Photo Album from Naval Air Facility Adak, 1940s–1960s.
Adak Island, Alaska: 1940s–1960s. Photo album measuring approximately 10 ½ x 8 ½ inches, containing approximately 175 photos mainly measuring 5 x 7 inches and smaller. Three are souvenir photos. Album worn, warped at binding, and missing back cover, fair. Many photographs captioned recto, with generally excellent contrast; some warped and with damage especially to edges with some crumpled, very good. Overall very good minus. Item #List3536
The US military began constructing a base on Adak Island, in the Aleutians, following the June 1942 capture of Attu and Kiska Islands by the Japanese. Within ten days the Americans had constructed an airfield and launched an airstrike against the Japanese—the first zero-altitude strike of World War II. In 1943 the US Navy began building facilities on Adak as well, including more runways, hangars, and seaplane facilities. Strategically important during the Cold War, Adak became the largest, and by the 1950s the only, military base in the Aleutians. The base closed in the 1990s and most of its buildings are now gone or in a state of advanced decay due to the harsh, wet climate.
Offered here is an album of photographs of Adak Island dating from the 1940s to the 1960s. Subjects include the island’s military facilities: Mitchell Field; Army Town, built in 1942–1943 by the 807th and 108th Army Aviation Engineer Battalion and the Seabees; Navy Town, built in 1943–1944 by the Seabees; the “Radio City” communications center near Clam Lagoon; the construction of a building captioned “Mud Mountain”; installations on Finger Bay; and many views of quonset huts set in tundra and snowy mountains. Men march in 4th of July parades, line up for payday and eat at the mess hall, fight through a williwaw storm, shovel vehicles out of feet of snow, blacksmith and scuba dive, hold a baseball game, and even play with bears.
There are also many fairly well-shot nature photos including an aerial shot of smoke rising from a volcano, shots of the civilian city of Adak (including the elementary school, which has a sign reading “Farthest West American School”), and a sign for the “Adak National Forest”; the “forest” was a morale-boosting tree planting project, and the sign was put up by locals in the 1960s. A number show what is left of the wreckage of a bomber, including some with two men standing at the site, providing a sense of scale. At least three aircraft crashed on the island; air navigation was challenging due to its high winds and low-altitude fog.
Of interest to historians of the US military in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands Campaign.
Price: $1,200.00
Status: On Hold