Anchorage Memorial

The Anchorage War Memorial is a bronze monument commemorating the battles at the Anchorage Front Line in Alaska. It has withstood the elements for two centuries and was still standing by 2277 on an artificial island on the Potomac. A sprawling underground installation was built under the base of the monument.

As you learn from a note, the place was used to breed Mirelurks on purpose to harvest Mirelurk flesh and sell it. An agent was sent out by another meat-producing company to investigate and stop the unwanted activity. Both the agent and the group breeding the Mirelurks are now dead. As the agent seemed to be alone, it's possible that he did not kill the whole group but they were all killed by escaping Mirelurks instead.

The facility contains kitchens and meat processing rooms to handle the 'products' as well as breeding 'pods' in the lower levels. You may notice that one of the refrigerators in the lowest level has a smaller interior than the others, which reveals a locked secret compartment (minimum of 5 Perception required to notice). The hidden compartment is locked (unpickable, key required), but the key can be found in the Utility room in the sewers (through the Service Entrance doors).

The door to the Utility room is broken; the piece to repair it (Repair skill of 35 required) is in a locked floor safe under a table in the clinic of the same building; the safe also contains a copy of Dean's Electronics and can be unlocked by hacking the Average difficulty terminal just outside the clinic. There is also a copy of D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine on a table in the Clinic. Alternatively, with a Repair skill of 95 or higher the door can be repaired without the component from the safe. The Utility room contains the Anchorage Stash key, a holotape note about the fridge compartment, a copy of U.S. Army: 30 Handy Flamethrower Recipes, a Nuka-Cola Quantum, and assorted common loot. Note that it's a good idea to make sure all Mirelurks in the area are dead before entering the Utility room or you might get cornered.

The secret fridge compartment contains 300 Bottle Caps and a holotape called "Recipe - Mirelurk Cakes." The holotape serves no real purpose and you cannot actually make Mirelurk Cakes yourself.

Quests
You will visit this location during Moira Brown's quest, The Wasteland Survival Guide, where she wants you to place an Observer unit into one of Mirelurk spawning pods, optionally avoiding killing any Mirelurks during the quest for a better reward.

Visiting the Memorial prior to the Mirelurk Observer quest for the Survival Guide allows the player to "thin the herd" of Mirelurks. Assuming the player goes through the Memorial's tunnels and kills most of the Mirelurks present just prior to accepting the quest, the Observer can be placed with a minimum of hassle.

Similarly, returning to the Memorial and hunting the Mirelurks after the quest has been successfully completed is also perfectly acceptable.

There is also 3 pre-war books in a small room directly to your right a little way ahead of entering the memorial via the door facing Wilhelm's Wharf.