Military, agriculture share history of working together

Today is Pearl Harbor Day, “a date which will live in infamy.” In his radio address Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was prophetic in his description. As is Sept. 11, Pearl Harbor Day is a date forever seared into the American consciousness.

Alaska has a unique history in World War II as the only American territory occupied by the enemy. Six months after Pearl Harbor was bombed, the Japanese bombarded Dutch Harbor, then landed at Attu and Kiska. They would remain there for nearly a year. But there’s much more to Alaska’s military history than that and, as unlikely as it sounds, some of that directly relates to agriculture.

Until hostilities in Europe built toward World War II, cries from Alaska’s territorial officials that Alaska was woefully unprepared to repel an enemy were largely ignored. Aggression by the Germans and Japanese prompted the building of Army posts and airfields in Anchorage and near Fairbanks about 1940. Men arrived to find dismal living conditions and short supplies. Fresh food was scarce. The one bright spot was the fresh food available from the Matanuska Colonists, who had settled in Palmer about five years earlier. These farmers provided the soldiers with produce, milk and eggs.

But the only means of transportation between Palmer and Anchorage was the railroad. One of the motivators of the construction of the Glenn Highway was access to Palmer and its agricultural area. It would also provide part of a critical link of Anchorage, Fairbanks and the Alaska Highway. All of this construction was part of military operations during the World War II era.

Historical reports on the Matanuska Colony also tell of another link between the military and farmers. With the scarcity of Colonist labor in the fall of 1941, just a few weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor, 40 Air Corps enlisted men lent their efforts to bring in the harvest. In return for harvesting potatoes and carrots, a quarter share of the crop was turned over to the mess halls so that some of the ration allowances could be spent as welfare and recreational funds. The Army also leased vacated Colonist barns as storehouses.

The new military bases near Anchorage also provided some Colonist family members with employment and outside income.

Just as the military has been integral to the development of Alaska, so has agriculture. Even before the Colonists arrived, pioneer farmers were putting roots into Alaska, helping build an infrastructure that burgeoned with the military developments of the World War II era.

Alaska’s relationship with the military has changed since World War II, but the Armed Forces remain an integral part of this state’s identity.

While the words “agriculture” and “military” are seldom used together in modern Alaska, there are still opportunities for symbiotic relationships. A commitment by military installations to purchase more produce, as they did until recent years, would help give Alaska producers a ready, steady market for perishable products. While some Alaska Grown goods make it to the military market, those quantities do not necessarily reflect available supplies or the number of military consumers. Southcentral Alaska Dairy’s new cheese and milk products, expected on the market in coming weeks, should have a welcome spot at many retailers, including those at the base and post exchanges.

As food security issues are addressed here, the military may play an active role in helping ensure Alaskans have adequate supplies of foodstuff on hand, including that which is locally grown.

We may not see enlisted men and women helping with the harvest again any time soon, but that relationship between Alaska’s military and its agriculture can continue to provide benefits for all.

Victoria Naegele is director of Alaska Agriculture in the Classroom (www.agclassroom.org/ak), an agriculture literacy effort sponsored by the Alaska Farm Bureau. She can be reached at akaitc@alaskafb.org.