Reindeer? This Santa Flies by Plane

As the Alaska National Guard Lockheed C-130H rolled to a stop in this remote community, small children behind a fence chanted at the top of their voices:

“Santa! Santa! Santa! We want Santa Claus!”

When Santa Claus walked down the back ramp of the plane, 60 boys and girls bundled in colorful parkas, fur hats, warm clothing and boots dashed through the snow to greet the white-bearded man in the red and white suit.

They nearly knocked Santa off his feet as they ran into his arms.

But the kids in this remote city, which is 275 air miles from Anchorage, haven’t seen Santa for two years.

“Last year the C-130H couldn’t land here. It was 50 to 75 below zero a week straight, and the village was gripped by an ice fog,” said McGrath Mayor Glen Hanway, 40, a carpenter, who was glad the National Guard “arrived on a balmy day with the temperature only 10 below zero.”

“Our kids were really disappointed last year,” he said. “They’re sure excited today, as you can see.”

Half the children greeting Santa were Athapascan Indians. McGrath is at the northern end of the Kuskokwim River, embraced by the rugged Kuskokwim Mountains deep in Alaska’s interior. No roads lead to the tiny village, so Santa flies into McGrath. For the last 30 years, the Alaska National Guard has been bringing Santa Claus and Christmas gifts to children in the Alaska bush.

Teachers’ aid Grace Holmberg, 44, said the “boys and girls hardly slept a wink last night. They were so excited. Poor Brandon Boyers, 4, was up all night listening for the C-130H to arrive. He was so hyper he got sick and had to stay home and miss Santa.”

Santa Claus presented each small child at the village airstrip with a gift and a candy cane. They all had an opportunity to tell him what they wanted for Christmas and how good they had been the last couple of months. Some slipped Santa letters.

“I watch the Northern Lights at night when I bring the wood for the fire into the house for (my) mom. I make hot chocolate for my mom when she is cold. I do lots of things for my mom and my three sisters,” wrote Leonard, 9. Jamie Lee Evan, 4, gave Santa a bead bracelet she made.

“How many houses you go to? Are your elfs working hard? Where’s Rudolph and Dasher?” wrote Curtis, 8.

Judy John, 27, and her husband, Gabriel, 28, drove through the snow to the airstrip on their three-wheeler, carrying their son Christopher, 2, and their daughter Jennifer, 1, in their arms .

“This is the first time my babies have ever seen Santa Claus,” said Judy John.

The faces of many of the boys and girls were speckled with red spots. “We just got over an epidemic of strep throat. Now chickenpox is going through the village. When somebody gets something here, everybody gets it,” said Melody Strick, 27, holding her red-speckled daughter, Roberta.

Gifts for the National Guard’s Santa Claus Airlift are donated to the Salvation Army in Anchorage. Volunteers at the Salvation Army wrap the gift and set one aside for each child in 33 isolated bush communities.

The National Guard makes flights to a dozen remote villages that have airstrips large enough to accommodate the C-130H. Then from those dozen villages, including St. Lawrence Island near the Soviet border, the remaining gifts are delivered to smaller and even more isolated communities by National Guard helicopters and by villagers in snowmobiles and dog sleds.

Santa Claus on the McGrath flight was Sgt. Steve Quintana, 39. Originally from Oxnard, Calif., where he graduated from Channel Islands High School in 1968, Quintana has lived in Alaska 15 years and has been an Army National Guard helicopter mechanic 12 years.

Flying the C-130H from Anchorage was Capt. Will Thayer, 47, full-time Air National Guard pilot and member of the 144th Tactical Air Lift Squadron.

His co-pilot was Capt. Burton Powers, 29, who flies for Northwest Airlines and lives in Yakima, Wash. Powers grew up in Alaska and flies here to put in his National Guard time.

“I’m in the Alaska Guard because you can’t get to do stuff like the Santa Claus Airlift in the lower 48 or see this kind of spectacular country. Flying low over these rugged, snow-covered mountains, glaciers, and frozen rivers and lakes is seeing what Alaska is all about,” said Powers. “It’s the most beautiful country on earth.

Also along on the flight were Jos Govaars, 55, Steve Owen, 37, and Wayne Froderberg, 42, and his wife, Tris, 42, all captains in the Salvation Army.

After Santa distributed the gifts, many of the children visited the cockpit of the military plane. “Did Santa fly this plane?” one youngster asked. “What are all these buttons for?” queried Jessie Grady, 11, who said he was going to be a National Guard pilot when he grew up.

“Kids in these remote villages really know airplanes. Most have flown in an airplane a number of times but have never been in an automobile,” said Powers.

As the crew readied the plane to taxi off the runway, Santa stuck his head through an opening on the top of the plane and yelled, “Merry Christmas.”