We are pleased to welcome and announce that author; Ross Coen will be at the Alaska Veterans Museum for an evening lecture on the “Balloons of War: The Alaska Territorial Guard and the Japanese Balloon Bomb Attack of WWII” 

Friday, January 13, 2012
7:00 PM at the Alaska Veterans Museum 

 Admission $3.00 and Members Free

 ...Toward the end of the Second World War, Japan launched hydrogen balloons armed with incendiary devices in one of the more unusual offensive campaigns in history.  The balloons traveled on the upper stratospheric winds known today as the jet stream and reached North America in four to six days.  About 50 of those balloons landed in Alaksa and were recovered by the Alaska Territorial Guard, an all-volunteer defense force comprised primarily of Alaska Natives

About the author...

Ross Coen is a historian who writes about the social, political, and environmental history of Alaska and the Arctic.  He is especially interested in cold weather military and scientific research adaptations, which is how he began studying the Alaska Territorial Guard, and thus writing about the Japanese balloon (the topic of his lecture on Friday, January 13th, 2012).

Of additional note, Mr. Coen has two books coming out in 2012:

(1) "Breaking Ice for Arctic Oil: The Epic Voyage of the SS Manhattan through the Northwest Passage"  University of Alaska Press
(2) "The Long View: Dispaches on Alaska History"  Ester Republic Press