Perhaps tougher times make us step back and take stock of all the things that really matter in our lives. As I read the paper and I listen to and watch the news, I hear Americans from all walks of life talk about how they are just going to focus on each other this holiday season and not necessarily on what to buy. In one radio story, a young woman was asked by the reporter if she was stressed about not being able to buy more for her family. She laughed a little then said that she wasn’t, because really, the bad economy was kind of a gift in a way–it was making her focus more on making things for and spending time with her family, and that felt good.

As I reflect on the past year, and all of the NANA employees who commit their talents to help our company succeed, I am mindful that for many of us the holiday season is a challenge. Some have lost loved ones this past year, and the pain of that loss is even more severe during the holiday season. Yet still, we are thankful that we were blessed with the presence of our loved ones in our lives, and the memories we have of the time we spent together. Some are approaching the holidays celebrating new additions to their families, thankful for the opportunity to cherish new memories in the future.

Every employee of our companies all around the world is a part of the NANA family. We at NANA are thinking of all of you. We share your pain and your joy. As I prepare for Thanksgiving dinner with my family, I just wanted to let you all know how very thankful I am for you.

Sincerely,

Helvi K. Sandvik

It has been an amazing year, being part of the NANA Corporation, working with the Five Rivers Services Company in Baghdad, Iraq. One of the most exciting and fulfilling times of our lives have been spent supporting our war fighters in Iraq, ensuring that we are helping to not only preserve our freedoms we enjoy in the United States of America, but also helping those who are less fortunate know those same freedoms and begin to return to a life of normalcy. We are proud to be a part of the NANA family, using our technical knowledge and professionalism to make this a better world. Even though we are apart from our families this holiday season, we are confident, through God’s blessings and the leadership of NANA, that our services are making a difference. Happy Holidays to the entire NANA family and thanks for keeping us in your prayers, not just through the holidays, but for all year long.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
From the Regional Network Operations and Security Center Iraq
(RNOSC-IRAQ)

Lance Tufte
Lead Watch Officer – RNOSC-Iraq
Five Rivers Services / TACSWACAA
DSN 318-485-3682
SVOIP 241-9287

Seasons greetings from the (very) bottom of the world!

Here in Antarctica the NANA Services family proudly continues to assist our client with their mission of supporting scientific research. NANA Services provides food, berthing, custodial, hairstyling, recreational and retail services support at three research stations which make up the United States Antarctic Program: McMurdo, South Pole, and Palmer stations.

The holidays are always a special time in Antarctica, bringing the community together to share in wonderful special meals prepared by our NANA chefs. It is a great opportunity to shed our work clothes and don our seasonal best. And we get the added joy of having a white holiday season in the middle of summer!

From our branch of the NANA family to all of you, have a safe and happy holiday season!

Lisa Wright
NANA Services
McMurdo, South Pole, and Palmer Stations, Antarctica

Holiday Greetings from Fort Huachuca in sunny Arizona, home to Akima’s Human Intelligence Collector training program!

Cindy Rost
Akima Program Manager

Aloha and best wishes for Hau’oli Lanui (Happy Holidays) from the Garden Isle of Kauai, Hawaii! (This Akima team provides test range support services at the Kauai Test Facility.)

Ken Dama
Project Manager
Akima Facilities Management, LLC

From the Bold City of the South (Jacksonville, Florida), also known as First Coast of Florida, the employees of the Akima Construction Services located in Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida, birthplace of the US Navy’s Blue Angels and home of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Florida Gators and Seminoles, wish NANA a Merry Christmas and a very safe and prosperous New Year.
(Note: I’m holding the job site’s official cat, “Billary.” In case you’re wondering about the name, it was Hillary until we took it to the vet for a check-up.)

Dave Dee, Project Manager
Akima Construction Services

An excerpt from Fifty Miles from Tomorrow, a Memoir of Alaska and the Real People:

"For me, Alaska is my identity, my home, and my cause. I was there, after all, before Gore-Tex replaced muskrat and wolf skin in parkas, before moon boots replaced mukluks, before the gas drill replaced the age-old tuuq we used to dig through five feet of ice to fish. I was there before the snow machine, back when the huskies howled their eagerness to pull the sled. I was there before the outboard motor showed up, when the qayaq and umiaq glided silently across the water, and I was there when the candle and the Coleman lamp provided all the light we needed. I was there when two feet of sod and a dirt floor protected us from the winter elements and the thin walls of a tent permitted the lapping waves, loons and seagulls to lull us to sleep in the summer. There, before the telephone, when we could speak only face-to-face, person-to-person about our lives and dreams; before television intruded upon the telling and retelling of family chronicles and legends."

