The U.S. Army on Sept. 12 sent 130 paratroopers and portions of three Army units, along with a M142 mobile artillery rocket system to Shemya Island, a small island in the western Aleutians, as a show of force after several Russian and Chinese military jets patrolled the area.
Shemya is about 1,200 miles southwest of Anchorage and is one of the farthest west islands in the Aleutian chain; it is on HDT — Hawaii-Aleutian Daylight Time. The windswept tundra island is 2.73 miles long and 4.32 miles wide. A U.S. Air force radar, surveillant, weather station, and 10,000-foot runway opened on Shemya during World War II and is still in operation as Eareckson Air Station, mostly as a refueling stopover for the military. In 2018 a Delta Airlines flight made an emergency landing there en route from Beijing to Seattle after encountering mechanical troubles.
Troops with the 11th Airborne Division and the 1st and 3rd Multi Domain Task Forces, were deployed to Shemya Island during this September military activity after increased presence of Chinese and Russian war ships over the summer.
“As the number of adversarial exercises increases around Alaska and throughout the region, including June’s joint Russian-Chinese bomber patrol, the operation to Shemya Island demonstrates the division’s ability to respond to events in the Indo-Pacific or across the globe, with a ready, lethal force within hours,” said Maj. Gen. Joseph Hilbert, commanding general of the 11th Airborne Division.
The division, stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and Fort Wainwright, defends the northern- and western-most reaches of the U.S., as well as the Arctic.
In addition, the 11th Airborne Division is also assigned to U.S. INDOPACIFIC Command, the Department of Defense’s priority theater and an area representing more than 50% of the world’s population.
“Testing ourselves with this operation and others like it is critical to our nation’s defense and the preservation of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Hilbert. “Our ability to deploy combat-credible forces quickly and effectively to any location, no matter how remote, is critical to supporting the nation and our strong relationships with allies and partner nations.”
I spent a month on Shemya one weekend in 1996. The wind never stops. The place defines the word desolate. On the other hand critically important to our defense. Just would not want a station assignment there.
It is not for everybody, that’s for sure. – sd
Sending 130 paratroopers to an isolated Aleutian island, Shemya, with no feasible logostical support if there were actual hostilities, with one (1) M142 MRLS will reinforce the reality to Russia and China just how impotent our armed forces and icompetent our military leadership has degraded to. At the rate Russians are killing NATO/US trained Ukrainian and NATO troops on a daily basis, 130 is a small rounding error. Equivalent to the casualties of 1 Kinzhal missile strike. And this exercise in futility is in response to Russian air assets patrolling their own eastern border, in international airspace, with an unstable nuclear armed hostile country threatening to launch conventional long range missiles into their country. Commanded by a chief executive who is too mush brained to complete a sentence, engaged in another of a string of undeclared losing wars, with stated goals of regime change and dividing their country into regions to be exploited by our morally ill, greedy globalist corporations. Our top generals are not competent to lead a platoon in modern combat, and they should be required to wear their corporate sponsor logos, like NASCAR drivers, so the public knows who owns their loyalty.
Russia takes Alaska, (as they claimed already belongs to Russia) ; China takes Taiwan, China and Russia back each other to form the 2nd Axis power with Iran and N. Korea. Thats why we need to stay in there and pitch for Ukraine to let the comrades know we will give them nothing.
Fair analysis. It might be easier to understand if it is stated: Russia may both care about and want Alaska; the United States? There is considerable doubt. Not much question that many in the lower forty-eight would want me disappeared.
Worthless comment from an individual that has his head in the sand!! Moving a small highly skilled group of combat soldiers with substantial support assets to within spitting distance of Russian/ Chinese military forces in a matter of hours from a major support base ( JBER) is a significant show of force for our Alaska based military. There is no mention of the support capability of our Alaska Air Command role which is mighty and apparently not required for this exercise. Naval and air forces are invaluable in war fighting but no nation will ever win a war without reliance of “ boots on the ground”.Military forces in Alaska are empowered to act independently to some degree of presidential oversight due to the nose to nose threat that exists only in Alaska for the United States and Canada.
If you think about it, if nuclear war were to ever happen shemya would be hit first.
Heavy burden for the people that work there.
High Potential Targets in AK907 include:
… Clear AFB
… Shemya AFB
… Ft Greely
… Poker Flats
… HAARP Facility
… USCG Kodiak, Valdez, Juneau, Sitka
… Eielson AFB
… Elmendorf AFB
… Ft Wainwright
… Ft Richardson
… Alpine to Prudhoe Bay to Pt Thomson // TAPS Valdez
You forgot the Furthest North Girl Scout Council in Fairbanks.
That comment wins the internet today.
We were a 1/2 mile off shore Shemya on the lee side of the island, on an 85 foot F/V jogging out a storm in 1991 late September. The guy wires were screeching. Channel 16 came on the horn and stated, “Who are you”. We replied “You mean us”. To which they replied “Who the hell do you think we mean?” We skedaddled. All the food was on the floor in the galley and was the sliding around with broken dishes, as witnessed from the rack in the fo’c’sl. What a mess. It was a bruiser of a cruiser. Shemya wants nobody in their proximity.
I am not sure how paratroopers might oppose naval warships but I ain’t no military expert. I could see a role for the missile system but think that there are range limitations.
Seems to me a few Arleigh Burke class destroyers would be useful. And an attack submarine or two, but we would not know that they were present.
It’s about having a known military presence in the area.
This article exemplifies the variety of important content on MRAK. We can only imagine how this content is obtained but we should all appreciate being informed of such matters. As a technical matter, the windswept tundra island is not 2.73 miles long and 4.32 miles wide but rather the inverse of that.
Length and then width & not width and length. Surveyor Wayne ??? I’ll bet the square acreage is the same.
I bet it’s nice not having to deal with all the horrible drivers on the Glenn. Sounds like my kinda of place. In the middle of nowhere with hardly a soul around.
I wonder how the sea duck hunting is out there.
If you like strong winds that never stop, it might just be the place for you!
Gen. Hilbert sorry your statement does not compute. The incursion occurred in June and the military responded in September does not prove the military can respond within hours. I hope we are better than that.
We must be patient.
The news of the incursion just hit the beach in Delaware so we can assume POTUS is all over this.
I don’t think we are. Our chances of doing a 90degree intercept of a hypersonic missile is about 0 which makes Seattle a 0 . What can you say. Male generals wearing skirts is not to encouraging.
My brother spent 2 summers on Shemya in the 80’s. He said the ravens are 3 feet tall – anything smaller having long since blown away.
Shemya, “It’s not end of the world, but you can see it from here.”
The Shemyans are quaking in their boots! LMAO!
When they see that Rainbow flag flying on Shemya, they will be paralyzed with fear.
Cobra Dane is there.
Asset worth protecting.
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