United States Alaskan Command
The United States Alaskan Command ( ALCOM ) is a cross -armed forces group command and a major association of the US armed forces . It reports to the Regional Command US Pacific Command (PACOM) and performs as a regional command all forces in Alaska , however, the military installations in Alaska part of the US Northern Command ( NORTHCOM ). The commanding general is Lieutenant General Douglas M. Frasier ( US Air Force ). The headquarters are located at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage in the US state of Alaska.
history
The Alaskan Command was established on January 1, 1947 and subordinated to the US Pacific Command as a Sub-Unified Command for the Alaska region . The ALCOM was originally a command directly subordinate to the Chief of Staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . The background for the establishment of a composite command were the bad experiences from the Second World War , when competitive thinking among the individual branches of the armed forces unnecessarily prevented the expulsion of the Japanese troops from the western islands of Attu and Kiska on the Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska. The strategic location of Alaska and its special climatic conditions, but also humanitarian aid campaigns, such as the 1964 earthquake in the region, were a constant challenge for ALCOM . The original ALCOM component commands were the Alaska Air Command , the US Army Alaska (USARAK), and the Navy Alaskan Sea Frontier . In 1971, the Marine-Alaska-Sea Front was deactivated as part of the general demobilization after the Vietnam War and the Aleutian area was transferred to the PACOM, which actually contradicted the principle of a regional group command. In 1974 the USARAK army component was also dissolved, and finally ALCOM itself in 1975. Instead, the Joint Task Force-Alaska was set up, which would only have been activated in the event of a military attack or natural disasters in the region and never had the status of a provisional unit overcame. In 1989, the Alaskan Command was re-established, again subordinated to three component commands and given military responsibility for the region. With this organizational measure, the Ministry of Defense once again did justice to the region's special strategic location, which it did not lose after the Cold War .
assignment
The Alaskan Command , as the highest command facility , leads all military units of the individual armed forces, the National Guard and the Reserve and ensured their operational readiness. It ensures the territorial integrity of the state of Alaska and its adjacent waters and is the outermost post of the continental strategic early warning chain of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). As the highest military command facility, it also supports civil authorities in their task of protecting and maintaining infrastructural facilities, if necessary and requested.
organization
- US Army Forces Alaska (USARAK) with headquarters in Fort Richardson .
The Army component of ALCOM is made up of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team , Lancers , based in Fort Wainwright , the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) (Airborne), Spartan ( Airborne Brigade ), both units of the 25th US Infantry Division in Hawaii and the Arctic Support Brigade (ASB) at Fort Richardson .
- Eleventh Air Force with headquarters at Elmendorf Air Force Base
The air component of ALCOM is the 11th Air Force (11th Air Fleet ), consisting of the 3rd Wing (3rd Squadron ), the 354th Fighter Wing (354th Combat Squadron), the 611th Air Operations Group (611th Task Force) and the 611th Air Support Group (611th Air Support Group )
- US Naval Forces Alaska with headquarters in Juneau.
The forces of the Navy component of the ALCOM are the US Coast Guard , which is subordinate to the Department of Homeland Security of the United States in peacetime , but to the Department of Defense and thus the ALCOM during war . The 17th Coast Guard bases are in Petersburg , Juneau , Ketchikan , Homer , Seward , Tok , Anchorage, Kenai , Valdez , Nome , St. Paul , and there are three air stations on Kodiak , Sitka and, only operated seasonally, in Cordova .
- Joint Task Force-Alaska (JTF-AK)
The Joint Rear Area Coordination-Alaska (JRAC-AK), a task force for the inland (hinterland) coordination for Alaska, a unit for counter-terrorism , was reorganized after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 to the task of the Ministry of the Interior Perceiving security in the region, but was dissolved in February 2003 and replaced by the Joint Task Force-Alaska (JTF-AK) (Associated Task Force Alaska). The JTF-AK works for both ALCOM and NORTHCOM. This means that parts of the responsibility of the ministry have returned to the military.
References
Web links
- Official website of the Alaskan Command (English)
- Alaskan Command at globalsecurity.org (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ elmendorf.af.mil (English)
- ↑ USARAK ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ elmendorf.af.mil (English)
