Adak, AK - Former WW2/Cold War Naval Facility - Thread

Hi UER community--

Long time admirer of everyone's work on here, you guys are fantastic. I recently went out on a trip that I thought might be of interest to the community. Lots of photos, so hopefully you guys don't mind the large gallery. Let me know what you think!

A few weeks back, I had the unique opportunity to visit one of the most remote and harsh abandoned places that I've ever been to: Adak, Alaska.

Adak is located about as far away from anything as you can get, out toward the very end of the Aleutian Island chain in the Pacific. It was originally used as a base of operations during World War 2, when the US Navy built the island out to house 6000 people after the Japanese landed on nearby Attu and Kiska. At its peak, Adak was home to nearly 90,000 US troops prepared to fend off Japanese invasion forces from the Bering Sea.

Fast forward to the Cold War: Adak was converted into a top secret SOSUS outpost (submarine warfare and hydrophone listening), used to track Soviet submarines crossing the Pacific Ocean. In the late 1980s, the Navy invested around $3 billion (that's right, BILLION) into outfitting the island with the latest and greatest in communications equipment and technology in order to stay many steps ahead of the threat of the Soviet Union...

...and then, in 1991, the USSR fell. Overnight, the whole purpose for NAVFAC Adak evaporated...and after a period of draw-down (pulling forces out and stationing them elsewhere), the remnants of the island's property was sold to the Aleut Corporation. It is now home to barely 300 inhabitants. There are only two flights in and out of the repurposed military airport per week, through Anchorage. Nearly every building is abandoned, open, and accessible.

If you like what you see, come check out my website for more pictures!
http://www.AlexKnickerbocker.com

1. High School

A typewriter sits in the old high school building. Empty classrooms overgrown with moss and flooded with water fall further into decay as the elements tear this place apart.

2. Bering Hill Chapel

The last days of the original Bering Hill Chapel. This church will probably not survive the year; the 60+ mph winds have ripped holes in the walls and rotted all of the wood through.

3. Nightclub

My dad (left) and I in the kitchen to an old night club...probably the only nightlife the island had to offer in its days of active use. Just around the corner from where this photo was taken, there were probably a hundred World War 2 med-evac stretchers piled on top of each other.

4. BEQ

A single chair sits in one of the rooms at a BEQ (Barracks Enlisted Quarters). There were hundreds of rooms like this, all simple and exactly the same to make construction as easy and efficient as possible.

5. Bering Hall Theater

Me on the stage of the Bering Hall theater. Somehow, this room has been spared by the rain, wind, snow, and humidity...the seats are usable, the wooden floor is intact and dry, and the paint has yet to start peeling off the walls.

6. BEQ Hallway

A hallways between barracks buildings. This is how nearly every structure's interior looked: torn to shreds by the elements, destroyed by bored hunters and former residents alike. I can only imagine what it'll look like in just another year or so.

7. Recreation Center

Two stories below ground, walking through the hallway between the locker room and indoor pool beneath Bering Hall. But for our flashlights, every part of the lower two floors was pitch black.

8. Bering Hall Facade

The exterior of Bering Hall...slowly being consumed by the island.

9. Seven Doors of Doom - Bunker

It may not look like much, but this is one of what was referred to as the Seven Doors of Doom. This bunker, protected by two rows of barbed wire fences with gun towers at every corner, was used to store nuclear warheads at the height of the Cold War.

10. Seven Doors of Doom - Entrance

A gun tower at the entrance to the Seven Doors of Doom. The 4-inch thick bullet proof glass is still completely intact, and the gun ports in the tower still open to allow the immediate execution of trespassers. When this island was active, NO ONE got in here.

11. Harbor

A grounded fishing trawler sits alone in the tiny marina. Only three other fishing boats were moored at the pier in the distance.

12. BEQ - Furniture Storage

Rotting furniture is piled to the ceiling in another BEQ. Every room on the whole first floor of this building looked like this...in an effort to consolidate valuable items, nearly all the furniture on the island was placed inside a single barracks...and has sat inside for over 20 years.

13. Rotting Hallway

We explored countless hallways just like this one: pitch black, underground, everything ripped apart and rotting away.

14. Racquetball Court

It took us a few minutes to figure out what this room was...but after exploring the rest of the building it was in, we realized we were standing in a racquetball court. The one across the hall from this one had a skateboarding half pipe built into it from the late 1980s.

15. Adak National Forest

"You are now entering and leaving the Adak National Forest." It consists of about 15 pine trees that were imported to the island because there is not a single actual tree to be found. It's just flat tundra in every direction.

16. NAVFAC - SOSUS Listening Post

A light fixture hangs in the entrance of the SOSUS listening post, ambiguously referred to as a Naval Facility, or NAVFAC. This building was also protected by double barbed wire fences like the nuclear weapons storage bunker. You didn't get in here unless you were supposed to be there.

17. Nuclear Fallout Shelter

Built into the hills near every major operations center were fallout shelters like this one. It was clear that these were constructed to last; despite being completely open to the elements, there is very little rust or rot. Even all the signs and paint describing proper radiation decontamination procedures are perfectly intact. This island was ready for World War 3.

18. Family Quarters

One of the hundreds of abandoned living quarters intended to house families on base. Even without being maintained for decades, the elements still haven't quite torn these apart yet. Every single one is still standing, most would still be livable if anyone really wanted them to be.

19. Residences and Car

Our rental car, a Ford Escape with 187,000 miles on it. Every service light and warning chime was going off the entire time, but this car got us around without any problems...even with the thousands of potholes that line all the roads (if you can even call them that) on the island.

20. Gasoline

Yes, this is the gas pump that services the whole island. Yes, it still works. And yes, it was $6.81 per gallon for regular.

21. Kwanzaa Hut Hunting Lodge

The only real visitors to Adak are hunters, who go on expeditions into the tundra in search of caribou. Many of them will find places like this World War 2 era "kwanzaa hut" and convert them into temporary residences. This one has been used as recently as December, 2014. The occupants had left a note with contact info just in case anyone decided to take shelter from the elements inside.

22. Weapons Bunker

My last photo for now: a weapons storage bunker at the top of a hill overlooking the town of Adak. That door is 15 feet tall, made of foot-thick steel, and the interior was easily 1500 square feet of solid concrete construction.

All in all, I took over 2000 photos and got to explore upwards of 100 abandoned buildings, bunkers, barracks, houses, and facilities. I have plenty more pictures where these came from if anyone is interested in seeing more.

Once more, I have more photos from places like this on my personal website:

http://www.AlexKnickerbocker.com

Thanks for looking!