Air Station Kodiak, Alaska
Original Location:
Kodiak Island
Current Location:
Same
Date of Commission:
17 April 1947
Fate:
Still in operation
Historical Remarks:
Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak is a Seventeenth Coast Guard District (D17) unit on Kodiak Island approximately 250 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. The Air Station was commissioned as an Air Detachment 17 April 1947 with one PBY Catalina aircraft, seven pilots, and thirty crewmen. It represented the first permanent Coast Guard aviation resource in Alaska.
Currently the Air Station is the major tenant of Integrated Support Command (ISC) Kodiak, and the largest Coast Guard command in D-17 and the entire Pacific Area (PACAREA). The present aircraft complement consists of HC-130Hs, HH-60Js, HH-65As.
Click here for a narrative of the rescue of the crew of the F/V Clover Leaf in April, 1980, by a Kodiak-based HC-130 as written by AD1Greg King.
Commanding Officers:
1980-1982: CAPT Stephen D. Csintyan
1978-1980: CAPT Robert L. Johanson
1976-1978: CAPT William J. Bickford
1974-1976: CAPT Edward Nelson, Jr.
1972-1974: CAPT George J. Roy, Jr.
1970-1972: CAPT Philip A. Hogue
1969-1970: CAPT Joseph R. Steel
1968-1969: CAPT Robert R. Pope
1967-1968: CAPT George F. Thometz, Jr.
1964-1967: CAPT Robert E. Emmerson
1962-1964: CAPT Robert E. Hammond
1959-1962: CAPT Chester A. Richmond, Jr.
1958-1959: CAPT Thomas F. Epley
1955-1958: CAPT Charles Tighe
1953-1955: CAPT Benjamin F. Engel
1951-1953: CDR John D. McCubbin
1950-1951: LCDR Elmer A. Crock
1947-1950: LT Ben B. Dameron
Historic Photo Gallery
Unless otherwise indicated all photos are official U.S. Coast Guard photographs. Any original caption information is included in the text beneath each photo, along with a date, if known. Click on the thumbnail to access a 300 dpi image.
Original photo caption: "Two Coast Guard HH-60J helicopters and one HH-65A helicopter sit on the tarmac of Air Station Kodiak awaiting the next call for help."; photo dated 26 April 2000; Photo No. 000426-K-7325L-503 (FR); photo by PAC Tod A. Lyons, USCG."; photo is dated as having been received by the Superintendent of Construction and Repair on 16 September 1916. No photo number; photographer unknown.
Original photo caption: "A C-130 sits in the hangar awaiting parts to make it ready for its next mission. C130s are the workhorse of long range Coast Guard search and rescue operations."; photo dated 28 January 2000; Photo No. 000128-K-7325L-512 (FR); photo by PAC Tod Lyons, USCG.
Original photo caption: "Crewmen from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak remove the main rotor head from an HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter during maintenance Monday. The main rotor head is routinely inspected for wear and tear every 800 flight hours."; photo dated 12 December 2005; Photo No. 051212-C-0368R-001 (FR); photo by PA1 Paul Rozkowski, USCG.
Historical Sources:
Air Station Files, U. S. Coast Guard Historian's Office
Arthur Pearcy. A History of U. S. Coast Guard Aviation. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1989.