View Photos"The unselfish fortitude displayed by the members of this rescue mission reflects great credit upon themselves and the military service, and I take great pleasure in extending my commendation for duty well performed." Delus C. Emmons, Lieutenant General, U.S. Army "It is with great pleasure that I add my commendation to that of General Emmons for the part which you took in the recent rescue mission in McKinley Park. Your actions reflect great credit upon yourself and are in keeping with the finest traditions of the Army Air Forces" Davenport Johnson, Major General, U.S. Army (Above quotes from commendation letters received by PFC Michael Foley.) |
This website is both a tribute to my parents and a final project for my web design class. After my parents died in 2002, I found the McKinley book wrapped in brown paper and put away on the top shelf of the closet. I had seen it as a child, but as a child, paid little attention to it. I became fascinated with the story and felt that my mom's book was more than just a family photo album. The McKinley book is both a forgotten piece of Alaskan WW2 history and a good story that deserves to be told. The book itself has a handmade wooden cover and contains over 100 black and white photos of the expedition taken by Sgt. John M. Greany. It is possible some of the aerial photos were taken by the renowned mountaineer, Bradford Washburn, who was a member of the expedition. Along with the photos are several newspaper reports covering the expedition, copies of letters written by some of the men, copies of a commendation letter from the base commander and descriptive comments about each picture written in my mother's distinctive handwriting. I can almost see my folks sitting at the kitchen table with all the pictures spread out, mom writing and dad telling her the story of each photo. My dad was a charming Irishman with the storyteller's gift, and my mom faithfully recorded his account of this wonderful adventure. My parents were married 57 years and at the end of their lives, were still as devoted to each other as they were in 1945 when dad returned from the high country. The text for this web site was derived from the newspaper accounts, and my mother's comments on each page. Thanks to Mom's meticulous recordkeeping, I can identify faces and locations almost 60 years after the fact. I also used quotes from copies of letters sent by Everett Cook to his mother and a report written by Grant Pearson. If anyone visiting this site has any additional information or comments, please feel free to email them to me at the address listed below. I have many other photographs and several portraits that are not included in this site. Again, feel free to write. I hope you enjoyed the story of the McKinley Expedition of 1944. Technical Information: This site was designed using HTML and MS Notepad. I used MS Front Page to add the hyperlinks and document-level formatting. The artwork was done using Photoshop 6.0. If the photos look a little dark, remember the expedition was in the winter - it only gets light a few hours a day that far north in the winter. |
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