Fort Wainwright
Based on Wikipedia: Fort Wainwright
During World War Two, Soviet pilots waited at an airfield in Fairbanks, Alaska. American ground crews would hand over freshly manufactured warplanes—more than seven thousand nine hundred of them over the course of the war—and those Soviet aviators would fly them across the Bering Strait, through Siberia, all the way to the Eastern Front to fight Nazi Germany. This was Fort Wainwright, though it wasn't called that yet. It was called Ladd Field, and it served as the unlikely handoff point in one of history's most audacious supply chains.
Today, Fort Wainwright sits just west of North Pole, Alaska, where St. Nicholas Parish holds mass less than a mile from the Santa Claus House. The juxtaposition is almost absurd: a sprawling military installation—the largest American base outside the contiguous United States—neighboring a town that leans fully into its Christmas-themed name. But there's something fitting about it too. Both represent outposts of civilization in a land that seems designed to resist human habitation.
A Land of Extremes
To understand Fort Wainwright, you first have to understand where it is.
Interior Alaska sits between two massive mountain ranges. To the south rises the Alaska Range, home to Denali, the highest peak in North America. To the north stretches the Brooks Range, marking the edge of the Arctic. Fort Wainwright occupies the lowlands between them, straddling the Chena River about one hundred ninety miles south of the Arctic Circle.
The temperature swings are staggering. The lowest recorded reading hit negative sixty-six degrees Fahrenheit—cold enough that exposed skin freezes in minutes, that metal becomes brittle, that machinery simply stops working. The highest reached ninety-four degrees, a summer warmth that would feel ordinary in Kansas but seems almost hallucinatory in a place known for brutal winters. The average January low hovers around negative seventeen; the average July high climbs to a pleasant seventy-three.
Then there's the light. In June, the sun hangs above the horizon for twenty-two hours a day. True darkness never arrives—only a few hours of twilight, a perpetual dusk that bleeds into perpetual dawn. By December, this inverts. The sun appears for fewer than four hours, and even then it skims the horizon at such a low angle that the light feels thin, inadequate. Researchers have linked this cycle to Seasonal Affective Disorder, a form of depression triggered by light deprivation. It affects many who live and work at the installation.
The ground itself presents challenges. Much of the Fairbanks region sits on discontinuous permafrost—a layer of permanently frozen soil that exists in patches rather than as a continuous sheet. Where permafrost exists, it can extend hundreds of feet down. Where it doesn't, the ground behaves normally. The problem is knowing which is which.
When you build on permafrost without accounting for it, the heat from your structure seeps into the ground, melting the frozen layer beneath. The building sinks, tilts, cracks. Pipes burst. Foundations buckle. This periglacial effect—the technical term for the constant cycle of freezing and thawing near permafrost zones—can turn stable ground into something resembling quicksand over the course of a few seasons. Every construction project at Fort Wainwright requires specialized engineering to avoid these hazards.
How an Airfield Became a Cold Weather Laboratory
The story begins in 1934, when a young officer named Henry Arnold led a flight of B-10 bombers from Washington D.C. to Alaska. Arnold, who would later command all American air forces during World War Two and earn the nickname "Hap," was scouting for potential airfield locations. Alaska was vast, undefended, and increasingly worrisome to military planners who could see war clouds gathering in both Europe and the Pacific.
Arnold's recommendation was specific: build an air base at Fairbanks. The location offered something no other American installation could provide—genuine Arctic conditions for testing aircraft and equipment. Congress agreed. In 1935, they passed the Wilcox National Air Defense Act, authorizing construction of new airbases including one in Alaska specifically for cold weather experimentation.
President Franklin Roosevelt withdrew public land for the project in 1937, and construction funds arrived in 1939. The base was named Ladd Field after Major Arthur Ladd, an Army Air Corps pilot who had died in a plane crash in South Carolina while flying under sealed orders. The sealed orders detail has a certain poetry to it—Ladd died serving in secret, and the base bearing his name would soon host one of the war's most secret operations.
Construction accelerated in early 1940 as war consumed Europe. The station's initial mission was straightforward: figure out how to make airplanes work when the temperature drops far below zero.
This was not a trivial problem.
