Course Information
Participating Teachers
Michael Stauffer - South Sound High School
Exploring Our Places: Mike's Narrative
Like many of my kind, the military brought me to the Pacific Northwest. Growing up near Chicago I learned that the nearby army and navy bases were not pleasant places. So I was thoroughly impressed when I was stationed at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island and the small Dutch community of Oak Harbor. I was fortunate to spend over three years in Oak Harbor where its citizens treated its military very well.
To me Oak Harbor represents so much of these United States and its history. Immigrants from Holland (by way of Holland, Michigan) settled on Whidbey Island in the late 19th century. More than a few of its streets parks have Dutch names of early settlers many of which still have family living on them. The descendants of these same families showed me and other transient military officers great kindness during our relatively short stays.
The U.S. Navy has a tradition in that part of Puget Sound dating back even to the Royal Navy. NAS Whidbey began as a seaplane base in the 1940s and is now home to the Navy’s only EA-6B Prowler training squadron. Not too far down the coast is one of the many spots Captain George Vancouver was thought to have made landfall.
