Adak, Alaska: The Aleutian Navy Town Left Behind After 1997

Far out in the Aleutian Islands, the chain of volcanic islands that arcs from Alaska toward Russia, lies Adak Island. It's cold, foggy and windy, with rain or snow on most days of the year. For centuries it was home to the Unangax̂, or Aleut, people, who hunted and fished around the island. World War II brought the military. In June 1942, Japanese forces occupied the islands of Attu and Kiska at the far western end of the chain, the first foreign occupation of American soil since the War of 1812. To strike back, the U.S. built an airfield on Adak in a matter of weeks. It opened on August 30, 1942, and flight operations began in September, putting American bombers within range of Kiska. About 6,000 military personnel served on Adak during the war. After the war, the base stayed. In 1950, the Navy took over, and through the Cold War, Adak became an important naval air station and a center for tracking Soviet submarines in the North Pacific. The base grew into a full town, housing more than 6,000 Navy and Coast Guard personnel and their families at its peak. It had schools, a college, stores and even a McDonald's. Then the Cold War ended. Cutbacks began in 1994, closing family housing and schools. In 1995, the base was put on the list for closure, and on March 31, 1997, the Naval Air Facility closed. Nearly everyone left. The population fell from 4,633 in 1990 to a few hundred. What remained was a ghost of a Navy town: rows of empty houses, barracks, a school and commercial buildings, many slowly decaying in the wind and rain. The Aleut Corporation acquired most of the facilities through a land transfer agreement, and in 2001 Adak incorporated as a city, the westernmost municipality in the United States. The 2020 census counted 171 residents. Today the old airfield is a public airport with jet service twice a week from Anchorage, and Adak's small community lives on among the empty streets of the base. There's even been discussion of the Navy reopening the air station.