Yearly Training Adventure Warms Everyone Up for Summer

As the nation heads full tilt into spring, the northern Coast Guard stations bone up on their rescue ops as they ready themselves for an active Alaskan summer.

In a recent collaboration, an interagency exercise brought out the USAF's 210th, 211th, and 212th Rescue Squadron, the USCG Cutter Bailey Barco, and the Sitka Mountain Rescue team. SAREX 2024 Working to effect rescues on land and water, the group tested out their ability to rescue the imperiled with a minimum of chaos, fuss, and waste. The far north is punishing to inefficiencies, and unlike some of the lower 48, Alaskan operators don't have a very breadth of assisting agencies to call upon if things aren't up to snuff. In classic Alaskan culture, it's understood that locals will have to make do with what they've got already. As such, everyone in the area has to make sure the rescue machine is slicked up and ready to go.

This year's SAREX was, like so many others in a long string of yearly outings, successful at warming up everyone involved. "The 2024 SAREX enhanced collaboration among different organizations and first responders united by a shared objective of saving lives," said Capt. Vincent Jansen, commanding officer of Coast Guard Air Station Sitka. "Ongoing cooperation and understanding of each other's strengths are essential for overcoming potential challenges and during this SAREX we accomplished that. We are constantly humbled by our partner agencies and we look forward to hosting more training evolutions like this in the future."

FMI: www.uscg.mil