U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS Environmental Remediation
Environmental Remediation USACE Expertise in High Demand
M
ost mainlanders under a certain age have forgotten where the first enemy aerial attack on the continental United States occurred – but the experts cleaning up the site, in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Alaska District, can’t help but remember. On Unalaska Island, more than 1,110 miles from Anchorage, Fort Learnard was BY CRAIG COLLINS
90 I AMERICA’S ENGINEERS
built during World War II on a promontory overlooking the only deepwater port in the Aleutian Island chain. Fort Learnard was equipped with anti-aircraft and anti-ship guns to protect Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base, which was bombed by Japanese aircraft on June 3 and 4, 1942. When the fort was decommissioned after the war, departing Soldiers exploded unused munitions and buried tanks of unused diesel fuel. USACE’s environmental
cleanup experts, and the contractors with whom they’ve partnered to return the site to pristine condition, have been working to restore Fort Learnard and other Unalaska Island sites for decades. Nearly 70 years after the war, in the summer of 2023, the cleanup of Fort Learnard began with field crews locating and removing fragments of artillery shells and other ordnance. Plans call for this investigation work to continue in 2024.
