Photo By Capt. Andrew Layton | An artist's depiction of the River Club, sketched in the early 1990s.... read more read more
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ALPENA, Mich. – For the first two weeks of August, exercise Northern Strike 17 storms through – and above – the woods of northern Michigan. As a joint-accredited, multinational, live-fire readiness event, Northern Strike brings more than 5,000 participants to an area of operations that stretches from Grayling to Alpena. There are helicopters buzzing, fighter jets zooming overhead, and countless readiness drills happening on the ground at any given moment.
When the din of Northern Strike falls silent at Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, the River Club comes to life. Among the already-pristine facilities of Alpena CRTC, the River Club is a not-so-hidden gem. Nestled on the banks of the Thunder Bay River, a walk through the club’s doors will reveal a rustic haven – complete with oversized fireplace hearths and a massive, jowly moose head mounted front and center. Scattered across walls are countless squadron patches, autographs, and relics from days past. This is the kind of place that oozes with atmosphere – a hangout spot that instantly brings to mind the places where fighter pilots and battle-hardened veterans unwind in the movies.
Pick any night during exercise Northern Strike and you'll find the River Club to be a melting pot of military experience and affiliation. You can spot Latvian fire fighters huddled in a corner and Navy helicopter pilots congregated at the bar. Air Force colonels sit at a table and discuss the day’s operations as Joint Terminal Air Controllers shoot pool with a group of Marines.
There are few places in today's military community where heritage, comradery, and fun merge quite like they do at the River Club.
“Not many military installations maintain these kind of places anymore,” said Col. Andrew Roberts, Alpena CRTC commander and a patron of the club for over fifteen years. “This is a part of our military heritage that we’ve kind of lost.”
Dave Matash, a real property support technician for Alpena CRTC, cites the rising costs of liability insurance as a reason many of the River Club’s counterparts around the country have been shuttered.
“We’ve done a really good job managing the club over the years, and we’ve overcome a lot. We’ve gone from a group of volunteers running the place to a formalized board with full incorporation,” said Matash. “I think this is the best club in the Air National Guard.”
Matash, who came to Alpena CRTC in 1981 from active duty and retired from the Air National Guard in 2005, is a past president of Phelps Collins Open Mess, Inc. – the River Club’s guiding body – and began serving on its board of directors in the mid-1980s.
“The goal for the River Club has always been to make it a class act,” he said.
One reason for the River Club’s legendary reputation is that memories of relationships forged through service often endure long after uniforms are packed away following retirement or discharge.
“It’s a place for people to gather outside of the general public and embrace their military family,” said Brenda Manning, who has managed the River Club since 2009. “You can have the conversations about what went well during your day, or what went wrong, because everyone understands.”
She also pointed out that many military retiree organizations travel from around Michigan to hold reunions at the club.
According to legend, the structure that now houses the River Club was first used as a private hunting cabin, circa 1908. In those days, Native Americans and local residents picked blueberries in the nearby flatlands, where Phelps Collins Airfield was built in 1931. Its namesake, an Alpena native, had been the first U.S. airman killed in World War I.
Eventually, the cabin and its surrounding plot was donated to Alpena County and incorporated into the airfield property. It’s not clear when the building was first used as a club, since the original manager of the airfield is believed to have used the structure as a private residence.
“I’ve never been able to find anything on the original construction of the building,” said Matash. “It’s almost like it’s just always been there.”
During World War II, Phelps Collins Airfield was used as a readiness site for Army Air Corps pilots. Lt. Col. Boyd “Buzz” Wagner, the first Army Air Corps fighter ace of the war, was among the aviators to practice gunnery tactics there. Around the same time, the River Club’s close cousin, the Enlisted Mess, opened near the flight line. An officer’s club was also run from a small cabin near Zim Lake.
Following World War II, many of the airfield’s buildings were razed when control was returned to civilian authorities. Then, in 1952, negotiations were completed for the Air National Guard to acquire joint use of the airfield. As Phelps Collins Air National Guard Base, the facility continued to be used primarily as a training and exercise compound.
By the 1960s, the River Club was in full-swing as a dining and social club, exclusive to military patrons. As units from around the Air National Guard made their pilgrimages to Alpena for Operational Readiness Exercises and Inspections, the River Club became a legendary place to blow off steam at the end of a long work cycle.
“At the end of a unit’s deployment here, they would always wrap it up with a steak fry at the River Club,” said Matash. “Those are the kind of fun times that people remember about an ORI.”
The outlandish memorabilia left behind only added to the club’s mystique.
“There’s a helmet from Desert Storm up there, pieces of metal from this or that aircraft, signs, flags, and all kinds of other mementos,” said Matash. “The stories are great.”
According to Matash, the River Club has seen a piecemeal evolution since the building’s days as a remote hunting cabin. In the 1960s, a kitchen was added to the River Club’s east side. A patio shelter was added in 1979 and in the late 1980s, a team of Navy Seabees added a restroom area on the south side of the building.
To this day, the log frame of the original cabin is present in the bar area of the club. A project in the mid-2010s to shore-up the building’s badly decayed footing revealed that the original foundation of the cabin amounted to little more than a collection of cedar stumps.
While the River Club may seem like a relic from a bygone era, Roberts points out that the club has had an important role in the growth of Alpena CRTC’s role in combined and joint training operations.
“We actually get calls from commanders who ask if the River Club is still open,” said Roberts. “Then they say, ‘If it is, we’ll come do an event at the CRTC.’ It’s so important to have a place where you can pull an entire squadron together in a very safe environment and have fun.”
Exercise participants agree that having a place like the River Club enhances their experience at events like Northern Strike.
“I like that rank is not a factor at the River Club,” said Airman 1st Class Tiffany Clark, an Air National Guard member on temporary duty at Alpena CRTC for Northern Strike 17. “You can go there and people are just people. It helps you get to know your teammates and counterparts better.”
Northern Strike 17 is a National Guard Bureau-sponsored exercise uniting approximately 5,000 service members from 13 states and seven coalition countries during the first two weeks of August 2017 at the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center and Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, both located in northern Michigan and operated by the Michigan National Guard The newly-accredited NS 17 demonstrates the Michigan National Guard’s ability to provide accessible, readiness-building opportunities for military units from all service branches to achieve and sustain proficiency in conducting mission command, air, sea, and ground maneuver integration, together with the synchronization of fires in a joint, multinational, decisive action environment.
| Date Taken: | 08.11.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 08.11.2017 12:24 |
| Story ID: | 244599 |
| Location: | ALPENA, MICHIGAN, US |
| Web Views: | 3,164 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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