Cape Field at Fort Glenn (Umnak Island)
a.k.a. Umnak Airport
NE section of Umnak Island, Fort Glenn, AKFort Glenn, a secret airfield constructed under harsh conditions and time pressures on Umnak Island, had a runway and P-40 fighter aircraft in operation when Japanese carrier planes bombed and strafed Dutch Harbor naval installations on adjacent Unalaska Island on June 3 and 4, 1942. On June 3, Fort Glenn's fighters surprised the Japanese and destroyed two enemy observation planes and crippled two more. On June 4, they succeeded in knocking down five Japanese aircraft with a loss of two of their own. Fort Glenn, the army's most westerly field in the Aleutians in the summer of 1942, carried out a stream of missions against the Japanese forces who had occupied Kiska Island on June 7. These air raids, carried out in terrible weather conditions, continued until a new airfield was constructed on Adak farther out in the Aleutians. From July to October 1942, Brigadier General William o. Butler, commanding the Eleventh Air Force, maintained his advanced command post at Fort Glenn directing air operations against the Japanese.
Local significance of the district:Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.