My family lived in Igloo for approx 2 years when I was a child of 7,8, and 9. (Approx. 1947-1949) My father, Captain RJ Gladman, was the post Doctor. We lived in one of the two-story homes on what was known as Officers Row. The commanding officer at that time was a Cornel Fletcher.
The mission of Fort Igloo was the storage and disposal munitions used in WW II. One of my most vivid memories of an event was the explosion of a mustard gas shell in one of the storage bunkers (known as Igloos) which severely burned several of the munitions handlers. No lives were lost as I recall.
Tom Brokaw's father worked on the base in and around this time I believe.
Oh my gosh! I think we were in the 3rd grade together & I still have your class picture! Not sure of your first name, but seems like it is Howard? Thank you for correcting some of the misconceptions people have about Igloo. There is so much misinformation on the web about it. I hope you get this email & send me a reply. If you're on Facebook we have a page called PHS/Igloo -- it is a closed group so you would have to ask to join but that's okay. You might see some pictures of things or people you remember, although you were pretty young when you left Igloo.
Jerry Ann (Thompson) Chrisco -- class of 1958.
Jerry Ann, you have an amazing memory. My first name is indeed Howard.
My most vivid memory of our stay in Igloo was of the horrific blizzard of 1949. We lived in one of the white two-story homes on base. The snow drifted so high against our house that for a week or so I could open my bedroom window and slide down the drift to meet the school bus. Many cattle, sheep, and horses grazed the plains of Igloo froze during the storm. The sheep huddled together and were covered with drifted snow. They survived under the drift they created as they huddled together The cattle and a few horses didn't bunch together and froze to death standing upright.
P.S. The kids on the Hill & in Provo were bused to school, but the school was in Igloo not too far from the entrance gate. The rest of us walked to school. I think the bus kids had to bring their lunch, & the rest of us walked home for lunch & back to school. We had hour lunch periods back then.
Thanks for the reply. I had forgotten that detail.
Howard, would you do me a favor? Look at our 3rd grade picture & tell me if that is you where they have your name posted. They have you as 3rd from the left, middle row. Here is the link -
http://bhodian.com/classpics.html#Lienau48Thanks, Jeri
Regarding the above post concerning the Mustard gas explosion my brother Grant sent me the following:
The Mustard Gas was originally buried underground. Pine Ridge Indians were hired to dig the canisters up and move them into the igloos. They were making the transfer in subzero weather to minimize the risk of an explosion or leak when the accident happened.
A severely injured Indian was brought into the hospital. This is where things got worse. As the injured man and his clothes warmed up the gas vaporized off his clothes and body. This led to in injury with one of the nurses who attended him. The victim and his clothes were then rushed outside where they stripped him and cleaned his body in the sub zero weather.
I don't remember if he died in the hospital or weeks or months after the incident. Dad had pictures of this man's body and his wounds with descriptions in his records for many years afterwards. Dixie and I used to see these once in awhile while going through old family pictures. He had them in a separate envelope mixed in with the other pictures. I have heard the story more than once from Dad, but I am probably missing some of the details. I do know that he destroyed the pictures before he died.
I currently live in Edgemont and have a friend that owns a ranch on the other side of Igloo. He says there are about 90% of the igloos on his land. I would be willing to take some pictures of Edgemont for you and post them if you would like me too.
My grandmother was born and raised on the military base. My mother and I went a few years back and it has changed so much. There was a lot more tires at the entrance and they all said to stay out. When we went in we had to go over this bridge. There was a train that was loaded with coal all around but they never moved. The houses were mainly destroyed until we went further into the base. There were people living in the houses back their but they were really weird and protective. The whole place smelt like acid. There was puddles of just orangeish brown Liquid. It was weird
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