Navy Operating Base Adak

You are standing on one of the most remote battlefronts of World War Two, far out in the Aleutian chain. In June of nineteen forty-two, Japanese forces had seized the Alaskan islands of Attu and Kiska, the only American soil they occupied during the war. To take them back, the Army and Navy rushed in and built a base here on Adak, only about two hundred fifty miles from enemy held Kiska.

The buildup was staggering. By the spring of nineteen forty-four, more than thirty-two thousand military personnel were stationed on this cold, treeless, fog bound island. From Adak's airfields, bombers and fighters pounded the Japanese garrisons until both islands were retaken.

The Navy kept the base running through the Cold War, watching the North Pacific, until it was finally closed in nineteen ninety-seven.