US Army aviators train in Alaska
On 25 March, the US Army Alaska Aviation Task Force’s Charlie Company, 1/52 Aviation Regiment, along with Alaska State Troopers, Wilderness Search and Rescue (WSAR) personnel and village public safety officers, engaged in a simulated emergency situation.
On 25 March, the US Army Alaska Aviation Task Force’s Charlie Company, 1/52 Aviation Regiment, along with Alaska State Troopers, Wilderness Search and Rescue (WSAR) personnel and village public safety officers, engaged in a simulated emergency situation, with the intention of testing intra-agency communication, cooperation, reaction times and medevac procedures.
“The State Troopers in Alaska have a statutory responsibility for all search and rescue that’s land based,” explained Thomas Mealy, an Alaska State Trooper. “Part of that mission involves working with other entities, such as WSAR and the military. 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, so that when we have real-world issues, we have all practiced together and know what to expect from one another.”
As of 1 April, C Company 1/52 will add to the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center’s search and rescue capabilities, stationing rescue assets on alert.
You can view a video of the training exercise below: