Alaska Pilot Ketch Ketchum: I Couldn't Do It Again

By: Ketch Ketchum

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Synopsis: Ketch Ketchum's story is like many other people who grew up in America's Great Depression. He was raised on his parents' homestead in Readyville, Idaho. Ketch and his brothers milked cows, dug postholes, collected firewood, and marched to the tune of a strict father. He joined the Army Air Corp in 1942, married his high school sweetheart, Marguerite, and traveled the world with the new United States Air Force. Ketch retired as a Major Command pilot in 1964 and this is when his Alaska adventure begins. Traveling north on the Alaska Canada Highway in a trailer with three kids, the family's road ended in Anchorage, Alaska. Ketch, building on his Air Force flying career, mastered the single engine planes of the Alaska bush pilots. Eventually he and Marguerite established Ketchum Air Service on Lake Hood and never looked back. The next 35years was devoted to flying the Alaska wilderness. He transported hunters and fishermen, flew ski-planes for winter seismic exploration on the North Slope, supplied aircraft support during the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup, and grew the air service business from one to twelve airplanes.