SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
WASHINGTON. D. C. 20560 
February I966 
Tear Jan: 
Your letter just arrived and I’m answering it right away so it won’t laying arotind 
for three or four days. 
I can't offer any help on the freezer chests right at the minute because the 
remnants of the two we had have been sent on the SIC trip with several other battered 
and slightly, misbegotten freezers of other design. Basically, any freezer chest 
that is of heavy construction (preferably styrofoam or polyfoam) will suit our 
purposes. We ha ^ a great deal of difficulty with the aluminum ones that have hinges 
andsnap-down lids because they invariably get beaten out of shape when the raft is 
spilled during landings. The aluminum freezers all seem to radiate off a 
large portion of their initial coldness which is something the styrafoam freezers I 
want do not do. If you’ll keep your eyes open until you do find some and then grab 
about 6 of them we’ll be in good shape.until one of us ot the other finds some 
of this type we'll just make do with the battered ones we have. The ones we had before 
we roughly 12x18x12 or so and were about 1 or so inches thick. Th^ were so rigid 
you could sit on them without doing any damage, 
I don't understand how the last shipment got there on Sunday morning because it 
wasn't sent out of here until late Saturday afternoon. I wasn't too worried about this 
one because of the cold weather back there at this time of the year. On future shioraents 
I'll endeavor to give you some sort of advanced warning. ^nxpmenus 
The bands you have requested for Alaska will be shipped to you in the mar future 
along with the other gear you requested. The bands you request will be impossible 
because I do not have any in the series 722. All I have are bands with the 712 prefix, 
I could send along 7000 in the 712 prefix that were similar to the ones used last year 
712 - 51001-^8000 (he used 712-05001-08000 last year) but that is all I can send because 
that's all I have. I'll talk with Max regarding this point. It was my understaading 
that he wanted and Jane was going to order some anodized # 2 bands for the fmxmxfflHtam 
turnstones this year, What I’ll do is hold off on these bands until I’ve talked with 
Max about them. 
In regard to tent stakes the 15 inch ones are much too short for our work. They 
aren't long enough to get a good hold in the sandy soil that is encountered on the 
southern islands. Aside from that I have close to 200 of them out here that will 
probably never be used. Don't bother to send any more of the l5 inch ones because I 
sure don't need them out here. Aluminum stakes work the best because they are light 
^nd easy to work with. The boys are a little reluctant to take any of the heavier 
metal stakes in through the surf in the rafts for some reason or other — especially 
if they have sharp points on them. 
In regard to spray paint why don't you just order that there in D.C. rather than 
have me send sane back from here. That paint just got here and to send it back would 
more than pay for the paint back in D.C, Since it has been shipped out hers you can • g ’ l'w 
figure that the paint has alrea^ cost twice as much and there isn’t much sense in 
tripling it. 
