28 November 1945

                    History
                      of
          Alaska Communication System

                    KODIAK


     Kodiak Island, which lies between 57o and 58o north 

latitude, forms the western shore of the Gulf of Alaska 

and is separated from the Alaska Peninsula by the 30-mile 

wide Shelikof Strait. The island is very mountainous with 

an extremely irregular shore line, the whole forming a 

rough oval 100 miles long by 60 miles wide with the long 

axis running northeast and southwest.

     This island occupies a vital strategic location with 

regard to the mainland of Alaska, lying as it does like a 

sentinel at the mouth of Cook Inlet and within 180 air 

line miles of Seward, the southern terminus of the Alaska 

Railroad. It would be impractical for an enemy to invade 

Alaska from the south without first reducing to impotence 

airfields and the Army and Naval bases on Kodiak.

     The site selected for a Naval Base was on Womens Bay 

near Kodiak Village on the extreme eastern tip of the 

island. Construction. was begun on the base in 1939 by the 

Siems Drake Puget Sound Company under Navy Contract 

NOY 3570. The contractor was under the supervision of the 

Navy engineers, and later when it was decided to build an 

Army post (called Ft. Greely) adjacent to the Navy base, 

this work was also done under the same contract. In the 

fall of 1942 the SeaBees began to take over the work of 

the contractor and from March 1943 on, all work was done


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