FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska -- Alaska consists of 663,300 square miles, with the interior being the largest region, home to the highest peak in North America and largely made up of uninhabited wilderness. The hunting, fishing and training in this area are among the best in the world and access to these remote locales can be extremely treacherous and sometimes life threatening. If you were to get lost or injured in some of these parts, help could be hours if not days away.
That's all about to change come April 1, 2015 when the U.S. Army Alaska Aviation Task Force's Charlie Company, 1/52 Aviation Regiment adds to the capabilities Alaska's Rescue Coordination Center's search and rescue responsibilities by having rescue assets on alert, according to Chief Warrant Officer 4 Eric Collier, U.S. Army Alaska's aviation safety officer "What happens , civil agencies must first determine what assets they have available prior to calling the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center located at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson ," Collier says "We have rotary wing assets here on Fort Wainwright that can be requested by the RCC to be activated for Search and Rescue ." Collier added that high-altitude and mountainous rescues can be handled by the U.S. Army due to our unique capabilities and training.
The aviation assets assigned to Fort Wainwright have always been made available to support RCC request, the stand up of the MEDEVAC mission to cover training lands will allow for a quicker response to both military and civilian emergencies.
On March 25, 2015, C Co. 1/52, along with Alaska State Troopers, Wilderness Search and Rescue and Alaska's village public safety officers conducted a simulated emergency situation in order to test the communications and interagency search and rescue as well as MEDEVAC procedures. Alaska State Trooper Thomas Mealy said, "The state troopers in Alaska have a statutory responsibility for all search and rescue that's land based. Part of that mission involves working with other entities, such as wilderness search and rescue and the military. "
The U.S. Army here in Alaska routinely trains with local agencies to help foster strong bonds and inter-agency cooperation.
"We wanted to set up a training exercise where we test all of our communications and our ability to work together as different entities in conducting search and rescue and MEDEVAC," said Mealy, "so that when we have real-world issues we have all practiced together and know what to expect from one another."
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