Military

One of the Alaska National Guard’s highest-ranking officers was arrested over the weekend in Anchorage and charged with domestic violence assault for the second time since November.

Wayne Don was promoted in 2021 to brigadier general in the Alaska National Guard and was in charge of the Guard’s joint staff. The Guard highlighted that he had become its highest-ranking Alaska Native member serving at the time.

In November, Anchorage police responded to a report of domestic violence at Don’s wife’s home. According to a charging document, Don’s wife told police they had argued, he was drinking and that he had grabbed her by the wrist and hair. Police saw a red mark on her wrist, found holes in a wall and a bedroom door, and smelled alcohol on him. Police arrested Don and charged him with misdemeanor assault for domestic violence and a misdemeanor for property damage.

In April, the parties made a deal. If Don pleaded no contest to the property damage charge, the prosecutors would drop the domestic violence assault charge. Don would also have to avoid contact with his wife, refrain from drinking alcohol for six months and complete a treatment program, attend counseling sessions monthly, and avoid any other criminal charges. If it had gone smoothly, he would have been sentenced in October.

It didn’t go smoothly. This past Sunday, police again arrested Don at his wife’s home. According to charges in that case, he was drinking and assaulted his wife again. He is charged with domestic violence assault and violating conditions of release.

The charges say police came because Don was threatening suicide and blaming his wife “for losing a career.”

Civilian criminal convictions can lead to military officers losing their posts.

Alaska National Guard spokesman Alan Brown said in an email that Don was removed from his authority and put on administrative status back in November, pending resolution of his initial charges. Brown said the Guard is cooperating with civilian authorities.

In Don’s role as director of the joint staff for the Alaska National Guard, he was responsible for communication and coordination between the head of the Alaska National Guard and staff and units of the Air and Army National Guard. The joint staff plans and coordinates response efforts during state disasters and joint military operations.

Brown said an investigation is also ongoing within the military. He said the vice chief of staff of the Army is responsible for handling that.

“We expect every member of the Alaska National Guard to live up to the highest standards of military service,” Brown wrote. “We will take immediate and appropriate action if any of our members is suspected of committing a crime, while ensuring their right to due process.”

Don’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday. Online records show that Don posted a $300 bond Wednesday and is not in custody.

Don, 51, began his military career in 1994. His assignments included operations in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. He was previously chairman of the regional Calista Corp. board. He is also listed as chairman of the board of NIMA Corp., a village corporation for Nunivak Island, where he grew up. He’s been recognized with various leadership awards.

Don was also a keynote speaker at the 2017 Alaska Federation of Natives Convention.

If you’re experiencing a crisis, you can call or text 9-8-8 to talk to someone at the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. 

Rear Admiral Megan Dean now commands the U.S. Coast Guard in Alaska. And, as far as anyone can remember, she’s the first woman to do so. 

Dean was sworn in at a change-of-command ceremony in Juneau on Friday. After the ceremony, Dean said she’s spent a lot of her career in Florida, and she’s anticipating different challenges here in Alaska. 

“I think a lot of it up here is just obviously, you all know, the weather — and then the tyranny of distance and time,” Dean said.

Dean said she thinks it’s important for other women in the Coast Guard to see someone like them in positions of leadership. But she rejects the idea that being a woman makes her more or less capable in this role. 

“I’m a Coast Guard officer, not a female Coast Guard officer. I have had an incredible career, been given lots of opportunities,” she said. “And you know, and I think that’s because I’ve been competent in the job that I’m in.”

Last year, Admiral Linda Fagan became the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard — the first woman to lead any branch of the U.S. military. The Coast Guard could not confirm on Friday that Dean is the first woman to lead the Coast Guard in Alaska, but a list going back to 1964 shows only men in the role.

U.S. Coast Guard District 17 has its administrative offices in Juneau and runs all of Alaska’s Coast Guard operations. Nearly 2,000 people work for District 17 and it patrols 47,300 miles of shoreline. 

Last year, the district conducted 521 search and rescues, saving 187 lives, according to Coast Guard data.

Dean says that her Florida background means she’s already familiar with working in an area with a lot of cruise tourism. 

“When  I came across the bridge from Douglas on Wednesday, I think it was, and I looked over and I’m like, ‘That’s five cruise ships over there, that looks like Miami.ʼ I think I had awareness of it,” Dean said. “But it was pretty eye-opening.”

She said that as the cruise industry expands north in the state, so do the risks of challenging evacuation and rescue operations. 

Dean is replacing Rear Admiral Nathan Moore, who has held the position since 2021. Her first mission is a trip to Kodiak, Cordova, and Kotzebue, to meet more of the people who make up Coast Guard District 17.

