Cold Bay Airport (Cold Bay, Alaska)

USA / Alaska / Cold Bay / Cold Bay, Alaska
 airport, Second World War 1939-1945, cargo transportation
www.globalair.com/airport/airport.aspx?aptcode=PACD

FAA Identifier: CDB - www.airnav.com/airport/PACD


Originally constructed by the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942 as Fort Randall, it was later renamed to Thornbrough Air Force Base in 1948. Thornbrough AFB was closed in 1953.

As the war in the Aleutians moved west in 1942-1943 installations in the Eastern Aleutians such as Cold Bay and Dutch Harbor declined in strategic value. The facilities at Cold Bay were quickly phased-out and by March 1945 a considerable portion of the facilities at Cold Bay were abandoned and in a state of disrepair. These deteriorated facilities were turned over to the Navy in March 1945 to serve as a base for the Hula-Two project.

Hula-Two was the final phase in the transfer of American naval vessels to the Soviet Union. Vessels arriving from West Coast ports were transferred here to Russian crews that had received at Cold Bay their shakedown training in anti-submarine warfare, radio, radar, gunnery, and other shipboard activities. Hula-Two was a project that lasted only a few months from 19 March 1945 to 5 September 1945. During this time 149 vessels were transferred and 2,500 Russian crew members trained in preparation for the Soviets joining in on the war against Japan.

Cold Bay Airport is used by scheduled cargo flights (Alaska Central Express and Evergreen International Airlines), and is sometimes used as an emergency diversion airport for passenger flights across the Pacific Ocean.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Hula
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Bay_Airport
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   55°12'33"N   162°43'15"W

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  • Both . Cold Bay , Alaska
This article was last modified 9 years ago