Originally developed in 1941 during World War II, Galena Air Force Station, later known as Galena Forward Operating Location, sat along the Yukon River in western Alaska. During the war it supported the Lend-Lease program, ferrying aircraft to the Soviet Union, and throughout the Cold War it served as a forward operating base for fighter interceptors defending North American airspace before closing under the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process in 2008. Decades of aircraft operations, fuel infrastructure, and fire protection work at the remote station left both AFFF and asbestos exposure as relevant concerns for those who served there.
Because Galena supported military aircraft operations throughout the Cold War, it maintained Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting capabilities to respond to aviation emergencies at this isolated outpost. Historical Air Force and Alaska records identify a specific Fire Protection Training Area, designated FT001, where firefighters conducted repeated live-fire exercises over many years. These records show that firefighting agents evolved from protein foam to AFFF, which entered training operations during the 1970s and remained in use for years afterward, with exercises including aircraft crash rescue simulations, fuel fire scenarios, emergency response drills, foam application exercises, and fire suppression equipment training.
Firefighters at this training area handled AFFF while mixing foam concentrate, operating hoses during live-fire drills, extinguishing simulated aircraft fuel fires, testing proportioning systems, cleaning firefighting vehicles and equipment, servicing foam storage systems, and running aircraft emergency response drills, exercises documented as occurring annually over many years.
The following roles at Galena carried the greatest likelihood of AFFF exposure:
- Air Force Fire Protection Specialist
- Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting technician
- fire instructor
- firefighter trainee
- civilian firefighter stationed at Galena
- personnel who maintained firefighting vehicles and foam systems
Research has connected PFAS chemicals in legacy AFFF to kidney cancer and testicular cancer among firefighters with this kind of repeated occupational exposure. If you trained or served as a firefighter at Galena and were later diagnosed with one of these cancers, you may be entitled to compensation.
Like many installations built during the 1940s and expanded throughout the Cold War, Galena used asbestos-containing materials for their fire resistance and thermal insulation, properties especially valued in Alaska's harsh climate. Galena is listed on documented asbestos exposure records covering military sites nationwide, and a formal Air Force historic building inventory catalogs dozens of specific structures on the installation, reflecting how thoroughly asbestos was built into the station's infrastructure. Materials commonly found at Galena included:
- pipe insulation
- boiler insulation
- steam system insulation
- roofing materials
- vinyl floor tile
- ceiling tile
- fire-resistant wallboard
- mechanical equipment insulation
- gasket
- packing material
The following occupations faced the greatest risk of disturbing these materials during their work at the isolated station:
- civil engineer
- pipefitter
- boiler technician
- HVAC mechanic
- welder
- civilian contractor
This kind of exposure is most strongly tied to mesothelioma and lung cancer, the first developing in the lining around the lungs, abdomen, heart, or testes, and the second forming directly in lung tissue after asbestos fibers are inhaled. Both conditions can take 20 to 50 years to surface, which means many who served at this remote base decades ago are only now facing a diagnosis. A lung cancer or mesothelioma diagnosis connected to asbestos at Galena Air Force Station may qualify you for compensation, and our team can help you understand your options.