THE WATCH STAFF
During the recent Noble Defender military exercises in Alaska, Soldiers from Special Operations Command North (SOCNORTH) deployed to the remote Shemya Island in the Aleutian chain.
The 6-square-mile island known as “The Rock” is home to Eareckson Air Station, which played an important role in the United States’ Cold War defenses. Eareckson is the closest U.S. military installation to Russia — just 200 miles across the Bering Sea — and fighter aircraft once based there were in position to quickly intercept Russian warplanes, according to an October 23, 2021, Forbes.com story.
The U.S. troops who trained on the small, windswept island in October worked alongside on-site security forces and included Green Berets from the Army’s 10th Special Forces Group, according to the military news website The War Zone.
During a July 21, 2021, online forum, SOCNORTH Commander Brig. Gen. Shawn R. Satterfield said training in austere conditions such as those on Shemya Island is crucial as the U.S. turns its military focus to defense of the homeland.
“It is paramount that forces operate and train in the environment they will potentially fight in,” Satterfield said.
SOCNORTH is the special operations component of U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM). Noble Defender is a North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Arctic air-defense operation.
The exercises on Shemya Island included maritime infiltration, short-range air defense (both pictured), sniper positioning and off-road vehicle deployment, according to social media posts from USNORTHCOM and U.S. Special Operations Command.
“These service members are demonstrating capabilities to defend key terrain,” USNORTHCOM tweeted.
The Aleutian Islands have a long history with U.S. special operations forces dating to the 1st Special Service Force, an elite American-Canadian commando unit that was organized in 1942 and served in the islands during World War II.
Shemya Island is also home to the powerful Cobra Dane early warning and tracking radar. The island lies near the western end of the Aleutian chain and is more than 1,200 miles from Anchorage, Alaska.
Eareckson also was visited during Noble Defender by at least two F-16s from the 18th Aggressor Squadron from Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska, according to an October 23, 2021, story on Forbes.com. NORAD posted photos October 20 on Twitter of the fighter planes — part of the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment practice — on Eareckson’s short runway. (The air station’s own fighter missions ended in the 1990s.)
The NORAD tweet called Shemya one of North America’s “most distant and strategic outposts.”
“The weather, isolation and short runway … make Shemya a dangerous place for air operations,” according to a report prepared by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources for the U.S. Department of Defense.
NORAD also conducted air-defense operations from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage on October 13 and 14. Those exercises featured a variety of military aircraft from the U.S. Air Force and the Royal Canadian Air Force.
IMAGE CREDITS: U.S. NORTHERN COMMAND