An isolated Navy station known for brutal Alaskan winter storms and thousands of unexploded bombs might soon be reborn as a frontline base to counter Russian and Chinese advances in the Arctic.
Last week, the top commander in the Pacific, Adm. Samuel Paparo, joined other military officials in calling for a revival of a base on Adak Island, a tiny, rocky outpost in Alaska’s Aleutian Island chain. The island, which sits halfway between mainland Alaska and Russia, would give the U.S. “an opportunity to gain time and distance on any force capability that’s looking to penetrate,” Paparo said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
Service members assigned to Adak in the past found it to be a fairly rough tour. With a “harsh and demanding” climate, the treeless island base earned its reputation as a hardship duty station before it was shuttered in the 1990s, according to an article by Barry Erdman who was one of roughly 150 Marines based at Adak during the Cold War.
For most of the year, wrote Erdman, precipitation was daily and in winter, troops were greeted by storms of horizontal snow mixed driven by wind blasts that the Aleuts referred to as “Williwaws.” Under the worst of it, Erdman recalled, “when you held your arm outstretched and you could not see your hand.” But troops got some reprieve with a week’s worth of “all-day sun in the summer,” which led base schools to close “so the students could enjoy the day,” he wrote.
During World War II, Adak Island in Alaska was used by the U.S. to launch offensives against the Japanese during battles which included the most recent foreign military occupation on American soil. After WWII, the base became Naval Air Station Adak and was used for submarine surveillance during the Cold War.
But with rising tensions in the Pacific, the island is once again viewed by many as a strategic asset.
Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, who has actively pushed the Pentagon to build up Alaska-based forces, called Adak “the gateway to the Arctic,” noting that it sits nearly 1,000 miles west of Hawaii.
“It would enable up to ten times the maritime patrol reconnaissance aircraft coverage of that key and increasingly contested space,” Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, INDOPACOM, said.
The defunct base remains largely intact, with three piers, two 8,000-ft runways — long enough for any plane in the U.S. arsenal, including B-52s — a hangar, and 22 million gallons of fuel storage, according to Sullivan. Videos from more recent visitors highlight entire neighborhoods of decaying but still-standing base housing.
The potential future of Adak would follow a larger trend as part of the broader U.S. military’s pivot to the Pacific. Several WWII bases used during American offensives against the Japanese have been reactivated in recent years including the Marine Corps’ airfield on Peleliu in Palau and Air Force fields on both Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands and at the Northwest Field on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.
Even without concrete plans to re-open Adak NAS as a formal base, Paparo said at the hearing that Indo Pacific Command’s Alaska-based fifth-generation fighter jets would operate out of the base during this summer’s Northern Edge exercise. In 2019, nearly 3,000 sailors and Marines were part of an Arctic Expeditionary Capabilities Exercise on Adak to test expeditionary logistics in the Arctic region and train for an Indo-Pacific crisis response.
The location would be important since Russia’s Pacific Fleet “frequently” travels through the Great Circle, a shipping route that goes through the Aleutian Islands, Papro said, adding that the U.S. should also look to “enhance the ability to operate” out of Eareckson Air Station, formerly Shemya Air Force Station on Shemya Island.
Their comments reflect growing national security concerns over new shipping lanes opening up due to melting ice caps, prompting more economic interests by Russia and China. They are also the latest officials to show an interest in basing troops on Adak Island.
According to Amanda Coyne, a spokesperson for Sullivan, the Navy is “crafting three different options for redevelopment of Adak” which vary from “basic infrastructure upgrades to a full-blown naval base.”
When asked about the report, the Navy referred Task & Purpose to Navy Secretary John Phelan’s February testimony to Congress where he said he would discuss Adak’s future with combatant commanders.
During a discussion prompted by Sullivan around Chinese and Russian bomber incursions into Alaska airspace, Northern Command’s Gen. Gregory Guillot said he would support Adak for maritime and air access because U.S. fighter jet responses include 1,000-miles-or-longer flights and require nighttime air refueling stops.
“Also the harsh conditions if a pilot should have to eject,” Guillot said. A base like Adak, Guillot said, “would allow us to preposition search and rescue aircraft or be able to land there in an emergency which are capabilities that we just don’t have right now.
At the hearing, Sullivan said officials from the Navy, state of Alaska, and the Aleut Corporation conducted a site assessment earlier this year.
Kate Gilling, a spokesperson for the Aleut Corporation confirmed to Task & Purpose that they worked with Sullivan’s office and the Navy to coordinate an Adak visit to evaluate potentially reestablishing a naval presence on the island again. In March 2004, the Aleut Corporation received more than 47,000 acres of land and many repurposed facilities on Adak Island from a land transfer agreement with the federal government.
“Aleut stands ready to support, collaborate, and provide insight as the Navy continues evaluating the feasibility of returning to Adak,” Gilling said in an email to Task & Purpose. “This is a continuing conversation with the Senator’s office and the Navy.”
Sullivan’s office is “awaiting the results” of the site assessment which would give an estimate on the cost and scope of the project. The Alaska senator is looking to “push for funds” in the budget reconciliation process or through an amendment through the upcoming national defense authorization bill, Coyne said.
Adak Island’s military history
The northern half of Adak Island has been used by the U.S. military going back to the 1940s. During WWII, when nearly 90,000 troops were mobilized to the Aleutian Islands, Adak was used by the Army Air Corps for defensive operations against the Japanese during battles at Attu and Kiska Islands.
Following WWII, the military’s presence on the island fluctuated but has “generally not exceeded 6,000 persons,” according to the city. The base, and the island, was later transferred to the Air Force and renamed Davis Air Force Base. In 1950, the Air Force withdrew and the Navy took over the U.S. military’s facilities. Less than a decade later, a public land order withdrew more than 79,000 acres of northern Adak Island from Navy use.
The military’s mission at Adak officially ended in 1997. Since then, the Navy’s presence has included environmental restoration and cleanup after military landfills and chemical spills contaminated the island’s groundwater, surface water, sediments, and soil.
The Environmental Protection Agency described current Navy operations as Superfund site maintenance due to hazardous substances like petroleum, chlorinated solvents, batteries, transformer oils, pesticides and solvents that were disposed of across the island. According to the EPA, the island also has roughly 70,000 unexploded ordinances which has led to restrictions in some areas.
“When Navy use for military purposes is no longer needed, the only legally permissible action Navy may take to dispose of the property is to relinquish it back to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” according to an Adak city website.