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94-504: Naval Air Facility Adak ( IATA : ADK , ICAO : PADK , FAA LID : ADK ), was a United States Navy airport located west of Adak , on Adak Island in the U.S. state of Alaska . After its closure in 1997, it was reopened as Adak Airport . The facility was designated a National Historic Landmark for its role in World War II , although most of its elements from that period have been demolished or lie in ruins. On June 6/7, 1942,

188-399: A subpolar oceanic climate ( Cfc ; Dfc if the 0 °C isotherm is used) closely bordering on a tundra climate ( ET ). The weather on Attu is typically cloudy, rainy, and foggy. High winds occur occasionally. Five or six days a week are likely to be rainy, and there are only about eight to ten clear days a year. The rest of the time, even if rain is not falling, fog of varying density is

282-436: A Japanese soldier were found on the island, and on May 23, 2008, the remains of two more Japanese soldiers were discovered by U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Richard Brahm, a public affairs specialist who was a documentarian for the remains recovery team. More remains were located at the burial site, but were left untouched with plans to return at a later time and have them exhumed properly. On August 1, 2010,

376-469: A dull routine of defensive alerts against an enemy which was a thousand miles away. Other than the B-24 operations against Japan, the remainder of Eleventh Air Force personnel simply counted the days until their reassignment elsewhere. Davis Army Airfield was transferred to Alaskan Air Command on 18 December 1945 when Eleventh Air Force was inactivated. Initially Davis AAF was Headquarters of AAC until it

470-513: A final banzai charge broke through American lines. On 15 August 1943, U.S. forces landed unopposed on Kiska. Due to the heavy casualties suffered at Attu Island, planners were expecting another costly operation. However, the incessant and continual air attacks had reduced the Japanese forces defenses considerably and the Japanese tactical planners had realized the isolated island was no longer defensible and evacuated its garrison. On 24 August 1943,

564-427: A firm foundation of sand and gravel beneath it. Work began on 2 September with the construction of an enclosing dike around the marsh and a system of drainage canals drain off the water, followed by scraping off the topsoil to reach the gravel underneath. Additional gravel and then a sand runway was laid down. By 10 September enough construction had been completed that a 73d Bomb Squadron B-18 Bolo successfully landed on

658-567: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This

752-405: A radio technician, originally from St. Paris, Ohio , and his wife Etta (1879–1965), a schoolteacher, originally from Vineland, New Jersey . The village consisted of several houses around Chichagof Harbor . The 42 Attu inhabitants who survived the Japanese invasion were taken to a prison camp near Otaru , Hokkaidō . Twenty-one of them died while they were imprisoned. Mr. Jones, 63, was killed by

846-448: A record 745 species (later revised to 748), Sandy Komito spent 29 days (May 10 – June 7) on the island. Since the closure of Attu Station by the U.S. Coast Guard in 2010, access by birders has been greatly restricted. Birding tours can still reach Attu, but only by a multi-day boat trip from Adak Island . In a 2010 interview on the subject, Al Levantin (one of Komito's competitors in the 1998 season) singled out inaccessibility of Attu as

940-497: A secret report containing the Petropavlovsk contacts presuming they were Soviet. Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet (COMSUBPAC) recognized the contacts as their very highly classified operations and immediate changes were ordered for the reporting procedures. In 1973 such contacts were again almost published and stopped only when contact information was matched, on advice by a visiting civilian expert who recognized

1034-509: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. Canada's unusual codes—which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name—such as YUL in Montréal , and YYZ in Toronto , originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow

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1128-485: Is about 20 by 35 miles (32 by 56 km) in size with a land area of 344.7 square miles (893 km ), making it #23 on the list of largest islands in the United States . Attu Station , a former Coast Guard LORAN station, is located at 52°51′N 173°11′E  /  52.850°N 173.183°E  / 52.850; 173.183 , making it one of the westernmost points of the United States relative to

