Loran Station Port Clarence demolition

JUNEAU, Alaska -- The Coast Guard's Civil Engineering Unit from Juneau and Controlled Demolition, Inc., brought down Alaska's tallest structure at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Port Clarence using controlled explosives. The Long Range Aids to Navigation tower at the Coast Guard LORAN Station was the tallest of its kind in the country but the condition of the tower was deteriorating and with no funding for repairs the tower was at ever-increasing risk of an uncontrolled collapse. Alaska Public TeleCommunications tower in Knik 30 miles north of Anchorage will become the states tallest structure at 808 feet. U.S. Coast Guard video by Petty Officer 3rd Class Walter Shinn.

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[elizagraziani]

great year

[rmagbi]

I was there 1988-89. It was a great year. Some snow on the ground every day.

[Shufei]

@yoniyumyum This was my thought when I heard they shut down LORAN. It's shortsighted to say the least. VLF, shortwave technology is only obsolescent until such basic infrastructure must be relied upon. Putting all eggs into one basket is never a good idea...

[leewonnacott]

This is a bittersweet moment for an old KPC Coastie. While spending our year long tour there we all hated each and every moment of our 'Restricted Duty' - But as the years roll past afterward we begin to understand the unique nature of what we were doing there and how important it was. The signal produced by the 1968-69 crew helped NASA put men on the moon ...

Now .. who all remembers "Mess Deck this is Radio ... R&R please!" ???

[philipmitza1]

Now that KICKED ASS!

[shejl]

Sad to see it go, I climbed all 1350' of that tower. That was a good year of my life.

[yoniyumyum]

Sad to see it go. The next few years are going to be interesting as the solar activity ramps up and more GPS birds fail, with no replacements available.  Let's hope this wasn't shut down just to make a political point about obsolete systems. Obsolete, sure, but still working well, unjammable, and domestic infrastructure much less vulnerable than defenceless satellites in orbit. Time will tell.

[Lsavatgy]

GREAT JOB Commander Savatgy! Amazing work done by all involved!

[Poopsmif06]

Nice job Walter!

[RadioRay]

When GPS fails, and you ask where the back up system is, you just watched some of it crash to the ground. LORAN did something very much like GPS, but used totally different technology. Just a few days ago, a major GPS satellite failed. A tower can be replaced a lot faster than a satellite for a lot less money. End of an era that wasn't quite dead yet.