Longview / Davis Army Air Field
Alaska
This airfield was carved out of a tidal swamp by sheer determination. American forces landed on Adak on August thirtieth, nineteen forty-two, and within days Army engineers of the eight hundred seventh Aviation Engineer Battalion were hard at work. The plan was bold.
They drained the tidal flat between Kuluk Bay and Sweeper Cove by building a dike, then laid a runway on the muddy ground they reclaimed from the sea. In a matter of weeks they had a working airfield in one of the harshest climates on earth. From here, bombers and fighters flew the missions that drove the Japanese off Attu and Kiska.
After the war the field was renamed Davis Army Air Field, honoring Colonel Everett Davis, who died in a plane crash in Alaska in November of nineteen forty-two. It is a monument to engineering under fire.