1222-697: Is an island in the Near Islands (part of the Aleutian Islands chain). It is one of the westernmost points of the U.S. state of Alaska . The island became uninhabited in 2010, making it the largest uninhabited island that is part of the United States politically. In the chain of the Aleutians, the islands immediately to the west of Attu are the Russian Commander Islands , 208 miles (181 nmi; 335 km) away (and on

1316-554: Is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as the list of Amtrak station codes . Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, and

1410-523: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at

1504-671: Is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by the IATA's headquarters in Montreal , Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory. IATA provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations. Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes , shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak , SNCF , and Deutsche Bahn ,

1598-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU

1692-543: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier

1786-442: Is on nearby Shemya Island), became the last telephone exchange in the United States to be upgraded to dial service. Prior to that, all telephone calls to and from that exchange could only be placed with the assistance of an operator. The battlefield area and subsequent military sites were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1985. The battlefield is now part of Aleutian Islands World War II National Monument . In 1987, with

1880-514: Is to see or hear the largest possible number of bird species within a specific geographic area during a specific time period. Because it is so physically remote from other parts of North America, there are a number of bird species likely to be found on Attu that are not seen anywhere else on the continent. John Fitchen called the island "the Holy Grail of North American birding". During his record-setting big year of 1998, in which he identified

1974-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained

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2068-489: The 2010 census was 20 people, all at the Attu Station, though all inhabitants left the island later that year when the station closed. It then became the largest uninhabited island in the United States. The Battle of Attu was the only World War II land battle fought in territory that is now part of the United States. The battlefield site is a U.S. National Historic Landmark . In 1982, the only significant trees on

2162-571: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with

2256-782: The International Date Line , however, passes to the west of Attu Island, making it the westernmost place in the United States with the same date.) Although Attu Island is the westernmost body of land east of the International Date Line, its time zone is the same as other western Aleutian Islands, UTC−10, which means that locations to the south-southeast (such as the uninhabited Baker Island and Howland Island in UTC−12 and Niue , Midway Atoll and American Samoa in UTC −11) have earlier clocks. The population in

2350-661: The Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) shore terminal was commissioned. It was a secretive separate command, though supported by the larger base. Of some note was the detection of highly classified U.S. submarine operations off the Soviet submarine base at Petropavlovsk despite a belief among some submariners the system could not pick up U.S. submarines. The array at Adak twice caused significant awareness SOSUS could. In 1962 NAVFAC Adak contact reports went to Commander, Alaskan Sea Frontier and that command published

2444-503: The United States Army Air Forces a forward base to attack the Japanese forces on Kiska Island . The landing was made in a storm and within a week additional forces, including the 807th Engineer Aviation Battalion were landed on the island at Kuhluk Bay. However, the island had not been properly surveyed to find a suitable site to build the airfield. A very quick survey of the coast located a tidal marsh which had

2538-549: The 21st and 404th Bombardment Squadrons. Additional P-38s were flown in along with some P-39D Airacobras of the 42d Fighter Squadron which had been providing air defense for Kodiak . Even while aircraft were landing, construction continued at a rapid pace to cover the PSP with several layers of asphalt and construct additional station facilities. During World War II, the following units were assigned to Adak AAF: By 13 September, enough construction had been completed at Adak to justify

2632-690: The Adak facility was decommissioned on 30 September 1992 after thirty years of surveillance. Adak Region School District served dependents living on the base. Adak Naval Station first appeared on the 1970 U.S. Census as an unincorporated military installation. It was made a census-designated place (CDP) in 1980. The station was deactivated in 1997 and was superseded by the CDP of Adak in 2000. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency IATA airport code The assignment of these codes

2726-594: The Aleutian Islands campaign was successfully completed. On 10 September 1943, Funeral Services for Col Everett S. Davis, former Chief of Staff, Eleventh Air Force, were held on Fort Richardson and he was buried in the Fort Richardson Cemetery. His C-53 had crashed into a mountainside near Naknek on 28 November 1942. The wreckage was found later in 1943. Adak Army Airfield was renamed " Davis Army Airfield " in honor of Colonel Davis. With