At extreme cold, lubricants thicken into useless paste. Rubber seals crack and fail. Metal contracts at different rates, causing precisely machined parts to bind or separate. Hydraulic fluid gels. Fuel becomes sluggish. Electrical systems behave erratically. Pilots breathing in unheated cockpits risk frostbite to their lungs. Ground crews handling tools without proper gloves risk losing fingers.
The Cold Weather Test Station, commanded by Major Dale Gaffney, systematically worked through these problems. They tested different lubricant formulations, heating systems, fuel mixtures, clothing designs, survival equipment, communication gear, and medical protocols. The goal was to develop standard procedures that would allow aircraft to operate reliably in subzero temperatures. Every discovery made at Ladd Field would eventually benefit Allied operations in the European winter and, later, the Korean War.
The Alaska-Siberia Route
In June 1942, everything changed. Japan bombed Dutch Harbor on the Aleutian island of Unalaska and invaded the islands of Attu and Kiska. For the first time since the War of 1812, foreign troops occupied American soil. Suddenly, Alaska was not just a testing ground—it was a potential battlefront.
The Cold Weather Test Station was temporarily deactivated as Ladd Field came under the operational control of the Eleventh Air Force for combat operations. By fall, when the immediate crisis passed, testing resumed. But a new mission was about to transform the base entirely.
Under the Lend-Lease program, the United States agreed to supply war materials to allied nations fighting the Axis powers. For the Soviet Union, this meant aircraft—thousands of them. The challenge was getting planes from American factories to Soviet airfields. Shipping through the Atlantic meant running a gauntlet of German submarines. The Pacific route was longer and complicated by Japanese-controlled waters.
The solution was audacious: fly the planes through Alaska and across Siberia.
The Alaska-Siberia route, known as ALSIB, used Ladd Field as its transfer point. American pilots and crews would ferry newly manufactured aircraft from factories in the lower forty-eight states to Fairbanks. Soviet pilots waited there to take delivery. They would then fly the planes to Nome, cross the Bering Strait, and continue through a chain of airfields across Siberia to the fighting fronts.
The logistics were immense. Ladd Field had to expand rapidly, adding a new hangar, a longer runway, and hundreds of temporary buildings to house the workforce. By June 1945, the base could billet over forty-five hundred troops. More than seven thousand nine hundred aircraft made the journey before the program ended in September 1945.
The ALSIB route remains one of the lesser-known achievements of Allied cooperation during World War Two. Soviet and American personnel worked side by side at Ladd Field for years, an early collaboration that makes the subsequent Cold War animosity all the more poignant.
The Women Who Flew to the Arctic
In January 1945, a First Lieutenant named Woodall arrived at Ladd Field. She was the first member of the Women's Army Corps—the WAC—to be stationed there. Her assignment was aerial photography with the Cold Weather Test Detachment.
Woodall's job was to establish the Extreme Temperature Operations Unit laboratory, which tested photographic equipment on military aircraft under Arctic conditions. This required flying test missions, including one in a B-29 bomber that crossed the Arctic Circle at high altitude. She became the first woman in the American armed forces to fly to the Arctic.
Three months later, a full WAC squadron arrived at Ladd Field under the command of First Lieutenant Betty Etten Wiker. The women served in a remarkable variety of roles: office work, certainly, but also field duty as medics and airplane mechanics. About ten percent were assigned to the Army Airways Communication System, handling the radio and navigation support that kept aircraft flying safely.
The WAC departed in December 1945 after the Lend-Lease program concluded. Their service at Ladd Field, though brief, demonstrated that women could perform effectively in one of the harshest environments the military operated in.
Cold War Frontier
The partnership with the Soviet Union barely outlasted the war. By 1945, tensions between the former allies were already rising. What followed would reshape global politics for nearly half a century—and it would give Alaska a new strategic importance.
In a long-range bomber age, geography mattered in ways it hadn't before. Look at a globe from above the North Pole, and you'll see something that flat maps obscure: the Soviet Union and the United States are neighbors. The shortest route between Soviet air bases and American cities runs right over Alaska and the Arctic Ocean. An attack on the continental United States would likely come through the north.
This made Alaska the front line of American defense. Not metaphorically—literally. Soviet bombers approaching from Siberia would be detected over Alaska first, intercepted over Alaska first, and if deterrence failed, would drop their weapons somewhere in the Arctic before reaching their targets farther south.
