Military

An investigation released Thursday details a long list of failures in how the Alaska National Guard handles reports of sexual assault and other matters.

In response to the findings, Governor Sean Parnell asked for the resignation of National Guard Major General Thomas Katkus, effective immediately.

“This culture of mistrust and failed leadership in the Guard, it ends now,” Parnell said.

Governor Parnell requested that the National Guard Bureau Office of Complex Investigations look into allegations in February, after receiving complaints about how guard leadership addressed reports of sexual assault. At a press conference in Anchorage this afternoon, Parnell summarized the findings of the 230-page report.

“Alaska Guard members lack trust and confidence in the Alaska national Guard’s leadership to handle sexual assault cases, or to administer justice for other misconduct in a fair, evenhanded manner without reprisal,” Parnell said.

The Guard Bureau looked at 37 cases of sexual assault. The Bureau found that many of the cases were reviewed by people who weren’t trained to conduct sexual assault investigations. Some victims also told the Guard Bureau they were ostracized and abused by fellow guard members after reporting sexual assault.

Confidentiality was also a problem. One victim of sexual assault reported to the Bureau that she had overheard a fellow service member discussing the details of her own assault while at work.

Parnell first heard of issues in the Guard in 2010 and he has been criticized for not acting sooner to correct the problem. Parnell says when he looked into concerns in the past, he heard from Guard members and leadership that the cases were being handled properly. He says the complaints persisted and that led him to call for this outside investigation.

“I’m extremely frustrated and I’m angry it’s taken so long to get to the bottom of these issues,” Parnell said. “The Alaska Guard members deserve better.”

“The victims who have been hurt and those who have brought complaints forward deserve better. In hindsight is clearly shouldn’t have taken this long.”

The report details several other problems in the Alaska Guard including sexual harassment, discrimination based on race, and fraud committed by guard members and leadership.

The report makes dozens of recommendations for changes and describes a plan to make those changes. Parnell says he will establish a project team to implement the recommendations.

The Navy is currently conducting trainings in the Gulf of Alaska under the project name Northern Edge. It’s working on setting up the next phase of that project, to begin in 2016.

Alex Stone is the project manager for the Gulf of Alaska Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS. He has a background in environmental science.

“Associated with the EIS we get a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service and that permit is good for five years,” says Stone. “So, the EIS that we do supports them issuing the permit.”

The Navy is currently training under a permit for 2011 to 2016.

“But, because the EIS process takes so long, we’re already working on the EIS to support the next permit which will start after the current one expires,” says Stone.

Liane Nakahara is a public affairs specialist for the Navy. She says at this point, the process is about half way done.

“We just completed the draft EIS and that’s kind of in the  middle of the entire process,” says Nakahara. “So, we took all the comments that came in during the scoping phase, which was a couple years ago, and used those comments to develop the draft analysis, which is out for public review right now.”

Stone says this looks at the impact of training activities that are part of an annual project that includes several branches of the military.

“The Navy brings up an aircraft carrier strike group to participate in a joint exercise with the Army and Air Force and what this EIS looks at, of course, is the Navy part of it, which takes place in the Gulf of Alaska,” says Stone.

Stone says the Gulf of Alaska is prime training area for the Navy for three reasons. First, it’s an environment that’s unlike others around the States. The Navy does a lot of training near Southern California. Water temperatures, ocean depth, and environmental conditions are different in the Gulf. Second, he says it provides the opportunity to work with the Army and Air Force, since there are already bases nearby in Alaska. Finally, it gives Navy pilots a unique experience.

“It gives an access to the other ranges over the land in Alaska that are owned and managed by the Army and Air Force, which are really great training ranges for the pilots that are flying planes off an aircraft carrier,” says Stone.

With regard to the training that happens underwater, Stone says the Navy acknowledges the potentially harmful effects of sonar on marine mammals.

“Working with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), who is the federal regulator for marine mammals, we’ve developed a comprehensive set of mitigation measures which we have demonstrated are highly effective in minimizing our impacts to marine mammals,” says Stone.

The supplemental EIS has specific sections outlining acceptable and unacceptable effects to marine mammals, fish, birds, water quality, and more. In total, it’s hundreds of pages long but is available in its entirety at goaeis.com.

Nakahara says the public comment period is open through October 20th.

“All those comments will be considered in the development of the final EIS,” says Nakahara. “That will take another year or so to be able to incorporate everything, properly, into that final document before we then release it back to the public.”

Public meetings will take place from 5-8 p.m. in all locations with the Navy presentation at 6:30 p.m.

The U.S. Coast Guard has launched and successfully landed an unmanned aircraft—popularly known as a drone—from an ice breaker trawling the Arctic Ocean.