2820-502: The Aleutians, which enabled Air Force commanders to send the bombers with full loads to Attu, while B-25 Mitchell and B-26 Marauder medium bombers attacked Kiska several times each day. Air support for the Battle of Attu , which took place from 11 to 30 May 1943 was carried out primarily from Amchitka. The battle, which lasted for more than two weeks, ended when most of the Japanese defenders were killed in brutal hand-to-hand combat after

2914-689: The Attu villagers were returned to the U.S., the American government stated publicly that it was not aware of their status. According to Gen. Kiichiro Higuchi , the Commander of the Japanese Northern Army, the invasion of Kiska and Attu was part of a threefold objective: In late September 1942, the Japanese garrison on Attu was transferred to Kiska, essentially leaving Attu unoccupied, but American forces made no attempt to reoccupy it at

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3008-592: The Black Widows to incoming aircraft. The 415th was replaced by the 449th Fighter Squadron on 1 September 1947; later being re-equipped with new F-82H Twin Mustang interceptors and being re-designated as the 449th Fighter Squadron (All Weather) on 20 July 1948. With the long-range Radar-Equipped Twin Mustangs operating from Davis, AAC moved the 625th AC&W Squadron to Elmendorf AFB on 1 July 1948 where it

3102-677: The Japanese Navy and Army participated in the only invasion of the United States during World War II through the Aleutian Islands of Kiska and Attu as part of the Aleutian Islands Campaign . Despite the first loss of U.S. soil to a foreign enemy since the War of 1812 , the campaign was not considered a priority by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. British Prime Minister Churchill stated that sending forces to attack

3196-1033: The Japanese forces almost immediately after the invasion. Mrs. Jones, 63, was subsequently taken to the Bund Hotel in Yokohama , Japan, which also housed Australian prisoners of war from the 1942 Battle of Rabaul in Papua New Guinea . Later, Mrs. Jones and the Australian prisoners were held at the Yokohama Yacht Club from 1942 to 1944, and then at the Totsuka prisoner of war camp until their release in August 1945. Mrs. Jones died in December 1965 at age 86 in Bradenton, Florida . Before

3290-576: The Japanese on Kiska and Attu Islands. The Navy left behind a contingent of 30 Navy personnel and 200 civilian contractors to maintain facilities, keep the runway open and begin an environmental cleanup. The station was designated a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 for its role in the Second World War, even though little remained of the period facilities. On 1 December 1962

3384-864: The Japanese presence there was a diversion from the North African Campaign and Admiral Chester Nimitz saw it as a diversion from his operations in the Central Pacific. Commanders in Alaska, however, believed the Japanese occupiers would establish airbases in the Aleutians that would put major cities along the United States West Coast within range of their bombers and once the islands were again in United States hands, forward bases could be established to attack Japan from there. The establishment of Adak Army Airfield (Code Name A-2 , also " Longview ") on 30 August 1942 gave

3478-489: The Japanese supply and reinforcement convoys. After the sizable naval Battle of the Komandorski Islands , the Japanese abandoned their attempts to resupply its Aleutian garrisons by surface ships. From then on, only submarines were used for the resupply runs. On May 11, 1943, the American operation to recapture Attu began. A shortage of landing craft, unsuitable beaches, and equipment that failed to operate in

3572-510: The Japanese-held Kurile Islands , now part of Russia. This was the first air attack on the Japanese "homelands" since the famous Doolittle Raid in 1942. Other attacks followed. On April 11, 1945, in a period of only two hours, at least nine Japanese incendiary balloons sent to start forest fires in the United States West Coast were intercepted and shot down near Attu by USAAF P-38 Lightning aircraft. After

3666-469: The Soviet Union. The Naval Air Facility was also reported to be used as a refueling stop for U-2, Dragon Lady, ultra-high altitude reconnaissance aircraft. By the 1980s there were over 6,000 Navy personnel on the islands. With the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, NAS Adak's operational viability as a front-line military installation began to wane, and in the mid-1990s a decision was made by

