The first time I played through Fallout 3, I ran into the Anchorage War Memorial and ran out.

I was trying to do Moira’s quest the way she had asked – don’t kill any Mirelurks. This time, I said the hell with that. Let’s massacre them all!

In doing so, I stumbled on something I hadn’t seen before – a computer with a note. As you enter the building, you can hack into a computer terminal. This unlocks a note informing you that there is a “secret stash” somewhere inside the War Memorial building.

Your task? Find a wall safe, within which you will find a door component. Then, find a broken door, fix the door, and search the room. This reveals a key, and you can use the key to unlock a secret cache of goodies (some caps and a skill book).

Sounds simple. But I had a devil of a time finding the wall safe. I couldn’t find a lot of helpful information online, either.  So here are some maps and some more specific instructions to help you.

Where Is the Clinic With the Wall Safe?

After reading your note, the first thing you need to do is find the clinic in the building.

Inside the Clinic is a safe that contains some parts to fix a broken door. You’ll also find a Dean’s Electronics book (free repair points!).

This is the part that I had the most trouble with. I searched high and low, and I couldn’t figure out where this clinic was. Turns out it was right underneath my nose.

The terminal that provides you with the clue is in the “Anchorage Memorial Facility” zone.  If you stand at the desk with the computer and look straight ahead, you should see two rooms.  One of them has a small sign that says, “Clinic.”

Yup. That’s it. I ran around for an hour inside the facility bay and the tunnels looking for the clinic, and here it was all along. The map above pin-points the location of the clinic on the Local Map of the Anchorage Memorial Facility.

Inside you’ll find lots of cool loot, including the door component, a magazine, and other valuables.

Where Is the Utility Room with the Broken Door?

The clue then tells you to find a broken door near the maintenance entrance.

From the clinic, you want to head into the Anchorage Memorial Facility Bay. This is the room where you find the spawning pods for Moira’s quest (all the way at the bottom).

On one of the middle floors, you’ll see a door that leads to the “Memorial Service Entrance.” Head in there.

On the western side of the room, you’ll see a large doorway activated by a switch. Head down the hallway cautiously.

When you get to the T intersection, you’ll come up against three Mirelurks. Two of them are in rooms in the eastern hallway, and one is patrolling along the northern hallway. They gave me a lot of trouble, and I had to make a bunch of attempts to kill them without poor ol’ Dogmeat getting killed.

After you kill the Mirelurks, the Utility room is at the end of the Northern hallway.  It’s the last door on the right.  It’s pinpointed on the map above.

If you have the door component, you can use the door, fix it (with a 35+ repair skill), and loot the stuff inside.  Among other things, you’ll find the key to the secret cache.

Where is the Secret Cache in the Anchorage War Memorial?

The secret stash is in the same zone – the Memorial Service Entrance. Leave the tunnels and head back to the room in the Southeast part of the map.

Follow the stairs or the hallway until you reach the lowest level of the zone. You should see a bunch of refrigerators as well as some dead Mirelurks on operating tables.

Against one of the walls, you’ll see three refrigerators in a row. The right-most refrigerator contains the secret stash. If you have a perception of 5 or greater, your character will notice the cache and you can open it with the key you picked up in the Utility room.

Voila! Caps and another skill book (about Flamethrowers, I think).

Why Aren’t All the Side Quests Treated as “Quests”?

This leads me to one of my complaints about Fallout 3.

The map markers for quest objectives can be very helpful. I didn’t notice them at first, but once I did it helped me navigate through some of the quests that lacked clear directions. Maybe I’m just used to these kinds of hints and clues (too much WoW!).

It seems strange, then, that a lot of the side quests aren’t placed in your quest log. Things like this secret stash will appear in the ‘Notes’ section of your pip-boy with instructions. They won’t be listed as quests, though, and you won’t see a quest marker.

In this case, I was able to find the Utility Room and the Secret Stash with ease. I accidentally skipped over the Clinic room in the beginning, though, and it took me an hour or so of re-tracing my steps to finally find it.

Without quest markers and with very poor instructions, it can sometimes be a pain in the neck to find what you’re looking for.