The Juneau Igloos of the Pioneers of Alaska and the Juneau Council of the Navy League of the United States are planning to place a statue of the “Lone Sailor” on the Juneau Waterfront to commemorate and honor the members of the maritime services who have protected our waterways and coastline since the acquisition of the territory of Alaska. This fund has been established to acquire the statue from the U.S. Navy Memorial. The goal is to raise $400,000!
The Lone Sailor statue signifies the men and women who have served and are serving or will serve in the Navy, Coast Guard, or Merchant Marine. The original statue was placed at the Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C. over 30 years ago, and since then, 19 statues have been placed in cities around the United States and on Normandy Beach in France.
In Southeast Alaska, the sea is not just scenery; it is the spine. Every community in this region was built at the tidewater and backed against the coastal mountain range. At the ready were Coast Guard crews threading cutters through narrow channels in the dead of winter or light house keepers manning lonely beacons. It was the U.S. Lighthouse Tender Cedar that responded to the distress signals of the S.S. Princess Sophia in October 1918. Sixty-two years later, in 1980, it was the Coast Guard that successfully rescued every passenger and crew member on the M.S. Prinsendam before it sank off the coast of Southeast Alaska. Like the rest of Southeast Alaska, Juneau’s lifelines have always worn uniforms: the Coast Guard patrols, the sailors who brought commerce, security, and connection to the wider world, and the generations of Alaskans who stood watch on steel decks so the rest of us could sleep.
The legendary Coast Guard Medium Icebreaker Storis, once nicknamed “The Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast,” reminds us how the sea services have safeguarded this region through every era. The story of this place is a maritime story. The maritime services did not just protect Alaska, they shaped it.
Nor can we neglect the pivotal role of the United States Navy. At the outset of World War II, the Sitka Naval Operating Base was the Nation’s frontline in the North Pacific, from which PBY’s were dispatched to search out enemy movements. The Inside Passage was the portal for men and materials in the Aleutian Campaign.
No symbol captures the sacrifice more poignantly than the USS Juneau, CL52. The U.S.S. Juneau was a Light Cruiser named for the capital city of Alaska that was lost in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. She was crewed by 687 American sailors who never came home, including the five Sullivan brothers whose loss changed naval policy forever. Their courage carved a permanent place in our national memory and is commemorated here locally. Today, when Alaskans look out at Gastineau Channel, we are looking at the same waters they sailed to defend. The Lone Sailor statue is not about nostalgia, it’s about recognition. It is about honoring the men and women who stood the watch yesterday and those who stand it now. It tells every mariner who rounds out shores: Juneau remembers. Alaska remembers. And we will always honor those who serve at sea.
Photo: Lone Sailor Statue, Wisconsin
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Donate by credit card using the link below, or make your check payable to Juneau Community Foundation. Please note the fund name in the memo field. Mail to: 641 W. Willoughby Ave., #206, Juneau, AK 99801. Please call us at 907-523-5450 or email info@juneaucf.org for information on donating stock, wiring funds, establishing a Fund, gifting from your IRA, or naming the Juneau Community Foundation in your Will.
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