Coast Guard launches seasonal home base in Kotzebue

KOTZEBUE – The U.S. Coast Guard has a term for Alaska's Arctic waters, one that explains why the agency has just signed its first-ever lease on a facility in this town on the edge of the sea.

"We have what we call a 'new ocean,' really," said Mark Wilcox, Coast Guard commander.

New, because the waters are opening up in an unprecedented way. Sea ice is becoming thinner and thinner and, as the ice diminishes, the number of ships traveling through Arctic waters is increasing. From 2007 to 2015, traffic through the Bering Sea doubled, up to an average of about 400 trips a year.

The trend shows no sign of slowing down. This summer, the massive cruise ship Crystal Serenity will carry 1,700 passengers along Alaska's coast, into the Arctic Ocean and through the Northwest Passage in Canada.

Coastal communities have voiced concerns over a lack of infrastructure available should an emergency occur; meanwhile, the Coast Guard has its eye on training.

In August, the agency will conduct an exercise that involves a mass rescue off of a cruise ship, Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Shawn Eggert said Friday.

"One way I've heard it said is it's not a matter of if, but when," Eggert said of a large-scale rescue in Arctic waters.

[This luxury cruise ship will soon sail through the Arctic. Here's what that means for Alaska.]

So as maritime traffic increases, the Coast Guard has followed. The agency began Operation Arctic Shield — focused on increasing its Arctic awareness and preparedness — in 2012, and this year it's establishing a seasonal home base in Kotzebue.

In prior Arctic Shield Operations years, the Coast Guard had skipped from town to town each summer — from Kotzebue to Barrow to Prudhoe Bay. A permanent base will allow for more flexibility, Eggert said.

Now, the Coast Guard will station two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters in the community from July 1 to Oct. 31 for the next five years.

The Kotzebue facility, an airplane hangar on the periphery of town, was formerly used by the Alaska Army National Guard, but fell into disuse back in the 1990s. The National Guard's numbers had dwindled, and the facility was shut down, said Col. Joe Streff.

Friday's changing ownership — what the Guard called a "roll in," because they rolled the helicopter into the hangar during the ceremony — was brief, but attended by dozens of community members, the Coast Guard and Army National Guard members. Also attending were Adjutant Gen. of the Alaska National Guard Laurie Hummel and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott.

The facility will be named after Kotzebue resident John Schaeffer Jr., who, among other accomplishments, enlisted in the Army National Guard in 1957 and went on to become the nation's first Inupiaq two-star general. Several of his family members attended Friday's event; the building's official naming will take place later this summer.

"We're very honored that the Coast Guard has finally made it to Kotzebue," said Eugene Smith, chief of staff for the Northwest Arctic Borough, during the ceremony.

The Coast Guard is hoping the new station will help ease what several members called the "tyranny of distance" — the challenges inherent in conducting search and rescue in the vast state of Alaska.

"That's one of the biggest challenges to working (here)," Eggert said.

When there are no helicopters stationed in the Arctic, the Coast responds to rescues out of Kodiak — even if the person being rescued is 941 miles away, in Barrow.

The seasonal base will give the Coast Guard more efficient response times, Eggert said.

For Kotzebue resident Fannie Woods, the new Coast Guard presence offers a welcomed sense of security.

"It's good to know that we have services for our waters here," Woods said during a lunch after the ceremony.

Those waters — the Kotzebue Sound, which leads to the Chukchi Sea — are integral to the community's way of life.

"We have a lot of hunters that do go out a lot of the time," Woods said. Now, they have a little bit more peace of mind.

Correction: An earlier version of this article listed an incorrect seasonal time frame that the base will be open.