I first heard of Senator Ted Stevens in the winter of 1989. I had just been assigned to Elmendorf Air Force Base, Anchorage, Alaska. The state was having its coldest winter in fourteen years. It was 65 degrees below freezing. You could take a hot cup of coffee outside, throw it in the air and it would freeze before it hit the ground.

Even with such severe cold, there was still a drive for some Alaskans to go shooting. The indoor firing range on Elmendorf AFB fell under my direction. All the requirements for staying current in your military weapon’s qualification continued, even in sub-zero weather. The problem was, the local civilians wanted to shoot and they wanted to use the base range. I was not opposed to that, but they wanted it any number of Saturdays and I had to have my marksmanship instructors and range masters present whenever someone was shooting. This meant I had to make my people work weekend after weekend to support the local handgun shooters. Remember, there is no overtime in the Air Force.

I tried to slow roll this shooting process but the civilian shooters would have none of this. A retired military member who was part of this shooting community showed up in my office one day and wanted to know why I was disrupting his shooting schedule. He advised me that he was a senior member of the NRA (National Rifle Association) and that he personally knew President George Bush (senior). I told him I was a member of the NRA and did not oppose his using my firing range, it was just all the overtime for my range masters that I disliked. Then he used the two words that shot both fear and/or euphoria (depending on you political views) into the hearts of strong men--Ted Stevens.

I did not know who Ted Stevens was at that point, but I learned very quickly. Senator Ted Stevens was the ranking US Senator from the State of Alaska and he was the man who got the Federal money to flow into that State. When I was advised that Senator Stevens’s office would get a call about my failure to open the base firing range on demand, I must admit that I was less impressed than when the sitting President’s name was bantered about my office.

Boy, did I have a lesson in Alaska politics to learn in a hurry. My chief of police was a navigator who had just crossed into the Security Police career field and was rather useless in making cop decisions, so I went to my Group Commander to advise him of the firing range issue and the fear that registered on his face after Ted Stevens name was mentioned was most telling. I was immediately ordered to give the handgun shooters whatever they wanted and the last thing he wanted was to have to answer any questions to Senator Ted Stevens’ office.

I will admit I am of the same political party as Senator Stevens and I know he was able, throughout his career, to bring lots of money to the Alaskan military community, but I was not positively impressed with the Senator that day. To be fair, he knew nothing about the shooting range issue, but just the fear and therefore power his name carried with senior military leaders in Alaska was a little alarming. Elmendorf AFB is the stopping off and refueling point for most military aircraft headed from the US mainland to the Pacific. This means that on any given day of the week we have senators, congressmen, senior military and civilian leaders and lots of VIPs touching down on base and Senator Stevens was on Elmendorf regularly.

We had pictures of the Senator at all the gates to make sure no young airman screwed up and delayed the Senator, should he want to come on base. His hot temper was well known and nobody in the military wanted to suffer that temper or, worse yet, have to report to his superior that he'd had a negative contact with Senator Stevens.

In the Air Force, we do not name air bases or buildings after living airman-heroes, because a living honoree can go on in life to royally mess up and embarrass the military. Alaska named the airport in Anchorage, the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and now Senator Stevens has been indicted on charges of corruption. We have an old saying in law enforcement “you must have done something wrong, because we are talking to you.”