Together, they carry out air surveillance, and command and control forces that provide tactical warning and attack assessment in defense of Alaska.

The first Air Corps unit to be assigned to Alaska was the 18th Pursuit Squadron, which transferred to Elmendorf from Hamilton Army Airfield, California on 21 February 1941 with Curtiss P-40 Warhawks.

At the same time, Texas-trained pilots had to learn to fly in a country where sudden fogs could close out airports in less than 10 minutes and high-velocity "williwaws" could tear the wings off combat planes.

Equipment for the construction of a CAA-DLA (Civil Aeronautics Authority-Defense Land Appropriation) airfield at McGrath, on the mainland, arrived too late to begin construction of the field, since the ground already had become frozen, and General Buckner requested and received permission to divert the equipment and men to Cold Bay on the Alaskan Peninsula and Otter Point on Umnak Island, to build two airfields for the defense of the Naval Base at Dutch Harbor.

The aircraft were flown into Ladd from Great Falls Airfield, Montana by American civilian aircrews; Soviet crews then flew the planes west through Nome (Marks Field) and on to Siberia.

On the afternoon of 2 June a naval patrol plane spotted the approaching Japanese fleet, reporting its location as 800 miles southwest of Dutch Harbor.

The first aerial bombing of the American continent during World War II took place on 3 and 4 June 1942, when two Japanese raids were made on the Dutch Harbor in the city of Unalaska, Alaska.

On 5 June, it received a report of enemy warships in the Bering Sea heading south toward Unalaska Island, which was interpreted to be a landing force intent upon seizing Dutch Harbor.

While Task Force 8 entered the Bering Sea, Hosogaya's fleet moved south to join Yamamoto, who had just suffered the loss of his four large carriers at the Battle of Midway.

As a result of their concern about a possible Japanese attack upon the Soviet Union that might also include the occupation of St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea and of nearby Nome and its adjacent airfields on the Alaskan mainland.

As a result, within thirty-six hours, Eleventh Air Force using commandeered civilian aircraft flew nearly 2,300 troops to Nome, along with artillery and antiaircraft guns and several tons of other equipment and supplies.

Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers of the 404th Bombardment Squadron were sent to the Air Transport Command Marks Army Airfield with a mission to locate and attack the Japanese Fleet.

Not until late July when United States intelligence reported with some certainty the departure of Hosogaya's fleet from the Bering Sea did the threat of invasion of the Alaskan mainland decline, allowing for the redeployment of many of the troops hastily assembled at Nome.

The 807th Army Aviation Engineering Battalion set to work constructing a dike and draining the tidal flat between Kuluk Bay and the Sweeper Cove areas to create an airfield.

Throughout the winter of 1942–1943, the Eleventh Air Force bombed Kiska and Attu whenever possible, although the flyers were extremely handicapped by the almost constant fog which covered the island.

An additional squadron of P-39 Airacobras operated in the Aleutian theater for a short while, but their light landing gear was unsatisfactory for use on the rough fields and they were returned to the States.

Numerous sorties were made by the Japanese Fifth Fleet, based at Paramushiru, but finally on 28 July, under cover of a thick fog, destroyers were able to enter Kiska Harbor and remove all occupation troops.

It had proven that the Kurile Islands could be attacked, but new methods had to be devised as the raid lost Eleventh Air Force over half its offensive striking power.

Because of the tremendous advances brought about by intensive instrument training and the increased aids to navigation and radio, planes that used to be grounded by weather, were now flying regular schedules.

They had been kept on shipping alert since the abortive 11 September raid, but in May, two planes on a gasoline consumption test west of Attu, discovered and sank two armed Japanese trawlers.

It took these actions due to the fact that only two bomber squadrons remained in the Eleventh Air Force and the need to reduce the number of personnel.

Eleventh Air Force, sent between 24 August and 4 September 1945 two B-24 Liberators of the 28th BG flew reconnaissance overflights over the North Kuril Islands to take photos of the Soviet occupation in the area.

Americans planners had briefly contemplated an invasion of northern Japan from the Aleutian Islands during fall of 1943, but rejected that idea as too risky and impractical.

U.S. military maintained interest in these plans when they ordered the expansion of bases in the western Aleutian Islands, and major construction began on Shemya for a possible invasion of Japan via the Northern route in 1945.

With the end of the war, many of the small air bases in the Aleutian Islands closed permanently, and postwar emphasis turned to training.

Finally, in keeping with Air Force Chief of Staff guidance to retain the most illustrious units, the 343rd Wing, a veteran of the Aleutian Campaign, was inactivated in August 1993.

The Alaska RAOC enjoins state-of-the-art air defense systems and cutting-edge computer technology to significantly increase surveillance and identification capabilities, and better protect the nation's airways from intrusion and attack.

It also incorporates a newly developed situational awareness system that gives ANR unprecedented tools and technology to assist state and local responders in dealing with natural disasters.

The ANR provides an ongoing capability to detect, validate, and warn of any aircraft and/or cruise missile threat in its area of operations that could threaten North American security.

Aerospace control requires capabilities to intercept, shadow, escort, divert, direct landings, and if necessary, use force utilizing interceptors and other means up to and including the destruction of airborne objects.