of the first U.S. 2-stage rockets developed primarily as an atomic weapon delivery system. Utilized later as a satellite booster rocket. A real kludge.
BROWN-BAGGER	Jargon for a person who brings his lunch to work, or as in this book, a person who lived in Kodiak, and drove to and from work, never staying at the site unless work dictated it.
BUDSON	Name of a contracting company hired to maintain the physical plant of a facility. This company was the initial organization to take care of the Chiniak facilities.
BUNNY-ITUS	A rare arctic disorder as a direct result from not hugging your spouse or girl friend for a long time. This disease sometimes had permanent optical effects such as severe browness of the eyes. Usually induced by Loud Mouth and Water.
BURKO	Name of a contracting company hired to maintain the physical plant of Chiniak facility.
CASA DE TORO	The local on-site saloon for the Chiniak personnel and their guests. Translates from Spanish to English as the House of Bull. Also known as the local Watering Hole.
KLUDGE	Space-business jargon for a thrown-together piece of over-priced junk, sold and claimed to be the First-Line Equipment. The U.S. government was the biggest buyer of this type of equipment in very large quantities.
CORN-BINDER	Jargon for an International Harvester truck.
CRAZY BROTHERS	Chiniak jargon for the brandy Christian Brothers. Drinking this booze made either crazy or a christian, but never both at the same time. . . . . .
DISCOVERER	A series of satellites manufactured by Lockheed for the Air Force for research purposes ( . . . . . . ) [Spy satellites]
DRINK CANADA DRY	Chiniak jargon for drinking all of Canada out of their manufactured whiskey.
DUMP STATION	Space jargon for a tracking station that commanded a satellite nose-cone to return to earth for capture. Chiniak was such a station.
ELMENDORF	The name of an Air Force base located in Anchorage, Alaska.
EMERALD	Name of a contracting company hired to maintain the physical plant of the Chiniak facility. This contractor was the longest surviving company to work at Chiniak.
GRAPEFRUITNIK	The name given to the first U.S. satellite in space by the Russians.
GRUNION	A small food-type fish, approximately 2 inches in length. Spawns once a year, usually in May, on sandy beaches.
KALSIN BAY INN	One of the two gourmet cuisine restaurants on the Chiniak highway about mile 30 or so. Definitely a three-star establishment.
KI	Abbreviation for the Kodiak Inn. Used to be the Sheffield, etc. Now known (this week) as the Westmark. [Now it's the Kodiak Inn again.]
LIVER-ITUS	A condition as a result of too much elbow bending at the local pub. This condition usually initiates as a result of contracting the rare arctic disease of hug-your-bunny-itus.
LOCKHEED	Name of a contracting company hired to manufacture satellites and missiles.
LOUD MOUTH & WATER	Usually whiskey and water (water-balls). A direct functional equation; i.e., the more whiskey consumed, the louder and braver you get. Usually detected as a secondary symptom of hug-your-bunny-itus or liver-itus.
MANNED UP	Tracking station jargon for getting ready, checking, and operating specific operating positions during active flights.
MECCA CAB	A local taxicab company in Kodiak during the pre-earthquake period. [Still here.]
MILLER FIELD	An air strip at Cape Chiniak used for P-39 and P-40 fighters during WW2. The strip is now abandoned.
PATHFINDER	The name of the first U.S. satellite successfully orbited in space.
PHILCO	Name of a contracting company hired to technically operate and maintain tracking stations for the Air Force.
POV	Privately owned motor vehicle.
QUONSET	A half-round pre-fabricated metal structure building used extensively during WW2 and the Korean war periods.
RENDEZVOUS	A roadhouse located at Middle Bay on the Chiniak highway. The original one burned down in 1966 and was rebuilt. Long since closed down.
ROAD'S END BAR	A bar and restaurant run by Ernie and Dotti Hopper in the 1960's and 1970's located just before Chiniak Creek. Definitely a three-star establishment.
SHOOT	Space jargon for a satellite or missile launch into space.
SIX-PACK FORD	A six passenger four-door four-wheel-drive Ford truck used as site transportation vehicles.
SIS HARRIS	A local lady madam during WW2 in Kodiak.
SOLLY'S OFFICE	A local bar, grill, and saloon in Kodiak that was the sort of branch office of the Casa de Toro in Chiniak.
SPUTNIK	The first earth-orbited satellite by mankind. It was launched and placed into space around Earth by the Soviet Russians on October 12, 1957.
TONY'S	Local bar that featured strippers. (No relation, thank God, to the author.
TORO RAIDER	Any Chiniaker who had enough Loud Mouth and Water at the Casa de Toro that went out into the world to prove that he could do anything drunk or suspected sober and not remember it the next day!
TRACKING STATION	A facility utilized for commanding, controlling, and monitoring man-made objects in space.
TRAINED KILLER	Chiniak jargon for the Marine guards on the navy base. Also popularly known as Jar-heads.
TELEMETRY	The method of distance measurement, usually by means of radio.
TOM STILES ROAD	The Navy (Coast Guard now) base to town paved(!!) road.
TOKYO JACK	Jack Mann's Kodiak Auto Center that sells Toyota and Dodge motor vehicles.
VANDENBURG AFB	The Air Force launching facility at Santa Maria, California for the Discoverer satellites. Also known as the Pacific Missile range.
VANGUARD	The name of the first U.S. made satellite. Never achieved orbit.
WHITE ALICE	A project name by the Air Force for their communications network in Alaska for the AC&W Squadron sites.

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