Memories and experiences of the author on Adak between 1989 and 1994. Life on the isolated island forced the inhabitants - Civilian, military, dependent, employee, and Aleuts - To bond like family. With photographs.

Written by Dixie West, Virginia Hatfield, Elizabeth Wilmerding, Christine Lefèvre and Lyn Gualtieri. From the Introduction: 'North Adak Island is a dichotomy of brute, natural beauty and a horrific example of what modern humans and war can do to a landscape. The island also contains what up until now has been largely untapped scientific data about the peoples who inhabited the island centuries prior to historic contact. The following scientific papers document the three-year effort to recover, analyse, and present that information to the Native American and scientific communities.'

In the tradition of great tales of men against the sea, Adak offers a compelling look at courage and commitment in the face of certain tragedy. Alfa Foxtrot 586 was a P-3 Orion on station on a sensitive Cold War mission off the Kamchatka Peninsula on 26 October 1978. When a propeller malfunction turned into an engine fire, the pilot was forced to ditch his turboprop into the empty, mountainous seas west of the Aleutian Islands. The aircraft went down in just ninety seconds, taking one of the three rafts with it. Thirteen men launched the other rafts, the smallest of which—terribly overcrowded—soon began to leak, threatening the nine men aboard. This account of the flight crew's desperate battle against the sea, and the heroic efforts to rescue them provide an engrossing true story of survival.