Cruising with a Lear Jet

Winter is in the air and on the ground so it’s time to get out the cold-weather gear and hunker down for the long and dark nights in the months ahead.

You would think that with more than 50 years in Alaska one would get used to the season change, but winter here is always an adjustment. And since the summer days are so long, and usually bright, going from one season to another is a bigger deal than it is in places nearer the Equator.

As I write this, snow is falling outside my window. Somehow it’s a cheerful thing despite the tougher season it heralds. The other day my wife and I were driving into town when the sun was beaming down on the snow-covered mountains behind Anchorage. The view was absolutely spectacular, so much that we were tempted to pull over and stare at it for awhile.

We came here from Massachusetts in 1967 a year after we got married. We almost settled down there but decided we needed to see some of the more distant country first — either Alaska or Australia. Since we could drive to Alaska we decided to come here.

The drive was more than 4,500 miles and included more than 1,000 miles of the then-unpaved Alaska Highway. I was driving an International Travelall and towing a houseboat on wheels with no springs. The long dirt road rattled our teeth like nothing we had encountered before, but the incredible scenery made it all worthwhile.

We didn’t plan for it to be a one-way trip, but once we got to Alaska there was never any thought of going back. New England has its good points but it’s nothing like the Far North.

We got here just as Richfield Oil was drilling what became the discovery well at Prudhoe Bay. I was on the oil beat at The Anchorage Times and was offered a job by Richfield at triple my salary at The Times. I thought about it for two or three seconds before saying yes.

One of the benefits of the job was that I had access to a Lear Jet for runs to Prudhoe Bay. News people from all over the world wanted to visit the huge new oilfield and management wanted them to visit but not hang around and get into trouble. So by taking the Lear we could avoid waiting for the scheduled charter. We got in and out pretty quickly and once the wheels were up for the return trip I could open a panel that covered a well-equipped bar.

It was a nice way to travel and I did it with some very interesting people, the cream of the journalism business. One guy I accompanied on the North Slope trip and really enjoyed was Wallace Turner, a Pulitzer Prize winner for The New York Times.

Wally stopped in Anchorage on his way back from a trip to the Orient and asked to see Prudhoe Bay. Ralph Cox, the Richfield guy in charge of Alaska operations was the one who had to approve all of my North Slope trips with the Lear.

Cox decided to come on the trip and spent a lot of time talking to Wally Turner. Apparently Ralph tried to veto the trip because he thought I was using the Lear too much. When his veto was overturned he decided Turner must be important to top management so he was coming with us and giving Wally close attention.

I really enjoyed those days and developed high regard for people like Ralph Cox. He was a class act.

Tom Brennan is an Anchorage columnist and author of six books. He was a reporter/columnist for The Anchorage Times and an editor and columnist at The Voice of The Times.