Alaska represents twenty percent of the land area, twenty percent of the oil production, forty percent of the fresh water of the United States, but after Wyoming, it's the least populated state. Despite that contradiction, the state has an abundance of natural resources, history, and adventure-especially for the members of the Coast Guard that oversee its massive coastline. Captain Jeffrey Hartman served four tours of duty in Alaska with the Coast Guard. He outlines the history of Alaska and its culture and describes his experiences overseeing a number of rescue missions there. Hartman illustrates with personal experience the challenges and dangers the Service faces in carrying out its missions protecting the Alaska people, environment and maritime infrastructure. He flew helicopters from Coast Guard icebreakers, on rescue and law enforcement missions and managed the search and rescue program on Alaska's waters. Guarding Alaska explains the many important functions that the Coast Guard serves and also examines how it's changed in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. You'll feel like you're in the middle of the action as you gain a deeper appreciation for the state and the people who protect it.

Guarding Alaska

By Jeffrey Hartman

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Captain Jeffrey Hartman USCG (ret)
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-2479-4

Contents

PREFACE GUARDING ALASKA.....................................................xxiINTRODUCTION.................................................................xxiiiCHAPTER ONE ALASKA TOOK MY BREATH AWAY......................................1CHAPTER TWO PEELING THE ALASKA ONION........................................23CHAPTER THREE WHAT'S THE U S COAST GUARD....................................55CHAPTER FOUR THE COAST GUARD IN ALASKA......................................65CHAPTER FIVE WHAT DOES THE COAST GUARD DO?..................................71CHAPTER SIX ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS AND TREATIES (ELT)..........................79CHAPTER SEVEN DEFENSE READINESS.............................................99CHAPTER EIGHT MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION...............................109CHAPTER NINE SEARCH AND RESCUE (SAR)........................................131CHAPTER TEN AIDS TO NAVIGATION..............................................147CHAPTER ELEVEN ICE OPERATIONS...............................................155CHAPTER TWELVE MARITIME SAFETY..............................................181CHAPTER THIRTEEN BOATING SAFETY.............................................199CHAPTER FOURTEEN COOPERATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES (COOP).....................205CHAPTER FIFTEEN FUN & GAMES IN ALASKA.......................................213BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................223GLOSSARY.....................................................................227

Chapter One

Alaska Took My Breath Away

Dimensions, Diamonds, Dangers & Defining

Dimensions

Once when I was briefing congressional staffers who were on a visit to Alaska, I used a slide similar to graphic 1-1 depicting Alaska superimposed on a map of the lower 48. The staffers laughed as they said Senator Stevens used the same illustration frequently in trying to impress his colleagues. Despite the humor, the point was that getting around in Alaska is difficult. Even with its vast distances, there are less than 5,000 miles of paved roads.

Land

The land area of Alaska is 570,374 square miles. The population according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development was 710,231 in 2010. Of this population, 291,826, or nearly 42%, were in Anchorage. It's said in Alaska (outside Anchorage) that the good thing about Anchorage is that it's close to Alaska, meaning it has all the big city problems not common in the rest of the state. The second largest city is Fairbanks at 31,627 followed closely by Juneau, the capital at 31,275. Sitka is the fourth largest with 8,881. Rounding out the top five is Ketchikan at 7,728.

People

The population includes 106,000 Natives (17%), or as the Canadians call them, First Nation peoples. These include eight different ethnic groups living in fairly well defined regions of Alaska. They are Tlingit and Haida Indians living in southeastern Alaska, Athabascan in the interior, Tsimshian living in Metlakatla on Annette Island, Aleut in the Aleutian Islands, the Yup'ik and Inupiat Eskimos and the Alutiq on Kodiak Island.

A common joke in Alaska is that if it were divided in half, Texas would be the third largest state. Alaska contains 20% of the land area of the other forty-nine states combined. More importantly than just its size, Alaska also contains vast amounts of valuable natural resources.

Diamonds

Alaska really doesn't have diamonds, or at least they haven't been discovered yet, but it has nearly everything else of value, and in great abundance. The natural resources include gold, silver, copper, molybdenum, zinc, coal, timber, fish, crab and of course oil and gas. The mineral value of its production of the top four, lead, silver, gold and zinc for 2009 was $2.3 billion. It also has some of the worst weather, least developed infrastructure, at least half of the U.S. earthquakes, most annoying mosquitoes, and the most dangerous animals outside Africa. But there are no snakes.

Location, Location, Location

Alaska's location at the top of the world makes it strategically important as both a transportation hub and as a rapid response base to go anywhere on the globe. Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage was the busiest airport in the US for air cargo landed weight in 2006. This is typical of the dichotomy of Alaska - the state with the second lowest population and fewest paved roads has one of the busiest airports for freight. From Alaska it is quicker to fly to both Europe and Asia than it is from the continental United States.

Natural Resources

Oil and Gas

Alaska is rich with resources. Within its borders is the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (TAPS) and oil platforms in Cook Inlet that provides 17% of the nations' oil supply. The North Slope, which is well known for its oil, has an even greater abundance of natural gas. The proven gas reserve of this area is thirty-seven trillion cubic feet. Natural gas is a clean alternative to coal for electricity generation. This is critically important to Japan, which buys a large percentage of the world's liquefied natural gas. When Alaska develops the means to get the gas to market, the national economy will be significantly improved. Environmentally, natural gas is a better choice as heating homes since natural gas and not coal reduces pollution and improves the environment for us all.

Fresh Water

Even more importantly for the arid future, 40% of the fresh water of the United States is in Alaska. Approximately three quarters of the fresh water is contained in the state's rapidly melting 100,000 glaciers and ice fields.

Food From the Sea

The ocean waters of Alaska contain vast quantities of renewable protein if properly managed. Alaska fisheries account for 53% of the U. S. fish landed in 2010 with a total of 4.3 billion pounds. In a day when the nation is concerned with its trade deficit, it's worthy of note that Alaska's biggest customers are the far eastern nations. The potential markets are even greater if the resources are appropriately managed. As the Coast Guard is charged with the safe operation of the nation's ports and waterways, all of this is of concern to the Service.

Dangers

Bears

The threat for death from bear attacks is greatly exaggerated. A study done by the Alaska State epidemiologist showed that bear attacks killed only twenty people in the first eighty-five years of the 20th century. The state does have an abundance of bears, however, and those who venture into the wild are cautioned to be aware.

There are four types of bears in Alaska, black, brown, glacier (blue) and polar (white). Brown bear numbers are estimated to be 40,000, with black bears being much more common at 100,000. Kodiak bears are included in the Ursus Arctos classification just as are the brown bear, which are known as grizzly bears.

Polar bear numbers in Alaska are hard to come by, however the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service estimates the worldwide population at 22,000-25,000 in nineteen different populations in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway, and Russia. It is generally accepted that they are dwindling with the loss of ice habitat. In May of 2008 the U.S. Fish. & Wildlife published a final rule that the polar bear was a threatened species. The somewhat rare glacier or blue bear is sub-specie of black bears normally found in the...