The drone launch and landing—the first of its kind from an icebreaker, Coast Guard officials say—took place Aug. 18 on the deck of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy, the same vessel that carved a path through the ice for a January 2012 winter fuel delivery to Nome.

The drone launch brought scientists at the Coast Guard Research and Development Center based in New London, Connecticut, together to work with researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.

Operators with Aerovironment, designers of the drone, were on hand to pilot the machine, which looked like a miniature airplane.

The drone, a “Puma All Environment UAS,” or “unmanned aircraft system,” flew from the Healy’s bow as part of the Coast Guard’s “Oil in Ice” exercise, and as a test of the machine’s abilities in Arctic environments. Operators also used the drone’s infrared and electro-optical camera to provide video of the exercise’s simulated oil spill.

Last year scientists launched the Puma drone from the deck of the Healy, but this year the drone was able to land back on the vessel—albeit roughly. Video of the drone’s flight shows a hard landing back on the Healy, with the craft nosing down sharply and hitting the deck with enough force to break its wings off its body.

A rocket carrying an experimental Army strike weapon exploded seconds after take off from the Kodiak Launch Complex at about 12:25 a.m. Monday morning. Witnesses report the rocket lifted off, but soon nosed down and either self-destructed or hit the ground and exploded.

The Narrow Cape area beyond the Kodiak Launch Complex will remain closed to the public until further notice after this morning’s rocket explosion, according to an announcement from the Alaska Aerospace Corporation.

Pentagon spokeswoman Maureen Schumann said the U.S. Army rocket self-destructed just four seconds into its flight, at about 12:25 a.m. Monday morning.

“Shortly after 4 a.m. EDT, the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command, as part of the Defense Department’s Conventional Prompt Global Strike technology development program, conducted a flight test of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska,” Schumann says.

“Due to an anomaly, the test was terminated near the launch pad shortly after lift-off to ensure public safety. There were no injuries to any personnel. Program officials are conducting an extensive investigation to determine the cause of the flight anomaly.”

It was the first launch at the KLC in three years.

Alaska Aerospace CEO Craig Campbell said he couldn’t verify where debris from the rocket came down, but Schumann said it was her understanding that the debris is limited to KLC property and did not fall into the water.

The three-stage solid-fuel rocket is based on refurbished Polaris intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Campbell said it did not appear, from a preliminary estimate, that there was any extensive damage to the Kodiak Launch Complex, but said AAC and Department of Defense personnel will be doing damage assessments all day.

Kodiak resident Stacy Studebaker, who owns a home in nearby Pasagshak, has long been a critic of the Kodiak Launch Complex. She said in an e-mail to KMXT that she wanted to know what kind of hazards any un-burnt rocket fuel posed and who will be conducting the clean up. Two popular recreation areas are adjacent to the KLC, Fossil Beach, which remains off-limits, and Surfer Beach.

In the nose-cone of the rocket was the Army’s Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, which is a rocket-launched glider capable of flying at over 3,500 mph, or Mach 5. According to the Army’s description, the small craft is designed to be lofted nearly into space before separation and then glide through the atmosphere to its target at hypersonic speeds. If developed, it is expected to be able to hit any target on earth within an hour or less with conventional, non-nuclear explosives.

This was to be the second test of the glider. Its target was the Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific. The first was successfully launched from Hawaii.
Scott Wight, a Kodiak photographer, was watching the launch from Cape Greville in Chiniak, about a dozen miles from the launch site. He said even at that distance the explosion was very loud. Another photographer at Cape Greville said the launch looked out of control and that she wasn’t surprised to find out it self-destructed. She said the resulting fire burned brightly for a short while.

The Kodiak Launch Complex is about 25-miles from the city of Kodiak.

This is a developing story, and we’ll have more information as it becomes available.

In 2011, members of the Alaska Peacemakers Militia were arrested for conspiracy to commit murder. The trial of their leader, Schaeffer Cox, continually made headlines in the years that followed, most of them bad. Now, other militia groups in the state are trying to show a different side to the movement. I spent three days at a militia gathering in Sutton this summer and brought back this story.

It’s a picture perfect day, and five people in camouflage are marching beneath a crag in the Talkeetna mountains. Rifles are slung across their chests, and an aerial photography drone is hovering over. The man operating the camera is shouting directions.

“We want to get them relaxed – not always ready to rock. Oh, that’s a nice shot of them going away right there ”

The stuff the videographer is getting looks like it’s straight out of an Army recruitment ad. But the people in camo aren’t soldiers. They’re members of the Anchorage Municipality Defense Force, one of the half dozen or so militias operating in Alaska.

Their commander, Mikel Insalaco, came up with the idea of using a drone to film part of the Alaska Prepper, Survivalist, & Militia Rendezvous, an annual training weekend that brings outfits from across the state together.

