STORIS: The Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast
For over 64 years, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter STORIS patrolled the northern waters of North America. Built at the start of World War II, her tours of duty took crews from the fjords of Greenland to the Northwest Passage of the Canadian Arctic to the stormy waters of the Bering Sea off Alaska.
In a service career that lasted five to six times longer than that of most military ships, the STORIS amassed a long list of accomplishments. She became the first U.S. vessel to sail the Northwest Passage, conducted the first fisheries law enforcement seizures in the Bering Sea, and rescued over 250 people in some of the Coast Guard’s most famous search & rescue cases.
STORIS: The Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast examines the roles the STORIS played throughout her service and introduces some of her many officers and sailors as they recount several of the STORIS’s most famous missions that helped define the Coast Guard’s mission in Alaska and beyond.
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Damon StuebnerDirector
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Damon StuebnerWriter
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Rebecca Tyson SmithWriter
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Damon StuebnerProducer
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Rebecca Tyson SmithProducer
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Damon StuebnerEditor
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Dave HunsakerNarrator
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Rob CohenMusic
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Dave DonaldsonVoice Overs
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Aaron ElmoreVoice Overs
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John GreelyVoice Overs
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Pat RaceVoice Overs
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Bob ArakelInterviews
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Kenneth F. Bishop, Jr.Interviews
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John H. Byrd, Jr.Interviews
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Rod ChristianInterviews
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Lee CookInterviews
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J. Alan DotyInterviews
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Cornelius FarleyInterviews
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Joseph W. GeldholfInterviews
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Jolie Gram GolpheneeInterviews
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Lynn HeinInterviews
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Jim LobackInterviews
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Bob MarzenInterviews
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Norman K. Miller, Sr.Interviews
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Jay St. CharlesInterviews
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Tom TuckerInterviews
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Clair UptonInterviews
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Irwin HandmanInterviews
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Project Type:Documentary
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Genres:Historical, Military
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Runtime:1 hour 40 minutes 22 seconds
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Completion Date:May 7, 2015
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:DVCAM
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Aspect Ratio:4:3
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Film Color:Black & White and Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
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All Coast Guard Ships & Alaska/Bering Sea Patrol Veterans' Associations Joint MeetingReno, NV
May 5, 2015
Special Screening
Recognition Award for the Preservation of Coast Guard History -
Anchorage International Film FestivalAnchorage, Alaska
December 6, 2015
Premiere -
Spotlight Documentary Film Awards
December 22, 2015
2015 Silver Award -
Public ScreeningsJuneau, Alaska
United States
March 27, 2016 -
U.S. Coast Guard, 17th District Officers' AssociationJuneau, Alaska
United States
April 14, 2016
Special Screening -
U.S. Navy Memorial & Naval Heritage CenterWashington D.C.
May 25, 2016 -
Alaska International Film AwardsAnchorage, AK
July 18, 2016
Best of Alaska Award -
Museums Alaska/Alaska Historical Society Annual ConferenceJuneau, Alaska
September 22, 2016
Special Screening -
U.S. Coast Guard Base - KodiakKodiak, Alaska
March 28, 2017 -
Kodiak Public LibraryKodiak, Alaska
March 29, 2017
Director and Producer Damon Stuebner grew up in Pennsylvania and graduated from Alvernia College with a degree in Communications. He worked as a newspaper photographer and a TV news videographer for six years in Pennsylvania before heading west and north to Alaska to continue working as a TV news videographer. Over the past 16 years he has worked on numerous live and taped broadcast productions for various stations in Alaska and for the University of Alaska. Other than broadcast video, he also has had numerous gallery exhibitions of his work in landscape and wildlife photography, furthering a passion for photography that dates back to his earliest teenage years.
He currently works on the digitalization and digital restoration of photographic materials, motion picture film, and video for the Alaska State Division of Libraries, Archives & Museums where he has produced numerous short films for special events and photo exhibits. He is also the curator and host of “Treasures from the State Film Library”, an annual presentation, currently in its seventh year, of historical films from the Alaska State Library Historical Collections for the University of Alaska Southeast’s Sound+Motion lecture series.
“STORIS: The Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast” is Mr. Stuebner’s first feature length documentary.
When he’s not editing video, you can find him cycling the roads of Juneau, Alaska, or doing landscape photography in the Southeast Alaskan rainforest.
Several years ago, a neighbor approached me and told me he was working with a group of Coast Guard veterans trying to acquire the recently decommissioned Coast Guard Cutter STORIS for the purpose of converting it into a maritime museum in Juneau, Alaska. He suggested that I should look into it because my name came up at a meeting as someone who could make a video about the ship’s history. I have no doubt that it was my neighbor who brought up my name.
For over 64 years the Coast Guard Cutter STORIS patrolled America’s northern most waters; she performed escort duties in the North Atlantic, mapped the fabled Northwest Passage, seized foreign fishing vessels off Alaska, and carried out dramatic rescues in the Bering Sea. STORIS was the only ship built of her design, and in 1991 she became the oldest commissioned cutter in the U.S. Coast Guard. As I researched her history, I became fascinated (more like obsessed) with the ship’s long resume of accomplishments.
Dozens of Coast Guard veterans have shared their personal stories in interviews, have shown great generosity in welcoming me at their reunions and into their homes, and have allowed me to use images from their scrapbooks and home movies for the documentary. I am incredibly grateful for their help; without their considerable support, this documentary about their ship could never have been made.
Sadly, in 2013, the Coast Guard Cutter STORIS was sold for scrap. The dream of many of her former crew members of saving the ship as a maritime museum came to an abrupt end. I, too, felt the loss of the ship. I can now only hope that my documentary, “STORIS: The Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast” will serve as a tribute to those who served on the STORIS and preserve the memory of the service career of a unique military ship. Even though a documentary about the history of the STORIS is completed, deep down, I don’t feel like I am done with the STORIS. I still feel like there are more stories to tell. Who knows were the STORIS will lead me next.