Today we’re hearing from Carlos Godfrey in McGrath. Godfrey works for the National Weather Service and is based in Anchorage.
GODFREY: They call us the MOBIUs (Mobile Immersion Unit), so our job is to go out and keep the station running smoothly. We replace people that go on vacation, people that quit, retire whatever. And my job is to work with them, and then when they get a new employee, train them, get them on station and then I leave.
My first station was Bethel, AK. That’s where I got hired on to, and I came on in 1996. And I worked there for five years. My next location was actually McGrath. I went to King Salmon, Alaska. I was there for about maybe six months, and then I went to Cold Bay. And I worked in Cold Bay for about nine months. And then from there, I went to St. Paul.
It kinda reminded me of where I grew up at. Because I didn’t grow up in the city pat of Georgia. You know, you would go to town once a month, so it wasn’t a big change for me.
I’ve been welcome in every community I’ve been to. Like I said, I’ve got friends everywhere. They always constantly are telling me to come back. Even in McGrath, I was just in Cold Bay and they were all, “When you coming back to McGrath. You need to come back out here. You haven’t been here in a while.
I love them all. I go to every station. I know a lot of people and I’m happy when I get here, but it’s kinda a little sad when you gotta leave, but I know I’m going to another community, so I kinda get over it pretty fast.
It’s become such a part of me to travel around and see everybody that I think it’d be hard to walk away from, but I’m sure at some point I will make that decision: that I’ve traveled out, it’s time to let it go. But right now I haven’t reached that point.
Anne Hillman is the healthy communities editor at Alaska Public Media and a host of Hometown, Alaska. Reach her at ahillman@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Anne here.
Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