In 1947, the National Security Act created the United States Air Force as a separate service branch, independent from the Army. Ladd Field was renamed Ladd Air Force Base and continued operating under the Eleventh Air Force. A new airfield, Eielson, was established nearby to support B-36 bomber operations.
The missions at Ladd Air Force Base during the early Cold War included strategic reconnaissance to assess Soviet presence in the Arctic, regional air defense, polar navigation research, and continued cold weather testing. The Army sent the Second Infantry Division in 1948 to provide ground defense.
During the Korean War, from 1950 through 1957, operations tempo increased substantially. The base became the logistical support center for Alaska's defense projects. Research expanded to include ice station analysis—tracking and studying polar ice packs—geophysics projects, and communication network development. The Fourth Infantry Regiment handled the ground combat mission through 1956.
From Air Base to Army Post
By the late 1950s, the strategic calculus had shifted again. Intercontinental ballistic missiles could now deliver nuclear warheads across the pole in minutes, making bomber interception less critical. Satellites could conduct reconnaissance that previously required dangerous overflights. The immediate urgency that had driven Arctic air operations began to fade.
The Air Force found itself operating two major bases—Ladd and Eielson—in close proximity, an expensive redundancy in an era of tightening budgets. In 1960, the Air Force consolidated flying operations at Eielson and Elmendorf, the large base near Anchorage. On January 1, 1961, Ladd Air Force Base was transferred to the Army.
The installation received a new name: Fort Wainwright, honoring General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright. This was no minor tribute. Wainwright had commanded American forces in the Philippines after General Douglas MacArthur evacuated to Australia in 1942. He held out as long as possible against overwhelming Japanese forces, finally surrendering in May 1942 to spare his starving troops further suffering. He spent the rest of the war as a prisoner, enduring brutal conditions that killed many of his fellow captives.
When Japan surrendered in 1945, Wainwright was brought from a prison camp in Manchuria to Tokyo Bay, where he witnessed the formal surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri. President Truman awarded him the Medal of Honor for his courageous leadership during the fall of the Philippines. Naming the Alaskan installation after him honored not just his personal heroism but the resilience required to serve in harsh and unforgiving conditions.
The Modern Era
Fort Wainwright's mission has evolved considerably since 1961.
In 1963, the 171st Infantry Brigade arrived, a mechanized unit tasked with defending Eielson Air Force Base. Some of its elements deployed to Vietnam in 1966. By 1969, the brigade transitioned from mechanized infantry—equipped with armored personnel carriers—to light infantry, which operates on foot or with lighter vehicles. The unit was inactivated in 1972.
In 1985, both Ladd Field and the Cold War-era additions received historic recognition. Ladd Field was designated a National Historic Landmark, acknowledging its significance as a cold weather research station and Lend-Lease transfer point. The later structures were designated the Ladd Air Force Base Cold War District and added to the National Register of Historic Places. Few military installations hold both designations.
The 1986 reorganization expanded Fort Wainwright's mission beyond Arctic specialization to support worldwide deployments. The Sixth Infantry Division, a light division designed for rapid global response, took over Army command in Alaska. This shift reflected a broader change in American military posture—away from static Cold War positions and toward expeditionary forces capable of deploying anywhere on short notice.
In 1994, United States Army Alaska was activated, reestablishing a distinct Alaskan command structure. The 2004 Army Modernization Plan, developed during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, transformed the units at Fort Wainwright into Stryker Brigade Combat Teams.
The Stryker itself represents a military compromise. It's an eight-wheeled armored vehicle, lighter than a tank but better protected than a Humvee. It can be loaded onto transport aircraft—something impossible with heavier armored vehicles—allowing rapid deployment to distant conflicts. A Stryker brigade fills the gap between light infantry, which can go anywhere but lacks firepower and protection, and heavy armored units, which pack tremendous punch but take months to ship overseas.
The most recent transformation came in June 2022, when United States Army Alaska was reflagged as the Eleventh Airborne Division. The unit designation deliberately recalls the Eleventh Airborne Division of World War Two fame, which fought in the Pacific theater. Today's Eleventh Airborne carries the nickname "Arctic Angels" and focuses on cold weather and mountain warfare—a return, in some ways, to the specialized Arctic mission that defined the installation's earliest years.
