StoryCorps traveled to Alaska in February to record the voices of our service men and women. This story comes to us from Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks. At StoryCorps, Army Sergeant Jason Smith tells his wife, Lucia Artacho, about his deployment to Afghanistan in 2010. Lucia tells Jason why she’s decided to enlist in the Army. The couple is starting to notice how their three-year-old is adjusting to having parents who are both soldiers.Listen now:

Bill Hess lives in Barrow on the northern edge of Alaska. He was semi-adopted by an Inupiaq family - something he came to fully appreciate after he buried…

Ted Sutton, a Tlinget man from Southeast Alaska, was conceived during a drunken party in Sitka, Alaska. Authorities took him away from his parents when…

Dorcas Rock is a traditional healer in Barrow, Alaska. She spoke with her cousin Doreen Simmonds for StoryCorps Alaska. Dorcas has unusual gifts. Not only…

Catherine Reamey and Sarena McArthur met as young girls in Dillingham, Alaska. They talked about their friendship for StoryCorps Alaska.Johanna…

Luke Koonook is 80 years old and he has been whaling since he was a young man. He talks to Doreen Simmonds for StoryCorps Alaska about how things have…

Russell Nelson grew up in Dillingham, Alaska where everyone can, goes fishing. He and his neighbor, Fred Torrisi, stopped at a StoryCorps Alaska booth to…

Trinadad Ruiz lives in Barrow, the most northern city in the United States. But, her roots run south, across the border to Mexico. She went south to find…

Richard Beneville is a fast-talking former New Yorker who has made a life in Nome, Alaska - a town with a rich gold rush history, peopled with famous…

The ties that connect one generation to another were severed violently in many Alaska Native communities. First, the TB epidemic killed off many and…