Alaska training prepares Northern Command troops for harsh battle conditions

I was stationed at Elmendorf AFB, AK, for four years in the 1980s. We hosted the airlift force for two major joint service exercises in that time, both called "BRIM FROST". It was a lot of work because our fairly small unit, an Airlift Squadron and Airlift Group, expanded to include the equivalent of three additional C-130 squadrons (active, Guard, and Reserve), a special operations unit, and accompanying maintenance and air transportation units. The Army at Ft Richardson and Ft Wainwright were augmented by units from Lower 48. Maneuvers were conducted all over the State with at least two remote airfields involved. During the second exercise I was the Group Current Operations Officer scheduling all the military and contract airlift for the exercise and continuing operations supporting NORAD. Fortunately we were augmented by a couple of Captains from units in the Lower 48 to support 24X7 operations.

I flew a few missions into Clear airfield, just north of the Alaska mountain range, delivering Army equipment and personnel. Also flew some retrograde missions out of Ft Wainwright and Ft Greeley. Most of the missions flew without incident. Unfortunately, we had a major aircraft accident as an out-of-state aircrew attempted to land at a remote radar site when the winds were out of limits. The aircraft ran off the side of the runway. Extensive damage to the C-130, but no causalities except the pilot's career.

Somewhat humorous lessons from the exercises: Units in the Lower 48 loaded their Trucks onto rail cars near their home stations in November, some were Reserve Component units. They weren't instructed to put special additives into the diesel fuel before shipping to the Arctic. The vehicles arrived at Ft Wainwright and Ft Greeley in January with temperatures between +10 and -40 degrees F. The diesel fuel turned to jelly. The vehicles had to be pushed and winched off the flatcars and dragged to hangars to warm up so the gas tanks could be drained and cold-weather diesel pumped in. In another case, the Army constructed a road (plowed snow and ice) from an airfield to their camp. It included an ice bridge across a fairly wide stream (not quite a river). As with most BRIM FROSTS, we had a January thaw with temperatures up to 45 degrees for a few days. One afternoon a road grader was smoothing out the road, drove onto the bridge, and promptly collapsed the bridge and dropped the grader into the stream. Driver was uninjured. Grader stayed there until spring. One night an AC-130 crew was firing the 105 mm howitzer on a range near Ft Wainwright. They "accidently" hit a moose with the results you'd expect when a 105 mm projectile hits a 1-ton animal. The infrared cameras showed what happened. It took a good deal of apologizing to Alaska Fish and Game at the General Officer level to keep the AC-130 crew from being prosecuted.

What CPT (Join to see) said!