Life at the Edge
About fifteen thousand people live and work at Fort Wainwright today. This includes roughly sixty-five hundred military personnel, fifty-seven hundred family members, twelve hundred fifty civilian employees, and over four hundred contractors. It's a small city, complete with housing, schools, medical facilities, and all the infrastructure needed to support daily life in an extreme environment.
The installation sprawls across more than 1.6 million acres—larger than the state of Delaware. This makes it the largest American military installation by area outside the contiguous United States. Much of this land is training area: Tanana Flats, Yukon, Donnelly, Black Rapids, and Gerstle River. These ranges allow units to conduct realistic exercises in actual Arctic conditions, something that cannot be replicated at bases in more temperate climates.
Interestingly, the public can access much of this training land for recreation when military exercises aren't scheduled. The Army Recreation Tracking System allows hunters, fishers, and outdoor enthusiasts to obtain permits and check which areas are open. The website provides maps showing impact areas—places where unexploded ordnance might be present—and temporary restrictions during training exercises.
The cultural resources on this land are remarkable. Fort Wainwright's Cultural Resources Management Program oversees more than six hundred fifty prehistoric archaeological sites dating back to the last ice age, some fourteen thousand years ago, through the Alaskan homesteading era of the twentieth century. The University of Alaska Fairbanks' Museum of the North curates the archaeological relics discovered on Army land.
The installation also maintains formal relationships with Alaska Native tribes. The land that now comprises Fort Wainwright has been used by indigenous peoples for thousands of years. The Army's Native Liaison program manages government-to-government relationships with tribes, implementing federal policies on tribal self-determination. This isn't just bureaucratic compliance—it represents an acknowledgment that the military presence exists on land with deep cultural significance to people who were there long before any airfield was built.
The Permanent Garrison
Fort Wainwright today hosts an impressive array of units. The Eleventh Airborne Division headquarters oversees the First Infantry Brigade Combat Team, nicknamed the "Arctic Wolves," which includes infantry battalions, a cavalry squadron, field artillery, combat engineers, and support units. Aviation battalions operate helicopters for transport and attack missions. The Northern Warfare Training Center teaches specialized cold weather and mountain warfare skills.
Support functions include Bassett Army Hospital, dental and veterinary facilities, contracting offices, and an Army Reserve center. The installation is managed by United States Army Garrison Alaska under the Installation Management Command, the organization responsible for running Army bases worldwide.
The base's location creates unique operational challenges. The short construction season—perhaps four months of weather suitable for outdoor building work—slows infrastructure improvements. The permafrost requires constant attention. The extreme darkness affects morale and mental health. Supply chains stretch across vast distances.
Yet these same challenges are precisely why Fort Wainwright exists. Units that train here learn to operate in conditions that would paralyze forces accustomed to milder climates. Vehicles, weapons, and equipment tested here reveal weaknesses that would remain hidden in more forgiving environments. The lessons learned at Fort Wainwright ripple outward through the entire military.
An Unlikely Neighbor
Drive east from Fort Wainwright's main gate, and you'll soon reach North Pole, Alaska—a town that has fully embraced its Christmas-themed name. Street names include Santa Claus Lane, Snowman Lane, and St. Nicholas Drive. Lampposts are painted like candy canes. The Santa Claus House draws tourists year-round to meet performers dressed as Santa and Mrs. Claus, feed live reindeer, and send letters postmarked from the North Pole.
Less than a mile from the Santa Claus House stands St. Nicholas Church, serving the Catholic community. The coincidence of a church dedicated to the saint who inspired the Santa Claus legend, located in a town named North Pole, on a street called St. Nicholas Drive, strikes visitors as almost too perfect.
This is the landscape Fort Wainwright occupies: a place where military might and Christmas kitsch exist side by side, where permafrost and extreme cold shaped both the land and the people who choose to live there, where the sun barely rises in winter and barely sets in summer, where Soviet pilots once picked up American planes to fight a common enemy, and where today's soldiers train for missions in the world's harshest environments.
The base has been a cold weather laboratory, a diplomatic bridge, an Arctic air defense post, and a power projection platform. Its name honors a general who embodied resilience in the face of impossible circumstances. Its location ensures that anyone who serves there understands something about hardship, about adaptation, about what it takes to function when the natural world seems actively hostile to human presence.
Fort Wainwright is many things. But at its core, it remains what it was when Hap Arnold first recommended building an airfield at Fairbanks: a place to learn how to operate at the edge of what's possible.