3760-419: The U.S. For example, several airports in Alaska have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins and Nanwalek , which use FAA codes instead of ICAO codes. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service. Some airports are identified in colloquial speech by their IATA code. Examples include LAX and JFK . Attu Island Attu ( Aleut : Atan , Russian: Атту )

3854-606: The United States Coast Guard LORAN station on Attu permanently ceased operation. On August 27, 2010, the station was decommissioned and the Coast Guard personnel left, leaving the island with no resident population. On June 7, 2012, the 70th anniversary of the Japanese invasion, Senator Lisa Murkowski and United States Coast Guard Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo dedicated a memorial to Attu Village, its residents who died in Japanese captivity, and

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3948-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append

4042-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,

4136-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after

4230-544: The approval of the U.S. Department of the Interior , the government of Japan placed a monument on Engineer Hill, site of the hand-to-hand finale of the battle against the Japanese. An inscription, in Japanese and English, reads: "In memory of all those who sacrificed their lives in the islands and seas of the North Pacific during World War II and in dedication to world peace." In July 2007, the boots and foot bones of

4324-621: The attack was a low-level sweep over the water that caught the Japanese defenses off-guard. The P-39s came in first to suppress the anti-aircraft fire with their 37mm cannon fire. The P-40s then strafed the harbor, attacking the Nakajima A6M2-N "Rufe" float plane fighter/bombers. After the fighters, the heavy bombers attacked, also at low level, dropping 1,000 bombs on the harbor installations. Eleventh Air force lost two P-38s in an airborne collision and claimed five Japanese aircraft shot down. Several cargo ships and minesweepers were hit with

4418-536: The base was officially closed by the Air Force. On 1 July 1950, the Air Force transferred Davis AFB to the United States Navy who established an anti-submarine warfare base there. Adak was most recently run by the U.S. Navy as a deployment base for P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft, primarily to conduct antisubmarine warfare operations against submarines and surveillance of naval surface vessels of

4512-502: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share

4606-476: The construction of the runway at Amchitka AAF had progressed to the point where light fighters could be brought in. 18th Fighter Squadron P-40 Warhawks began to arrive from Adak and surprised the Japanese by launching counterattacks to their raids. Two Japanese light bombers were shot down over the airfield in full view of the construction engineers. In addition to the P-40s, several P-38 Lightnings were moved up to

4700-934: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through

4794-456: The factor that would make it nearly impossible to break Komito's record. However, Neil Hayward did break the record, by one species, in 2013 without visiting Attu. Prior to World War II, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) operated the sole school on the island. When the Japanese captured Attu, the school had a single teacher who was a White American woman. As of 2017 , the uninhabited island

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4888-642: The federal government to cease military flight operations there under the military's Base Realignment and Closure Program (BRAC). On 31 March 1997, the Navy closed Adak Naval Air Facility. Captain Keith Mulder, USN served as the final Commanding Officer of NAF Adak. The lowering of the flag for the last time ended an era that began of 31 August 1942, when U.S. forces landed on the Aleutian Island and established an advance base there for operations against

4982-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from

5076-478: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona , and YNT for Yantai , China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick ). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When

5170-532: The forgotten front. Headquarters, Eleventh Air Force was moved to Adak in August 1943 to provide operational control of the raids against the Kurile Islands. Assignments to the Aleutians, however, were looked on with dread. There were no South Pacific Beaches, Piccadilly Circuses, or the warmth of Southern Italy. Adak, Amchatka, Attu, Shemya and the other airfields were cold, damp, and had very few recreational diversions; or things to do. Fighter aircraft flew

5264-597: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after

5358-487: The harbor facilities and float planes taking a considerable beating. It would be a month before the Japanese could send out a reconnaissance aircraft from Kiska to fly over Adak. Although the Americans were not aware of it at the time, this raid essentially ended the ability of the Japanese to send out offensive strikes from Kiska and so effectively crippled the facility that the Japanese began withdrawing their shipping from