At a Coast Guard change-of-command ceremony on Thursday, about 30 active-duty Coast Guardsmen gathered with some retirees, friends, and family under a tent at the Juneau docks. Young service members, wearing light blue uniforms and white caps, stood at attention while officers sent one officer off and welcomed another to town. 

Senior Chief Boatswain’s Mate Sean Crocker, the officer in charge for Station Juneau, said he didn’t want to come to Alaska when he was younger. But now he’s going to miss it. 

“It’s a little more bitter than sweet. And it’s not because I’m going to miss all the amazing fishing, hunting, boating,” he said. “For me, it’s going to be the people.”

The ceremony marked a passing of the torch from Crocker to Chief Boatswain’s Mate Nicholas Sedberry, who will now direct the 25-person Station Juneau. 

Capt. Darwin Jensen, commander of Sector Juneau, said that in Crocker’s two years of service, his unit conducted 90 search-and-rescue operations. Still, Crocker’s wife couldn’t make the ceremony. Their daughter graduated from kindergarten that morning. 

“Even more important,” Jensen said. 

That’s how the Coast Guard is in Juneau – part of the community. 

“You don’t see a huge Coast Guard base down here. There’s Coast Guard here, there’s Coast Guard there,” said former Coast Guard captain Ed Page, who founded the Marine Exchange after he retired. “We’re more integrated in the community.”

While the Coast Guard is not as visible a presence in Juneau as some other Alaska military communities, it is large. A Curious Juneau reader wanted to know just how large — and how much the Coast Guard contributes to Juneau’s economy.

‘A major footprint’

Coast Guard members in Juneau might serve in the local unit — Station Juneau — or they might be involved or in regional or statewide management. Sector Juneau manages activities in Southeast, and District 17 runs the Coast Guard for all of Alaska. Both have their administrative offices in Juneau’s federal building.

Lt. Catherine Cavender works in waterways management for Sector Juneau. She says there are about 150 Coast Guard members in Juneau altogether and 270 throughout Southeast.

Like Page, she points to the lack of a base in Juneau, Coast Guard members live in houses and apartments all over town — they get their cars fixed, hair cut, and buy groceries at the same places everyone else does.

And they face the same challenges finding housing as the rest of the community.

“I lived in a hotel for four months before I was able to move into my rental,” Cavender said.

Meilani Schijvens of the research firm Rain Coast Data says that as of 2019, Coast Guard members had more than 400 dependents living in Juneau, too.

“It’s a major footprint. And then we also have people who work for the Coast Guard who are not active duty,” she said. “It does end up being a significant economic driver in the community.”

The Storis years

Damon Stuebner works at the state library. He made a documentary about the Coast Guard cutter Storis, which was based in Juneau in the 1940s and 50s.

He says that in the past, the Coast Guard’s presence was a lot more visible.

“If the ship had to leave for an emergency situation, the first officer of the ship — the executive officer — would call around to the Imperial and the Red Dog and say ‘Is my crew there? Get them out,’” he said. 

Stuebner says the movie theater even used to have a red light that would start flashing to tell Coast Guardsmen to report for duty, right away.

The work was different then, too.

“When the Storis was based here in Juneau, she did a lot of the normal things as what you would expect from the Coast Guard to do,” Stuebner said. “But what they also did was what was known as the Bering Sea Patrol. This was a series of duties of transporting teachers to rural villages along the coast.”

Stuebner said the Coast Guard also delivered mail, groceries and supplies to coastal villages. 

“When statehood came around, then those duties dramatically shifted, and a lot of that burden went to the state,” he said.

Stuebner says that the Storis – which was stationed in Juneau from 1948 to 1957 before moving to Kodiak — even had a pitbull mascot named Red Dog — rumored to have been “acquired by suspicious means from the Red Dog Saloon.”

A Swiss Army knife

What does the Coast Guard do now? A lot of things, says Page.

The Coast Guard served in certain combat situations like Vietnam and Bahrain, said Page, but typically, those serving don’t face violence of that sort. 

“It’s a different type of service. It’s not just ‘Well, there’s a war, fight it.’ There’s a war all the time,” he said. “The war is in protecting the environment, the war is saving lives when the vessel sinks.”

Joe Geldhof, a maritime lawyer, said the Coast Guard rises to its many roles in Juneau.

“It’s kind of like a Swiss army knife — it’s got a lot of tools,” he said. “And they do extremely well.” 

Sector Juneau has a huge area of responsibility — from Dixon Entrance to Icy Bay. Geldhof says that between the size and the amount of work, it’s a lot for one group to take on. 

“I would say the Coast Guard is a reflection of all the disparate activities that they’re required by law to undertake,” he said. “Fisheries enforcement, drug interdiction at some point — you might conclude if you really study it, that they have too many tasks.”

They keep coming back 

Cavender has served one year in town so far, with two more to go. One of her favorite parts of being stationed here? Fishing. 

