When they took down the White Alice at Barter Island, it was the Army Combat Engineers using it for an exercise.  From their list of locations they had a White Alice tower to destroy, Barter was the only one that had a population around it.  I was working there along with the above mentioned friend and two mechanics (we are techs).  It was HILARIOUS.  The army team stayed at our facility which for us is like running a government hotel. They even brought there own cook.  One man forgot to bring his cold weather gloves (it was dead winter) and as punishment, he had to stand at attention at the main entrance and acknowledge anyone who walked by, military or civilian.  These facilities on the North Slope, in the past called DEWline sites - are long trains of unit modules so it's like one big ass long hallway.  You could not get from your room to the lounge or kitchen without passing this guy.  It got to be a bit much in no time and you didn't want to have to walk past him making him do his little speech.

They had brought 10,000 feet of Detcord and 100 lbs of C4 but since there was a population (native village of about 200-400), they decided to try and topple it by cutting the support struts and yanking them down with a dozer and winch cable.  Most have never seen the receiving dishes of White Alice.  They are not small and round like the transmitting dishes.  The receiving antennas where large verticly orientated rectangular dishes.  Huge.  I cannot recall but say 50'x100'.  That's a total guess from memory.  They were designed to take winds up to 200 knots.  That is a LOT OF PRESSURE the antenna has to take, being like a big sail perpendicular to the wind.  The supports were incredibly strong.  The team of 8+2CO's cut all the bag struts with regular oxygen/acetylene torches.  They attached the winch cable from the dozer to the top and tried to pull it over.  Nothing moved but the spinning tracks of the dozer.  They then hooked another dozer to the first, pointing the other way and the chain between them straddled a small mound so each dozer was on a slope of it.  They tried to pull again.  The cable snapped and came back, broke lots of glass from the cab of the first dozer.

Okay, so they cut all the front supports but four.  They tried to pull again.  They broke another cable and there was no glass left in any of the dozer's cabs.  I wonder who was ordered behind the second cable after the first one snapped back and hit the cab?

OKAY MF!  Go time!  They are going to blow it.  The build up berms of earth and snow around the base.  This was to try and shield the population from flying debris.  They tied 40 lbs of C4 with the detcord, and tied that to the remaining support struts.  Two loops that com way back (a safe distance) and both come to a 10 minute pull fuse timer.  The village mayor and fire chief have been briefed, who then informed the village.  They would be told when the explosives would go so they could take cover.  You weren't allowed to even look at it from less than 2 miles away.  OUr station was maybe 1/2 mile away so I watched from a window.

Sitting in the "command" vehicle was the Captain and LT (or LT and SGT).  They get on the CB and tell everyone it would occur in 10 minutes and pulled the fuse.  CB is how village residents commonly communicate.  Suddenly the Fire Chief's vehicle with the mayor riding shotgun goes whizzing by the command vehicle.  Villagers have all come on snow machines to watch, up on the berms that were supposed to protect them.  WTF?!?  is pretty much what the army guys thought.  The tower struts blew and the dish fell over from the front.  No one was hurt.  I was somewhat impressed but still thinking about how these guys bumbled around trying to do their thing pulling it down and they are supposed to be the ENGINEERS but seemed to have no clue as to structural strength.  Good thing they know how to blow things up.

OKAY! One more dish to blow and this time the CO's decide not to tell ANYONE that it is about to happen so as to not have a repeat of last time.  The collection tower that was in front of the first dish blown was poking up through the dish.  Unlike the giant rabbit ear, the collection tower was small and pointy.  So this time same plan but with a little twist.  The decide to use ALL the C4 up so they didn't have to transport it back with them.  Hazmat paperwork and such bs.  I couldn't seem to convince them to let me have the leftovers.  The took 20 lbs and wired up the small collection tower, and the rest of the 40 lbs to the main dish.  Same setup and they pull the fuse but they are going to blow the collection tower first, which they do.  Only we knew, besides the army, that it was going to blow so none of the villagers came zipping over to watch.  Then they blew the charges on the main dish which toppled over about 5 degrees then stopped.  The army guys were shitting bricks because they used up all the C4 and had none left.  (Hey, gimme that 9900 feet of detcord you got left and I'll cut the entire bitch into pieces, all at once).  But after 5 minutes the dish finally fell.  They had started to cut the first dish up but only completed a third of it then they packed up and left.  In the years to follow chunks of steel big enough to take your head off were found more than two miles away.  We had to replace both dozer winch cables, and all the glass for both cabs.

I hope that was combat engineering 050 or 100 level because they did such a messed up job it was comical.  The guys themselves were great, especially the cook.  The cook showed me how to do some pretty intense workouts for my upper chest.  For the next three days I could not touch my hands together, it hurt too much.

And they took the rest of the detcord back with them.  Damnit.