Kulis Air National Guard Base was a National Guard of the United States facility in Anchorage, Alaska. The 127-acre (51 ha) facility adjacent to and south of Ted Stevens International Airport was home to the 176th Wing of the Alaska Air National Guard until that unit moved to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in February 2011. The property thereafter reverted to ownership by the State of Alaska, which as of April 2011 had not yet announced future plans for the property.
Kulis opened spring 1955 with the 144th Fighter-Bomber Squadron (a direct predecessor of the 176th Wing). After an informal vote among squadron members, the base was named after First Lieutenant Albert Kulis, a pilot who died in a training accident the previous November.
Kulis served as a major center for the coordination of disaster relief in the aftermath of the March 27, 1964 Good Friday Earthquake. Guard members quickly converted a base warehouse into a shelter for civilians rendered homeless by the quake with a makeshift dining hall and more than 100 beds. By midnight of that day, 97 of the beds were filled.
Kulis would reprise this role less than six years later, when the Chena River overflowed its banks, causing a devastating flood in downtown Fairbanks in August 1967. Within five hours of the first call for assistance, the first of many C-123 Provider flights began ferrying disaster relief supplies to Fairbanks, and evacuating area residents to Anchorage. Evacuees received food, shelter and medical attention at Kulis; others were housed at the Alaska National Guard's Camp Carroll, on Fort Richardson. Over the next nine days the Kulis-based 144th Air Transportation Squadron (Medium) would fly 138 sorties with its C-123s and a C-54 Skymaster transport, carrying 2,371 people and more than 300,000 pounds (140,000 kg) of supplies.
Kulis received a major upgrade in 1977. More than $3 million was invested in a new composite maintenance building, an aerospace ground equipment support building and a new petroleum operations facility on base.
In 1990 Kulis became host to an additional squadron, as the 176th Wing added the 210th Rescue Squadron with six HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters and four HC-130s—a specialized combat search-and-rescue variant of the C-130.
In 2005, the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission listed Kulis as one of the bases recommended for closure.
In 2011, the 176th Wing vacated Kulis ANGB for new quarters on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, north of Anchorage. As noted above, the property now belongs to the State of Alaska. The state is seeking to lease the property.[1]
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