Hitchin’ a ride: AK Air National Guard gives Coast Guard a lift as FOL Deadhorse shutters
Personnel from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak, Alaska, hitched a ride home from Forward Operating Location Deadhorse aboard a C-17 Globemaster III airplane courtesy of the Alaska Air National Guard’s 249th Airlift Squadron Oct. 14, 2015.
At True North’s End
As Healy’s crew and science party now turn their gaze southward, they can sail proudly knowing each did their part to successfully push their cutter to the furthest regions of the Arctic. While much science remains to be conducted on the return route to Dutch Harbor, an historic milestone was reached by these 145 souls, and the memory of a formidable goal achieved will be carried with them for all time, wherever they may go.
90 degrees North
Take a flight to the North Pole on an Air Station Kodiak HC-130 Hercules airplane, along with scientist from the University of Washington, as they deploy probes to the icey-waters below in an attempt to study the ever changing Arctic.
Flying into the future
It’s pivotal that a rescue crew, whether on the water or in the sky, has the full use of their wits and physical power when it matters most. Utilizing an unmanned system that could potentially spot survivors or wreckage from high in the sky could reduce the time rescue crews spend searching, and ultimately reduce the time that victims spend at the mercy of the elements.
From air to sea
Forty-one by 40-feet is the size of the flight deck of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy, a 420-foot polar icebreaker currently deployed to the Arctic. To land a on the cutter, aircrews and deck crews not only have to manage with a ship that moves forward in the water, but also one that moves with the seas.
Coast Guard initiates Arctic Shield 2015
Since 2007, the Coast Guard has purposefully expanded its reach into the Arctic. Arctic Shield consolidates Coast Guard Arctic missions including a year-round focus on educational outreach and improving community, tribal, local and state government relationships. Arctic Shield 2015, which kicked off in June, consists of comprehensive Coast Guard operations to protect the Arctic maritime community.
Here comes the boom
You can’t just walk into Kotzebue. It’s not that easy. The little city is out on the northern tip of Baldwin Peninsula, 30 miles north of the Arctic Circle, where the sun never sets in late June.