U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered another 7,000 troops to Europe Thursday to bolster NATO member nations in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But Army and Air Force commands based in Alaska aren’t sending military personnel nor equipment to support the U.S. response.
Spokespersons for both U.S. Army Alaska and the Air Force’s Alaskan Command both said Thursday that the Pentagon has not directed their commands to contribute to the U.S. response.
According to the New York Times, the order to deploy the First Brigade of the Army’s Third Infantry Division will increase the number of U.S. troops that’ve moved closer to Ukraine in recent days to 14,000. And they’ll bring the total number of U.S. troops in Europe to about 100,000.
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Tim Ellis is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
