Thanks to Dewliner, George Patkotak, for sending this photo, which was taken on April 27, 2013.

Shown is the razing of Dewline Station LIZ-3 (Wainwright, AK). To many, it is just the demolition of an old structure. To those of us who had occasion to call her `home`, the viewing of the photo is a bittersweet experience, and one that evokes many fond memories.

Bitter because it`s like seeing the demise of an old friend. Sweet because the old girl is finally being given a proper `burial`, and is not being left to molder away to the point of collapse. It`s too bad that her passing is occurring relatively unnoticed. It would have been fitting for a small gathering of understanding representatives to be on hand to say some words prior to initiation of the dismemberment. But such is the life of a military weapons system, which LIZ-3 indeed was.

When the razing is completed, there will be little remaining to suggest that lives were lived there, missions were accomplished there, and blood, sweat, and tears were expended there. The gravel pads and roadways will be all that physically remain. But I can`t help but feel that the concentrated energy of more than three decades of operation and habitation that was expended here has left an enduring aura that will never leave. Perhaps years from now, when a passer-by transits the area, he/she will feel a strange twinge of something unidentifiable...the essence of what had transpired on the premises over the years 1955-1989.

R.I.P. old girl....you now belong to the ages.