Overview

"It was the winter of 1937-'38. World War II was brewing. At a remote duty station on Kanaga Island, Alaska, in the middle of the Aleutian chain, eight men were engaged in a U. S. Navy mission whose aim was secret even from them. The medic, Chief Pharmacist's Mate Royse Gibson, had little to do -- no one in the small contingent got sick, no one was injured. There wouldn't be a mail boat for months. So Gibson kept a diary in the form of letters to his wife and two young daughters at home, to be mailed if ever it was possible. He wrote of his daily routine, and his far more interesting spare-time activities on the island. Then one day Gibson and the cook went seal hunting, and disappeared without a trace. Gibson's letters home, finally delivered to his family months later, comprise half of Kanaga Diary. The other half of this ""double memoir"" is his daughter Estelle's story of the family, struggling, eventually moving on, but keeping his memory alive. In 1995 Estelle and her husband set out for Kanaga on a pilgrimage to investigate her father's disappearance and to finally say goodbye. The book is illustrated with photos, maps, and ephemera of the times, both long past and recent, on Kanaga Island. The story of the secret U. S. Navy aerological station on Kanaga is one that's new and surprising even to those familiar with the history of World War II in the Aleutian Islands. Though it began eight decades ago, the story of the family at home and uncertain will resonate with military families even today."

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9781732526525

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Reviews

.. . a moving tribute ... by a daughter in memory of her father, [who] unexpectedly and inexplicably disappeared into the wilderness ... while serving on a remote outpost in Alaska's Aleutian Island chain. ... an interesting look into the pre-World War II time frame in general. ... provides a thorough accounting of Gibson's experiences ... during his years of Navy service and while braving the barren wilderness in the middle of the Aleutian Islands. ... a detailed look at one man's struggle to deal with the elements, boredom, and the challenges of family separation. The author's description of how her mother, sister, and she came to grips with the loss of a well-loved husband and father are particularly poignant. ... how one family learned to cope with loss and move on with their lives. -- John Cathcart, Military Writers Society of America .. . Just the revelation of a secret U.S. weather station far out the Aleutian chain is reason enough to pick up the book. In addition there is the daily account of activity and life on this isolated island in one the most unforgiving climates in the world. One day Lauer's father, Royse Rainey Gibson, and another station crewman never returned from a hunting trip. Search parties, on land, on sea, and in the air, never found a trace. Jump forward to 1995, when Lauer and her husband make the long journey to Kanaga ... an island whose isolation has kept it much the same as it was fifty-seven years earlier. -- Larry D. Brooks, Captain, US Coast Guard (retired) Gibson Lauer's matter-of-fact chronicle of her search for her lost father, his emotionally charged letters filled with loneliness for his young wife and two little daughters, the remote, mysterious nature of the Aleutians, and the secret mission of a handful of Americans on a strange island combine to make this family story one of the most unusual and compelling to emerge from World War II. ... -- Helen Olfield, president, Lemon Grove Historical Society

... a moving tribute ... by a daughter in memory of her father, [who] unexpectedly and inexplicably disappeared into the wilderness ... while serving on a remote outpost in Alaska's Aleutian Island chain. ... an interesting look into the pre-World War II time frame in general. ... provides a thorough accounting of Gibson's experiences ... during his years of Navy service and while braving the barren wilderness in the middle of the Aleutian Islands. ... a detailed look at one man's struggle to deal with the elements, boredom, and the challenges of family separation. The author's description of how her mother, sister, and she came to grips with the loss of a well-loved husband and father are particularly poignant. ... how one family learned to cope with loss and move on with their lives. -- John Cathcart, Military Writers Society of America ... Just the revelation of a secret U.S. weather station far out the Aleutian chain is reason enough to pick up the book. In addition there is the daily account of activity and life on this isolated island in one the most unforgiving climates in the world. One day Lauer's father, Royse Rainey Gibson, and another station crewman never returned from a hunting trip. Search parties, on land, on sea, and in the air, never found a trace. Jump forward to 1995, when Lauer and her husband make the long journey to Kanaga ... an island whose isolation has kept it much the same as it was fifty-seven years earlier. -- Larry D. Brooks, Captain, US Coast Guard (retired) Gibson Lauer's matter-of-fact chronicle of her search for her lost father, his emotionally charged letters filled with loneliness for his young wife and two little daughters, the remote, mysterious nature of the Aleutians, and the secret mission of a handful of Americans on a strange island combine to make this family story one of the most unusual and compelling to emerge from World War II. ... -- Helen Olfield, president, Lemon Grove Historical Society

Author Information

Estelle Gibson grew up in the San Diego County, California mountain town of Julian, and in the desert town of Brawley, in Imperial County. She got to know her future husband, Ron Lauer, at summer dances in Julian when she was a teenager. From 1950 to 1954 Estelle attended College of the Pacific, while her future husband finished his enlistment in the Marine Corps. Estelle became an elementary school teacher. After they married, they traveled extensively in Europe, and then returned to the San Diego area. Ron began his first teaching job, and they started a family and raised their three children. Following a hiatus in her teaching career, Estelle returned to it in 1980, this time as a teacher of English as a Second Language. Upon their retirement in 1995, Estelle and Ron began traveling again, and Estelle also turned to writing.

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