Several days of CH-47 Chinook and UH-60 Blackhawk sightings have had residents of western Alaska looking to the skies. In the summer, military helicopter sightings aren’t uncommon, but their presence can still cause quite a stir for communities not expecting them.
At Tuesday's Kotzebue City Council meeting, Kotzebue Police Chief Christopher Cook said an exercise last year took residents by surprise.
“The citizens were calling us saying, ‘I think the Russians are invading us’ kind of thing,” Cook said.
Cook told the council he was contacted by military planners for an upcoming annual exercise called Arctic Edge.
“They're not hiding anything, not doing anything secret,” Cook said. “They just want everybody to know that there's nothing they're not preparing for anything specific. It's just the annual training that they do.”
A spokesperson for the military's Alaskan Command, Air Force Sgt. Donald Hudson, said the helicopters are conducting site surveys. He likened the surveys to planning for a summer vacation.
“You're doing your research to find out where you're going to be staying, where you're going to be eating, how you're going to get all the people in your group to go there and be there for a chunk of time,” Hudson said.
Hudson said Arctic Edge is designed to improve readiness and demonstrate capabilities in the Arctic. Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and Eielson Air Force Base will host the August exercises, with activities planned across the state including in the Aleutians.