US trained Alaskans as secret `stay-behind agents'

Source and stripes

I guess it was a different time back then and you could trust regular citizens to be ultra nationalistic.
anyway pretty cool. The government tapped scores of civilians living in the middle of nowhere to be super spies in case of emergency commie invasion

WASHINGTON —Fearing a Russian invasion and occupation of Alaska,the U.S. government in the early Cold War years recruited and trained fishermen,bush pilots,trappers and other private citizens across Alaska for a covert network to feed wartime intelligence to the military,newly declassified Air Force and FBI documents show.

Invasion of Alaska?Yes. It seemed like a real possibility in 1950.

"The military believes that it would be an airborne invasion involving bombing and the dropping of paratroopers," one FBI memo said. The most likely targets were thought to be Nome,Fairbanks,Anchorage and Seward.

So FBI director J. Edgar Hoover teamed up on a highly classified project,code-named "Washtub," with the newly created Air Force Office of Special Investigations,headed by Hoover protege and former FBI official Joseph F. Carroll.

The secret plan was to have citizen-agents in key locations in Alaska ready to hide from the invaders of what was then only a U.S. territory. The citizen-agents would find their way to survival caches of food, cold-weather gear,message-coding material and radios. In hiding they would transmit word of enemy movements

Possible? Sure.

But I see it as more of a "If You See Something, Say Something" approach.

Training? Not sure.

Peace

a reply to: jude11

Well the source states that they were trained to use coded messages. To avoid capture. Monitor enemy troop movements . And one would assume some weapons training.
Sounds like spy stuff to me.

a reply to: dashen

Good article, I've seen this discussed before on a few documentaries. Is it not amazing how history can change 'Seward's Folley' into a blessing? Aside from the oil in Alaska, imagine if the Soviet's had that land during the Cold War...how different would things have gone?

a reply to: dashen

Sure, there were probably a few but were they organic/native or inserts/military?

Peace

BTW, I S&F because it's interesting and look forward to more.

really nothing new. sounds rather like the coast watchers that were left on Pacific islands during WW2. everyday citizens who had lived and worked on those islands before the war, who sent out intelligence on what the Japanese were up to.

The first coastwatching organisation was established in 1919 by Captain J G Clare, RAN, who believed there was a need to develop a network of observers to monitor the islands to Australia’s north. The Coastwatchers on the northern and north-western coasts of Australia were usually cattle-station managers or missionaries and in Papua and New Guinea, usually plantation mangers who had lived in the islands for some years and so had local contacts and local knowledge. By the mid-1920s their area included the Bismarck Archipelago.

In 1935, Commander R B M Long, Director of Naval Intelligence (DNI) in Melbourne worked to close the gaps in the coastwatching service. He sent Eric Feldt – a retired Royal Australian Naval officer with many years’ experience of the civil service in New Guinea – to be in charge of intelligence there. Feldt, himself an Islander, knew the other islanders, the planters and the government officials and was trusted by them.

With Japan’s entry into the war this island screen became the front-line. The Coastwatchers communicated by radio through existing radio stations or by teleradios that had been loaned by the Naval Board. They were given some instruction and a code with which to make their reports on any hostile movements and to report any item of intelligence value. It was a lonely and precarious existence.

The Coastwatchers were supported by all three services. Aircraft dropped their supplies and submarines and PT boats landed them and removed them. The assistance and loyalty of the local population was essential: they performed a vital role in guerrilla operations and intelligence gathering.

www.ww2australia.gov.au...

Lots of fish in Alaska, it would have been a good catch for Russia. I don't think they thought about the Oil in Alaska in the 50s.

Canada was one of the evacuation points for the monarchy in the UK so securing it would of made good sense in a way and holding a few members of the British royal family would certainly put a dampener on our use of the nukes

Ultimately it's common sense. There were very tense anti-Russian sentiments in Alaska at the time. Don't forget that they were a bit over 50 miles away from eachother over water. And in the case of Little and Big Diomede Island they were two and a half miles away, close enough to be seen from the shore.

Russia if my memory is correct, used to sneak colonies over there. So it's common sense to assume that with tensions the way they were and technology advancing, Russia could use it as a stepping stone to either an invasion or an attack.

I can imagine all secret agents aren't TV friendly if you get my drift. They come in all sizes and shapes. Multi-skilled, resilient individuals can appear as down to earth and politically unaware as the majority.

During the cold war the US had Alaskan national guard units made up of Eskimos‎.

They operated 6 months of the year patrolling the west coast of Alaska in two man teams as they were the only ones that could survive the cold.
Some of these Eskimos would cross over into Russia and trade with the Eskimos there as well as spy on the Russians.

In a number of cases Russian military equipment was found along the west coast of Alaska

the only Alaskan trained to be a "stay behind" agent was Sarah Palin...

(hey no jokes besides mine because I like her and shes hot ok?)

No formal training needed. If you've lived up here long enough (or your entire life) and are versed in the outdoors -- any one of us could be considered a "stay behind force".