5452-476: The harbor. The garrison dug in and began to practice anti-aircraft drills. Attacks continued against Kiska with high intensity through the fall and end of 1942. Japanese operations from Kiska consisted of a few reconnaissance missions over Adak or a nuisance bombing mission where an aircraft would drop one or two bombs without causing any significant damage. By the end of October, the Japanese had decided to pull out most of its garrison to Attu , which they believed

5546-409: The harsh weather caused great difficulties in projecting any force against the Japanese. Many soldiers suffered from frostbite because essential supplies could not be landed, or having been landed, could not be moved to where they were needed. Army vehicles would not work on the tundra. The Japanese defenders under Colonel Yasuyo Yamasaki did not contest the landings, but dug in on high ground away from

5640-667: The information leading to Project Azorian and the attempt to raise the lost submarine. The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) directed closure of the Naval Air Facility and dictate that no military facilities could remain on the island forced the closing of NAVFAC Adak; the only SOSUS facility closed directly as a result of BRAC. Acoustic data from the Adak array was routed to the Naval Ocean Processing Facility Whidbey Island (a tenant of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island ) and

5734-487: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in

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5828-461: The island were those planted by American soldiers at a chapel constructed after the 1943 battle when the Japanese occupation was over; they have since gone. The name Attu is the Unangan language (Aleut) name for the island. Research of the large number of archaeological sites on the island suggests an estimated precontact population ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 Unangan (Aleut). Attu, being

5922-495: The island. After three months of efforts in digging up and removing contaminated soil from the island in the summer of 2016 via funding from the Formerly Used Defense Sites program, it was expected that further efforts would be required to finish the environmental clean up of the island. In 2017, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake had its epicenter west of Attu. Attu first appeared on the 1880 U.S. Census as

6016-551: The last of the Japanese forces suddenly attacked near Massacre Bay in one of the largest banzai charges of the Pacific campaign. The charge, led by Colonel Yamasaki, penetrated U.S. lines far enough to encounter shocked rear-echelon units of the American force. After furious, brutal, close-quarter, and often hand-to-hand combat , the Japanese force was killed almost to the last man: only 28 prisoners were taken, none of them officers. U.S. burial teams counted 2,351 Japanese dead, but it

6110-561: The movement of operations from Fort Glenn AAF on Umnak to the new airfield which was 400 miles closer to the Japanese forces on Kiska . The 250-mile distance from Adak allowed multiple combat sorties each day to be carried out, weather permitting. This was particularly true for the fighters, which were now within easy striking range of enemy targets. Previously, only the long-range P-38s had been able to reach Kiska from Fort Glenn AAF, and only with great difficulty. The Japanese forces on Attu , (430 miles from Adak) however, remained only within

6204-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from

6298-469: The naval station residents at Massacre Bay, and was made a census-designated place (CDP). It did not return on the 1990 census. The name was changed to Attu Naval Station and redesignated a CDP in 2000. It last appeared on the 2010 census, just before the closure of the station in August that year and the departure of its remaining residents. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Attu has

6392-425: The nearest of the Aleutian Islands to Kamchatka , was the first of the islands exploited by Russian traders. Russian explorer Aleksei Chirikov called the island Saint Theodore in 1742. Russians stayed on the island several years at a stretch to hunt sea otters . The Russians often clashed with the local Unangan people . After the initial wave of traders, European ships largely overlooked Attu. The Aleuts were

6486-434: The new airfield. With the second combat airfield becoming operational and within striking range of the Japanese garrison on Attu, the Japanese forces on Kiska were put into an untenable situation. From its bases on Amchitka and Adak, Eleventh Air Force conducted continual bombing raids on the Japanese on Kiska and Attu. Additional long-range B-24 Liberator heavy bombers were moved down from mainland Alaskan bases to operate in