“I did catch a king salmon from the beach, which I’m very proud about,” she said.

It’s a new hobby that she started here. She says Juneau is a nice place to be stationed.

“People definitely come back here for their last tour, or come back here and know that they want to retire here,” she said. “It’s really rare to see people retour so heavily in one spot.”

She said the town can feel like home to a lot of servicemembers, who integrate more into the community than they would elsewhere. 

Jensen, who commands Sector Juneau, says servicemembers look for opportunities to come back once they’ve been stationed here. He’s on his third tour in Juneau.

U.S. fighter jets intercepted six Russian aircraft flying off Alaska’s coasts last week.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command says its Alaska office detected the Russian aircraft as they were flying through the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone on Thursday.

A NORAD news release issued Saturday says the Russian formation included Tu-95 bombers, Su-35 fighters and an air-refueling tanker.

In response, Alaska NORAD dispatched F-16 and F-22 fighter jets and an AWACS plane for what the agency called a “routine interception.” But the news release didn’t say where the intercept occurred or how many U.S. aircraft were sent to accompany the Russian planes through the aircraft identification zone.

It’s not unusual for Russian aircraft to fly through the Alaska air-ID zone, which is international airspace. NORAD says the Russian aircraft didn’t enter U.S. or Canadian airspace, and weren’t considered a threat to either nation.

But some observers noted that the interception occurred while the military was conducting a large-scale training exercise called Northern Edge around Alaska — and while the U.S. and NATO are supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion.

More than 10,000 U.S. service members have launched Northern Edge 2023, Alaska’s biggest military training exercise of the year. The Air Force says it’s Alaska’s premier training exercise.

“It’s a massive exercise,” said Air Force Maj. Clay Lancaster. “A lot of (additional) personnel are in the state of Alaska. A lot of aircraft have flown in for the exercise.”

Lancaster is chief public affairs officer for the 683th Air Base Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, or JBER. He says this year’s Northern Edge includes more than 150 aircraft from the Air Force and Navy and the U.K. and Australia, both of which have sent personnel and warplanes to the biennial exercise.

A Pacific Air Forces news release says the allies will help trainers provide “an opportunity for joint, multinational and multi-domain operations designed to provide high-end, realistic war-fighter training, develop and improve joint interoperability and enhance the combat readiness of participating forces.”

Some Alaskans including environmentalists, commercial fishermen and coastal residents have criticized the exercise, parts of which involve live ammunition, as detrimental to salmon and whales migrating north during early summer. Rear Adm. Mark Sucato, commander of the Navy’s Northwest Region, recently visited the state to hear those concerns and discuss Navy research he says counters them.

Lancaster says having service members from allied nations and two branches of the U.S. military makes it an even better training opportunity.

“It’s very important to be able to train in a joint environment,” he added, “and that’s why we’re so grateful for the state of Alaska with the incredible training spaces here.”

That includes the 65,000 square miles of airspace above the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex, a network of training areas scattered around the state and 42,000 square nautical miles offshore, along with and additional temporary maritime activities areas.

Lancaster said in an interview Monday that the Navy “established these maritime training areas there in the Gulf of Alaska, and it gives them a significant capability to train.” He said the Navy is bringing four warships to this year’s exercise: the stealthy destroyer USS Zumwalt and the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Momsen, the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain and the dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry.

The Momsen docked at Homer last week for a two-day visit.

Lancaster said Alaskans can expect to see a lot of military activity in those parts of the gulf during the exercise, and aircraft activity around Alaska’s two Air Force bases — Eielson, near Fairbanks, and JBER, near Anchorage.

“They kind of take off and land on the bases, and they go up to the JPARC and they do their business,” he said. “And then they come back and they land at Eielson, they land at JBER.”

Some of the aircraft will be also operating out of both Fairbanks and Anchorage international airports.

Lancaster said most of the activity will take place during weekday mornings and afternoons. He says the Air Force and Navy also have been trying to inform hunters, commercial fishermen and others in remote areas about increased aircraft and naval activity during the exercise.

The Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to clean up Fort Learnard, a former World War II military outpost in Unalaska Bay.

The fort housed anti-aircraft and anti-ship artillery at Eider Point, on the western side of the bay.

The site was decommissioned after the war, and the artillery and munitions were exploded to dispose of them. But according to the corps, the explosion was not done in a controlled way.

“Fragments, and sometimes whole pieces of ammunition, were kicked out of the explosion,” said Ellen McDermott, who works with an engineering firm contracted for the cleanup. At a public meeting held in April, she said more than 200 munitions have been found in the area around Fort Learnard, most recently in 2016.

“The frequency with which items are found at the site suggests that there are a fair number of projectiles still out there, and we don’t know where they are,” McDermott said.

The corps plans to visit the site later in May for a preliminary survey, and the actual cleanup is slated for 2024.