“We’re supposed to be paranoid about drones but the reality of this is this one has a good purpose,” Insalaco tells me. “We want to be able to get some pretty wicked footage of the event.”

The only thing that Insalaco — or, really, any of the rendezvous attendees — seems paranoid about is seeming paranoid.

The American militia movement isn’t exactly viewed as cuddly. After a series of standoffs with federal agents in the nineties, militias got a lot of attention as a dangerous and fringe anti-government subculture. Locally, the Alaska Peacemakers Militia incident didn’t help that reputation. Cox was sentenced to 25 years in prison for conspiring to kill law enforcement officials and illegally possessing automatic weapons and grenades. Three other members were also incarcerated on similar charges.

Taking in the scene at the militia rendezvous, it’s easy to see how an outsider might be wary. The temporary compound is patrolled by armed men. There are pickup trucks draped in camo netting, and plenty of dudes with beards and tattoos milling around.

David Luntz is one of them.

“Militias get a bad name,” Luntz says during a break from training.

He commands the Central Alaska Militia, which covers a swath of land from Delta Junction to Fairbanks. For all that should make Luntz intimidating, he’s just – well – not. He’s got an easy laugh, and if you talk to him for more than a couple minutes about how he leads the militia, the word “transparency” will inevitably come up.

“We want people to understand what we’re about and support us. These groups that hide and be all secret and they’re not public and open – well, people start fearing them,” says Luntz.

It should go without saying that any motley crew can describe themselves as a militia, and Luntz obviously doesn’t speak for all of them. But the attitude he has is a common one among the groups attending the rendezvous.

“Unfortunately, what happened with [Cox] really hurt the efforts in Alaska, and one of our primary missions in Central Alaska Militia is to change that perception.”

Even though some members of the Alaska militia movement believe Cox was a victim of entrapment, many rendezvous attendees distance themselves from and are even critical of the Peacemakers. They’re eager to show their militias are about more than clashing with government.

For Luntz, the militia’s about a few things. He describes it as a “community defense” group where the people involved learn solid survival skills. Outside of a couple digs at the United Nations, there’s not a lot of talk at the rendezvous about one-world government or taking on the Feds. You’re more likely to hear about preparing for what some call “general infrastructure failure,” and being ready for natural disasters — and maybe alien or zombie attacks. (Driving that home is one attendee’s ammo dog, who wanders the compound in a camo pack that reads “Zombie Response K-9.”) So, in addition to sessions on weapons transitions and close-quarter tactics, there’s also training on food storage and first aid.

“I think that some people are a little apprehensive to come out and run around in BDUs [battle dress uniform],” says Luntz. “The militias and these groups that are formed have a lot more positions that people could partake in that doesn’t involve running around in fatigues and army gear.”

Luntz also gets a sense of camaraderie from his militia. He was in the Army for 20 years, and now he does defense work for – yes – the federal government.

And as a member of the Constitution Party and a strong believer in the Second Amendment, Luntz sees his involvement in the Central Alaska Militia as a basic exercise of his rights. But he doesn’t think of his militia as right-wing or even explicitly political.

“You know, we don’t not accept people because they’re a liberal or they’re whatever. As long as you support the Constitution and our form of government and our Republican setup, then you’re pretty much good,” Luntz says, before laughing. “Just so long as you’re not a felon or a sex offender.”

Yup, the Central Alaska Militia runs background checks on potential members. And at the rendezvous, there are plenty of rules they agree to for safety reasons that would be unacceptable to them if imposed by government. They require attendees to have their pistols holstered and unloaded, and prohibit anyone from handling a gun if they’ve had anything to drink within the past eight hours. The rules are as strict as a shooting range, and much stricter than state law.

And as far as government goes, Luntz says they’ve given the State Troopers their standard operating procedures. They also reach out to the boroughs, the state, the Feds whenever they hold an event on public land.

“You know it’d be kind of easy for somebody to be on the other side of this big compound here and out camping for the weekend, and they see us, and they’re like, ‘Oh my god! They have guns,’ and they call the troopers, ‘There’s a bunch of people with guns!’” says Luntz. “So, we make those public contacts.”

As it turned out, the Troopers did get called to the area … but not because of the rendezvous. In fact, not a single shot was fired the whole weekend by the militia crowd. The Troopers were there because a separate party sprouted up near the compound on the last night. There were drunk people driving four-wheelers, a couple of cases of indecent exposure, and shots being fired well into the morning.

At breakfast the next day, there was some talk about how rowdy the party-goers were and how they were glad the compound had a perimeter set up. At the end of the conversation, one person commented while shaking his head, “And we’re supposed to be the guys people are afraid of.”