From Alaska To Kuwait: How Our Guardsmen Got There

During the Cold War era, Alaska’s National Guard battalions were considered forward deployed as a first line of defense in the arctic against the Soviet Union. This status exempted them from overseas deployments. The end of the Cold War brought with it a change of mission for the Alaska Guard, whose members must be prepared for active duty deployments anywhere in the world. They have now joined their comrades from other states who have already faced deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan since the Iraq war began in 2003.

The current mission of the Alaska Army National Guard’s 3rd battalion, 297th Infantry (3/297) in Kuwait is the largest single deployment of Alaskan Guardsmen since World War II. The battalion drew its soldiers from more than 80 Alaska communities: remote villages in the Interior, Western, Arctic Slope and Northwestern regions, Juneau and Southeast Alaska, Kodiak Island, the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound, Anchorage, Fairbanks and the Matanuska-Susitna borough are all represented. There are also soldiers from several lower 48 states and Puerto Rico.

Preparations for this deployment began in late 2005 and continued into 2006. Soldiers worked on upgrading their skills, updating their personnel and financial records, undergoing medical and fitness exams. Consolidation of the battalion at Ft. Richardson in Anchorage took place in early July, 2006. On July 8th, soldiers from the Yukon/Kuskokwim Delta region in Western Alaska were picked up by Blackhawk helicopter from their home villages, brought to Bethel for a community farewell and then on to Anchorage by an Alaska Airlines charter flight where they joined with the rest of the battalion. Several days later the 3/297 deployed to Camp Shelby, Mississippi for three months of Theater Immersion Training.

Less than a month into their training, two soldiers were killed and two seriously injured in a traffic accident on a highway near the camp. The 4 soldiers were on their way to a training site when their Humvee was rear ended by a trailer truck.

Despite this setback, the battalion went on to complete its three months of grueling training with distinction. Their farewell ceremony was held on October 3rd with then governor Frank Murkowski, US Senators Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens, Alaska Adjutant General Craig Campbell and many other dignitaries in attendance.

The soldiers had ten days of leave before returning to Camp Shelby to complete preparations for their deployment to Kuwait that began on October 16th, 2006.

On November 3rd, 2006, the 3/297 marked the official start of its security mission with a ceremony transferring authority from Wisconsin’s 2nd Battalion, 128th Infantry to the Alaska unit.

More about:
Alaska Guard
Kuwait

Assignment Kuwait Begins Soon.

I’m Mike Martz, senior producer at KYUK-TV in Bethel, Alaska, a member of the Alaska ONE public television network. Bethel is located along the Kuskokwim River in western Alaska. It is home to the Yup’ik people. For the past year and a half I’ve been in production on a television documentary, Bravo’s Call to Duty (working title), following the soldiers of Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 297th Inf, Alaska Army National Guard as they prepared and trained for their current deployment to Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Most soldiers of Bravo company and some soldiers in the battalion’s other companies are Yup’ik Eskimos from the Yukon/Kuskokwim Delta region of western Alaska, the area served by KYUK public radio and televison. This will be the story of their transformation from part-time guardsmen to full time soldiers, their adaptation from their sub- arctic homeland to the desert of Kuwait and their call to duty providing essential security and support for their more highly visible comrades in harm’s way on the front lines in Iraq.

On May 13th I depart Bethel for Kuwait where I’ll spend two weeks embedded with Bravo Company of the 3/297th Inf. I’ll be living with the soldiers documenting their daily lives, on duty and off duty, as they make their less visible but no less vital contribution in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I will be sharing my observations, thoughts and experiences from my time in Kuwait on this blog.