Adak Update Hiking

A view of Downtown Adak, overlooking Sweeper Cove

Historic Guide Introduction | World War II Historic Resources | Remote Historical Markers

Downtown Commemorative Site Markers

1. The Navy Auxiliary Air Facility
(Marker outside the Air Terminal)

In January 1943, two hangars and a number of support facilities were constructed at the south end of Runway "A" of the Davis Army Airfield. These temporary facilities made up the initial Naval aviation contribution to Adak's offensive directed toward Kiska and Attu. The aircraft assigned to this air facility included six Patrol Bomber Seaplanes known as PBYs or Catalinas and a small number of OSU2 observation/reconnaissance aircraft. By May 1943, all of the Naval airplanes were moved to Albert E. Mitchell Field, a newly constructed Naval Air Station and seaplane base (related markers 12 and 13) located at what became the Naval Security Group Activity area.

2. Armytown
(Marker on west side of Main Davis Road near intersection with Terminal Road)

The marker at this site commemorates the establishment of Armytown by the 807th and 108th Army Aviation Engineer Battalions along with the largest contingent of Seabees of any theater in World War II. The small city they built stretched from NORPAC Hill to Sweeper Cove. In only 5 months (September 1942 - January 1943), a settlement of Quonset huts was erected here. It provided shelter and support to the 90,000 troops and 5,000 construction personnel assigned to Adak as the invasion force for the Attu and Kiska Island campaigns.

3. Longview/Davis Army Air Field
(Marker near intersection of Crash Station Road and Birchwood Road)

On August 30, 1942, the date the initial landing force arrived on Adak, the 807th Army Aviation Engineering Battalion set to work constructing a dike and draining the tidal flat between Kuluk Bay and the Sweeper Cove areas to create an airfield. Only ten days later bombing and fighter escort squadrons under the command of Major John S., Chennault took off from the one completed runway for a full bombing raid against Kiska. In October 1942, the initial temporary runway was replaced by a 5,800-foot permanent runway, Runway A, which was adjacent and parallel to the west side of the temporary runway. Construction of a second runway, Runway B, which ran east to west, was begun immediately after the completion of Runway A. The second runway was initially 6,000 feet long and covered i steel matting; it was then extended to 7,800 feet. Late in 1943, both runways were paved. Runway "A" was used for P-38s and Runway "B" was used for B-17s and other bombers. Although this operational area was initially named "Longview Army Airfield," by early 1943, it was renamed Davis Army Airfield." These runways, though they have been structurally updated, are the same ones that were in continuous use from the end of World War II to the operational closure of Naval Air Station Adak in 1996.

4. Navytown
(Marker north of Seawall Road)

In the area around and where the Navy Administration and Public Works Building, and the Red, White, and Blue Sheds now stand, the Seabees constructed a small Quonset complex housing 1,000 Navy personnel in January 1943. The personnel located here augmented the operations of the Naval Auxiliary Air Facility that was located on the present site of the Pat Kelly Air Terminal until May 1943, and also supported the Navy Operating Base that was located at the Roberts Village Housing area until 1950. The three huge waterfront warehouses in this area as well as the piers and breakwater were all constructed in 1943 and 1944 as part of an Army Reserve Supply depot. The depot was build as a contingency staging area for a possible invasion of Japan from the North Pacific. The original wood siding was replaced by the corrugated metal at an unknown date and the red, white, and blue colors added in 1976 in honor of America's Bicentennial.

5. Navy Operating Base Adak
(Marker near Roberts Village Housing Area)

This marker denotes the site where the Naval Operating Base (NOB) Adak was established in May 1943. This command directed operations at several widely dispersed areas: the small boat mooring area immediately to the east, Happy Valley and Mitt Lake ordnance areas, the Naval hospital and Tuxedo Park areas in Hammerhead Cove, the PT boat and submarine facilities at Finger Bay and the Navy Auxiliary Landing Field first located at Davis AAF and then at Mitchell Field, constructed in the Naval Security Group Activity area. The NOB mission was to provide support for vessels, aircraft and their crews including: upkeep, repair and dry-docking, supply of general stores and ammunition, coordination of search and rescue missions and provision of recreational facilities.

6. Bering Chapel
(Marker outside chapel on Bering Hill)

The chapel was built on a site overlooking the Davis Lake Warehouse area by the Army Engineers in 1944. It was moved to its present location on Bering Hill by the Seabees and civilians of the Navy Public Works Department in September 1953. It was scheduled to be torn down when the new chapel was built and sat deteriorating for several years. In 1990, Navy Legacy funding was combined with volunteer labor from the Adak community to restore the chapel and put it back into use. It was reroofed and repainted just prior to Navy operational closure in 1996.

7. Marine Memorial
(Marker near intersection of Tundra Road and Hillside Blvd)

This marker identifies a small group of trees, a flagpole and a cairn of rocks embedded with a plaque as the Marine Memorial. The plaque is inscribed with three names, but no dates or explanations. The most widely held view is that the site commemorates one crew of Marine pilots that were killed in a crash on Adak some time after World War II.

8. Kuluk Bay Landing Site
(Marker on east side of Bayshore Hwy, across from former NAVFAC complex)

On August 28, 1942, the U.S. Naval submarines, SS Triton and SS Tuna, surfaced 4 miles due east of this beach and disembarked a 37-man U.S. Army intelligence gathering unit lead by Colonel Lawrence V. Castner. The unit was known as "The Alaska Scout," or more affectionately as "Castner's Cutthroats." Their mission was to gather information about the Japanese troop strength on Adak and to report their findings to the landing force already on its way from Dutch Harbor. No enemy troops were found, and on August 30, a 17-ship landing force with 4,500 men and tons of heavy equipment arrived. Their mission: to build an airstrip and troop staging area in preparation for the retaking of the enemy-occupied Aleutian Islands of Attu and Kiska.