Willie Hensley sat down for an interview the NDC E-News earlier this month to talk about his book, his work and his life.

NDC E News: Growing up, were you much of a reader?

Willie Hensley:In Kotzebue, from the ages of three to 15, I grew up with virtually nothing to read, except for comic books, the Bible and the Sears and Roebuck catalog. We had no telephone, no newspapers, no working radio, and I didn't own any books. You couldn't take any books home from school.

I liked words. Later I started doing crosswords, and worked my way up to the Sunday New York Times puzzle. I didn't realize it was a great exercise.

NDC: How did you decide to write a book?

WH: I never thought there was a commercially viable story in my life. Many others have managed to survive these transitions we've experienced. There are loads of people my age, people who grew up in the pre-machine age: dog-sledding, paddling, living off the land in sod houses, in tents.

Someone wanted to do my story, to write it, but it would have been his story about my life. Almost everything written about our people, Inupiat people, has been written by others, by travelers, BIA teachers, missionaries, and explorers - people who wanted to change us or take advantage of us. So I thought, maybe I should write the book myself.

I didn't know anything about the book business. I did know many good writers who never got a chance to publish.

I've read Native biographies: Jimmy Huntington, Sydney Huntington, Sadie Brower Neakok, Elizabeth Bernhardt Pinson, Holger Jorgensen. They never talked about the painful things, like standing in the corner for talking their own language. There was really nothing negative, which is a quality that is admirable, but it doesn't help us understand what happened before.

Writing this book, I worried about being too open, about talking about things that people would think shouldn't be discussed. In the end, I also wanted to convey the good things, in spite of all the hardship, the values that allow us to be human and to survive in an area where virtually no one else could survive.

NDC: What's next for you?

WH: I'll work with my publisher to publicize my memoir. I would like to encourage others to write about their lives, their culture, and their history. That helps provide an understanding of oneself, and will be of benefit to their children and grandchildren.

NDC: Is another book in the works?

WH: If this first book goes well, my publisher has first option on the next book. I don't know what I will write about, but I have thought about a novel which I call "Siviq: Umailik of Arctica"-about an orphan Inupiaq who survived an attack by the Itqillit, was found and raised by an elderly couple who taught him many values-and who, through his own strength and his angatkut powers was able to unite the entire Arctic world and become a world figure.

NDC: Are you working on any other projects?

WH: I have developed a lengthy collection of quotes that relate to the memoir in a more global sense-what was happening to indigenous people outside Alaska hundreds of years before our experiences. I wanted to show how various ideas and practices of more powerful societies came to our own villages and began to change us. My daughter Priscilla and I are working on a website that readers could go to for that information.

I continue to do some consulting. I also am spending time with our children and grandchildren and with people I have missed over the years because I was always so busy. I also try to keep learning Inupiaq - to remember what I do know-which isn't enough

She was a member of the Friends Church where she served on the ministry and council. She also was a member of the National Association for Bilingual Education and was an Aqqaluk Trust Board director. In addition she volunteered for numerous community services including the Big Dipper Community, the Mother’s Club, the National Association for Bilingual Education, the Inupiaq Language Commission, as a recording clerk for Alaska Yearly Meeting (AYM), for Nikaitchaut Illisagvik, for the New Testament Bible Translation-Wycliffe, for reading and translation of obituaries, for Inupiat Illitqusrait, as Culture Bearer, for the OTZ Board of Directors and Aqqaluk Trust Board of Trustees and as a volunteer translator. Ruthie also received special awards that included the National Honor Society, dean’s list, National Association for Bilingual Educator of the Year and Shareholder of the Year (NANA).

She loved camping, berry picking, subsistence fishing, Alaska Native art, reading and visiting with elders. Her family wrote, “Ruthie was a loving, caring, humble, strong prayer warrior. She was the heart of the family. Because of her devotion and dedication, our family is where we are today. She welcomed and fed every person that came to her home. To her, home was out in the country listening to birds and picking flowers. This was where she was most at peace. She loved her entire family with all her heart. She had a special place for her Aana Dora Ballot and her father, Ralph. She is now with her best friends Bunny Wells and Helen Davis.”