Completed 2nd Row of GP Huts

Here is a very good picture of the completion of the expansion which started in 1958. This photo is likely circa spring of 1959. There are now 6 Huts in the 2nd row. They were from the far end: Bldg #8 - HQ/Orderly Rm; Bldg #9 - Shift 1; Bldg #10 - Shift 2; Bldg #11 - Shift 3; Bldg #12 - Shift 4 and Bldg #13 - military Ops day staff and civilian Ops day staff.

In the first row, the Mess expansion is complete and the other buildings are Snr NCO quarters, Officer's quarters and VIP quarters. The Power Plant/Transport-Mechanical building. Again the Ops building is not visible in this shot.

This photo was taken was taken from the top of the 10,000 gallon fuel oil tank. Note the shadow in the foreground with the photographer atop the tank. Also of note are some of the thousands of full oil drums. Fuel oil was transported into Alert by air in those days in 45 gallon drums, (19 at a time in a C119 Boxcar). The drums were then hauled up from the air strip and placed handy to the large tank. Once at the site, the oil was pumped from the barrels into the large tank as needed and gravity fed to all the furnaces in the buildings. This oil pumping detail was carried out approximately every 3 days. An electric pump was used, but from time to time it broke down and it was necessary to activate the hand pump....aaarrrgggghhhhh!!