6580-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which

6674-664: The other side of the International Date Line). Attu is nearly 1,100 miles (960 nmi; 1,800 km) from the Alaskan mainland and 750 miles (650 nmi; 1,210 km) northeast of the northernmost of the Kuril Islands of Russia, as well as being 1,500 miles (1,300 nmi; 2,400 km) from Anchorage , 2,000 miles (1,700 nmi; 3,200 km) from Alaska's capital of Juneau , and 4,845 miles (4,210 nmi; 7,797 km) from New York City . Attu

6768-416: The primary inhabitants of the island prior to World War II . On June 7, 1942, six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , the 301st Independent Infantry Battalion of the Japanese Northern Army landed on the island without opposition, one day after landing on nearby Kiska to the east, which made Attu the second of the only two invasion sites on territory belonging to the United States soil during

6862-748: The range of the B-24 Liberators, although the P-38s could fly escort missions. With the movement of combat operations to Adak, Fort Glenn and also Fort Randall AAF at Cold Bay became support and staging airfields supporting the front line. The first major combat mission of the Aleutian Campaign from Adak occurred on 14 September 1942 when thirteen B-24 Liberators and one B-17 Flying Fortress ; supported by fourteen P-38 Lightnings , fourteen P-40 Warhawks and seven P-39 Airacobras attacked Kiska harbor. Instead of coming in at high altitudes,

6956-481: The removal of Japanese forces from the Aleutians, the Joint Chiefs of Staff acknowledged the importance of the islands. They also ordered the reduction of the number of combat forces under Eleventh Air Force. Additional airfields were established at Alexai Point on Attu and on Shemya with a mission to carry out very long range B-24 Liberator strikes on the Kurile Islands , but otherwise, the Aleutians became

7050-469: The rest of the country. (Technically it is in the Eastern Hemisphere, being on the opposite side of the 180° longitude line from the contiguous 48 states, and thus can also be considered one of the easternmost points of the country (a second Aleutian Island, Semisopochnoi Island at 179°46 ′ E, is the easternmost location in the United States by this definition). For purposes of calendar date,

7144-437: The rule rather than the exception. There are 39–49 inches (990–1,240 mm) of annual rainfall and other precipitation , with the heaviest rains in the autumn and early winter. Due to the strong oceanic influence, Attu's climate is exceptionally mild for its latitude, with summers much cooler and winters much warmer than more continental locations. Attu was an important location in the world of competitive birding , whose goal

7238-530: The runway. A 5,000 ft Pierced Steel Planking was laid down shortly afterward and the transports from the 42d Troop Carrier Squadron arrived the following day, landing on compacted sand next to where the matting was being laid. Tents were erected, a rudimentary electrical system, radios and some rough streets were laid down and by the end of September Adak Army Airfield was home to several 36th Bomb Squadron B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers; 54th Fighter Squadron P-38 Lightnings , and five B-24 Liberators of

7332-506: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than

7426-506: The shore. This led to bloody fighting: there were 3,929 U.S. casualties: 549 were killed, 1,148 were injured, 1,200 had severe cold injuries, 614 succumbed to infectious diseases, and 318 died of miscellaneous causes – largely from Japanese booby traps and from friendly fire . The Japanese were defeated in Massacre Valley. The death count for the Japanese was 2,035. The Americans then built "Navy Town" near Massacre Bay . On May 29,

7520-590: The signatures, by NAVFAC people to one of the submarine's logs when that submarine put into Adak for a medical emergency. In 1968 a tap on the Adak array for the Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC), a nuclear event monitoring system, combined with AFTAC hydrophones in the Pacific provided time delay analysis for localizing the GOLF II Class Soviet SSB K-129 loss. That location provided

7614-470: The station came out of Holtz Bay and was ferried on barges and landing craft to Baxter Cove, about one mile east of the station. Bulldozers were used to cut a road from Baxter Cove to Theodore Point. In 1954, the station was moved to Casco Cove , near the former Navy Base at Massacre Bay. In 1960, it was moved to Massacre Bay. The island previously had scheduled airline service to and from Anchorage (ANC) flown by Reeve Aleutian Airways (RAA) which in 1976

