Firebirds in the Seventies

 

Driftwood Bay, Alaska

File Size: 141K

Photo by Don Bowers, Jan. 1976

Cape Lisburne, Alaska

File Size: 99K

Photo by Don Bowers, Jan. 1978

 

 

 

 

Cape Newenham, Alaska

File Size: 110K

Photo by Don Bowers, Feb. 1975

Cape Lisburne, Alaska

File Size: 41K

Photo by Don Bowers, Feb. 1978

 

 

 

 

Cape Newenham, Alaska

File Size: 107K

Photo by Don Bowers, Jan. 1978

Cape Romanzof, Alaska

File Size: 159K

Photo by Don Bowers, Jan. 1976

 

 

 

 

Cape Newenham

File Size: 145K

Photo by Don Bowers, Feb. 1978

Cape Romanzof, Alaska

File Size: 72K

Photo by Don Bowers, Jan. 1978

 

 

 

 

About the Photographer

 

 

Don Bowers
Firebird Pilot
1975 - 1978

Until his death on Mt. McKinley, June 21, 2000, Don Bowers lived at Montana Creek, Alaska, in a cabin he built himself. Born in 1948 in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Don was an Air Force Academy graduate with masters degrees from the Air Force Institute of Technology and Alaska Pacific University.

For most of his Air Force career he was a C-130 Hercules transport pilot, flying Hurricane Hunters in the Caribbean and Spectre gunships in Southeast Asia as well as "trash haulers" all over Alaska with the 17th Tactical Airlift Squadron Firebirds.

Don arrived on the Last Frontier in 1975 and became involved with the Iditarod as a member of the volunteer Iditarod Air Force. Upon retirement from the "real" Air Force, Don set about to run the Iditarod with his own team, even though he had virtually no experience as a musher.

He was a certified elementary teacher as well as chief pilot at Hudson Air Service in Talkeetna during the summer. Don authored the Alaska Airmen's Logbook for Alaska, Northwest Canada, and Russia, published by the Alaska Airmen's Association.

Don wrote a book about his experiences as a musher in Alaska entitled "Back of the Pack." To order a copy go to the Alaska Outdoors Development Corporation home page.

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