The military first developed an air station on Adak during World War II. Adak Army Airfield was used during the Aleutian Campaign by both USAAF and Naval Air units, particularly in defensive actions against Japanese forces occupying Attu and Kiska.

Following the war, the AAF turned Adak over to the United States Air Force until 1950, and then to the Navy who established anti-submarine warfare base there. Adak was most recently run by the U.S. Navy as a deployment base for P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft, primarily to conduct antisubmarine warfare operations against submarines and surveillance of naval surface vessels of the former Soviet Union. As many as 5,000 US personnel lived at the base during the Cold War, many with families.

Adak was also used as a refueling stop for transpacific passenger flights. Pan Am first operated a Seattle-Adak-Tokyo flight in 1946 to demonstrate the viability of a transpacific great circle route to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

On 31 March 1997, the Navy closed Adak Naval Air Facility. A large portion of the former military facility's property was transferred to the Aleut Corporation in 2004 and became a National Wildlife Refuge.