7708-500: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in

7802-451: The survivors who were unable to return. In 2015, Attu Island was visited by pilot and world circumnavigator Michael Smith . The island was a crucial refueling stop for Smith as he made his way from Adak island in the Aleutian Islands to Japan. As the island is uninhabited, he had to first fly containers of fuel there and then return as part of the journey from Adak to Japan. He was advised against staying overnight as there are large rats on

7896-484: The time. On October 29, 1942, the Japanese reestablished a base on Attu at Holtz Bay under the command of Lt. Col. Hiroshi Yanekawa. Initially, the garrison was about 500 troops, but through reinforcements, that number reached about 2,300 by March 10, 1943. No more reinforcements arrived after that time, owing mainly to the efforts of the U.S. naval force under Rear Admiral Charles "Soc" McMorris , and United States Navy submarines. McMorris had been assigned to interdict

7990-515: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given

8084-465: The unincorporated Aleut village of "Attoo", which at the time consisted of the village on western Chichagof Harbor. It had 107 residents, consisting of 74 Aleuts, 32 "Creoles" (mixed Russian and Native) and 1 White resident. In 1890, it appeared as Attu. It did not return again on the census until 1930. It appeared on the 1940 census, two years before the Japanese invasion of the village and island. It did not return again until 1980, when it consisted of

8178-529: The use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice

8272-572: The war, the survivors of the Otaru prison camp were shipped to other Aleutian islands or to the mainland of Alaska. The US government did not allow them to return, despite their intense desire to do so. The United States government decided to construct a LORAN station on the southern tip of Attu, at Theodore Point. This installation was manned by a crew of about twenty members of the United States Coast Guard . The equipment to build

8366-477: The war. American authorities had previously evacuated about 880 Aleuts from villages elsewhere in the Aleutian Islands to the Alaska Panhandle , where about 75 of them died of various infectious diseases over two years. Attu Village had not yet been evacuated when the Japanese invaded. At the time, the population consisted of 45 native Aleuts and two white Americans, Charles Foster Jones (1879–1942),

8460-482: Was attached to the 57th Fighter Wing . AAC Operations ceased at Davis in May 1949 due to a lack of personnel and consolidation of AAC resources on the mainland. The 449th FS was moved to Ladd AFB and the base was put into a caretaker status. Housekeeping by the 5020th ABS took place and remaining personnel coordinated the transfer of the facility to the Navy. The runway remained open to transient aircraft, but on 30 June 1950

8554-548: Was moved to Elmendorf Field on 1 October 1946. The mission of Davis AAF (later Air Force Base) became the air defense of the Aleutian Islands and the host unit was designated as the 5020th Air Base Squadron. P-61 Black Widow night fighters of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron were assigned from Shaw AFB , South Carolina and were used as long-range interceptors against incoming unknown aircraft. The 625th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (designated F-11) provided early-warning ground control intercept (GCI) Radar to direct

8648-423: Was operating two direct flights a week between ANC and Attu with Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprop aircraft via an en route stop either at Adak Airport or Shemya island in the Aleutian Islands. At the time, the airport on Attu was the westernmost airfield located in the U.S. to have scheduled passenger airline service. In 1984, the "392" exchange in the 907 area code, which includes Attu (and whose rate center

8742-478: Was presumed that hundreds more had been buried by naval, air, and artillery bombardments over the course of the battle. The Japanese Navy, realizing that their position was now untenable, evacuated Kiska three months later. The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) built a larger airfield, the Alexai Point Army Airfield , and then used it on July 10, 1943, as the base for an air attack on

8836-505: Was worth retaining, and began transporting additional units from Hokkaido to Attu and began upgrading their defenses. On 12 January 1943, American forces made an unopposed landing on Amchitka Island , 50 miles from Kiska and 260 miles from Attu. The Army began establishing a forward combat airfield (A-3) on the island. Aircraft from Adak flew constant combat air patrols over Amchitka against attacking Japanese Rufe fighter-bombers from Kiska and longer-range bombers from Attu. By 16 February,

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