Alaska

America’s Coast Guard Marches North With A Big New Alaskan Base

Published

2 years ago

August 25, 2024

America’s Coast Guard Marches North With A Big New Alaskan Base

Juneau’s busy waterfront will soon be home to big multipurpose Coast Guard homeport.

In a first hesitant step towards reinvigorating the U.S. government’s maritime presence off Alaska, the U.S. Coast Guard, in mid-August, quietly announced that the Alaskan port of Juneau will be upgraded to serve as an icebreaker homeport.

Given that this was America’s first announcement of a new “icebreaker homeport” in more than thirty years, the Coast Guard’s modest, four-paragraph news release was decidedly low-key. Coming just days after Russia announced that their second Project 235500 combat icebreaker, the Nikolay Zubov, will be launched by the end of the year, news that the U.S. Coast Guard was set to install a new, military-ready facility in Alaska merited a far bigger public roll-out.

In Washington, the announcement of Alaska’s new icebreaker homeport was dismissed as, basically, a reward for the Alaskan Congressional delegation’s unceasing efforts at expanding America’s moribund Polar power-and-presence projection capabilities.

But a big new Juneau homeport—an expansion and modernization of the Coast Guard’s busy District 17 Command Center—is no mere piece of pork. Preparations for the new homeport—improved mooring sites, crew facilities and other things—will pump millions into the waterfront and the local economy.

Homeports come with ships, as well. Once the new base facilities are operational, Juneau is slated to receive the interim icebreaker M/V Aiviq, “a U.S. registered ship originally built to serve as an Arctic oil-exploration support vessel.” An imperfect stop-gap, bought by the U.S. government as the Polar Security Cutter program continues to flounder, the Aiviq is doing good service by priming a wave of national investment in Alaskan harbor facilities, potentially readying Alaska to become a host for a range of new ice-ready presence platforms.

The newly-announced multinational Icebreaker Collaboration Effort, or “ICE Pact,” is ideally positioned as a future engine to pump newly-designed ice-breaking-ready “presence” platforms into America’s Arctic and Antarctic waters.

With Russia and China joining forces to try and grab control of lightly-held or internationally-regulated maritime territories, arctic presence, delivered by Alaskan-based vessels that are tailored for the rough polar environment, is becoming a critical unmet U.S. requirement. With Juneau and Kodiak now preparing to accept and support ever-larger Coast Guard cutters and military vessels, seasonal “presence-vessel-ready” facilities in Nome and the Aleutians can follow, along with more maintenance and shipbuilding production sites on America’s western coast.

The tension at the Poles is real. In 2023, the Navy dispatched four destroyers to watch 11 Russian and Chinese vessels operate off Alaska. The U.S. destroyers—USS John McCain, USS Benfold, USS John Finn and the USS Chung-Hoon—were likely pulled from other missions, arriving from every corner of the Pacific to monitor the encroaching and semi-hostile fleet.

This was not a trivial sortie. The distances are so vast that just getting to Alaska is tough. One of the four U.S. destroyers sent north was from San Diego, and a round-trip sortie from San Diego to the Bering Sea is a rough, often ship-breaking trip of over 4,000 miles.

Once the warships arrive on station, keeping America’s front-line destroyers in Alaskan waters poses an even tougher challenge.

As robust as America’s surface combatants are, America’s missile-loaded greyhounds don’t really like heavy weather. In 2007, according to the Navy Times, “more than a dozen Arleigh Burke-class destroyers” suffered “significant structural damage in rough seas because designers didn’t account for the effect of jarring “bow slams” on the ship’s hulls.” While the damage didn’t immediately compromise the damaged vessel’s war-fighting capabilities, the enhanced wear and tear threatened to reduce the life of the hull. And, with the Navy wanting to eke a maximum possible service life out of the destroyer fleet, accountant-admirals at the Navy will be loath to send their precious destroyers into the rough waters of the Bering Sea on a regular basis.

For the U.S. Navy, Alaska operations are a drag on overall readiness. Navy leaders, still struggling to get 75 ships of their 296-ship fleet “mission capable” and ready to deploy, simply cannot meet increased Polar presence demands. But with better shore facilities—and the promise of new, ice-ready, and potentially militarized Navy surveillance craft and non-militarized Coast Guard icebreakers on the way—America will be better positioned to handle future presence demands in Alaskan waters as well as to the south, off the increasingly contested continent of Antarctica.

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Alaska

Musician performs under the aurora in Nenana — without gloves, in 17 degrees

Published

4 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Musician performs under the aurora in Nenana — without gloves, in 17 degrees

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A musician with Alaska Native roots recorded an hour-long live set in Interior Alaska beneath the aurora.

Chastity Ashley, a drummer, vocalist and DJ who performs under the name Neon Pony, celebrated a year since she traveled to Nenana to record a live music set beneath the northern lights for her series Beats and Hidden Retreats.

Ashley, who has Indigenous roots in New Mexico, said she was drawn to Alaska in part because of the role drums play in Alaska Native culture. A handmade Alaskan hand drum, brought to her by a man from just outside Anchorage, was incorporated into the performance in February 2025.

Recording in the cold

The team spent eight days in Nenana waiting for the aurora to appear. Ashley said the lights did not come out until around 4 a.m., and she performed a continuous, uninterrupted hour-long set in 17-degree weather without gloves.

“It was freezing. I couldn’t wear gloves because I’m actually playing, yeah, hand drums and holding drumsticks. And there was ice underneath my feet,” Ashley said.

“So, I had to really utilize my balance and my willpower and my ability to just really immerse in the music and let go and make it about the celebration of what I was doing as opposed to worrying about all the other elements or what could go wrong.”

She said she performed in a leotard to allow full range of motion while drumming, DJing and singing.

Filming on Nenana tribal land

Ashley said she did not initially know the filming location was on indigenous land. After local authorities told her the decision was not theirs to make, she contacted the Nenana tribe directly for permission.

“I went into it kind of starting to tell them who I was and that I too was a part of a native background,” Ashley said. “And they just did not even care. They’re like, listen, we’re about to have a party for one of our friends here. Go and do what you like.”

Ashley said the tribe gave her full permission to film on the reservation, and that the aurora footage seen in the episode was captured there.

Seeing the aurora for the first time

Ashley said the Nenana performance marked her first time seeing the northern lights in person.

“It felt as if I were awake in a dream,” she said. “It really doesn’t seem real.”

She said she felt humbled and blessed to perform beneath the aurora and to celebrate its beauty and grandeur through her music.

“I feel incredibly humbled and blessed that not only did I get to take part in seeing something like that, but to play underneath it and celebrate its beauty and its grandeur.”

The Alaska episode is the second installment of Beats and Hidden Retreats, which is available on YouTube at @NeonPony. Ashley said two additional episodes are in production and she hopes to make it back up to Alaska in the future.

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Alaska

Over $150K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

Published

16 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Over 0K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – An Alaska drug task force seized roughly $162,000 worth of controlled substances during an operation in Juneau Thursday, according to the Juneau Police Department.

Around 3 p.m. Thursday, investigators with the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs (SEACAD) approached 50-year-old Juneau resident Jermiah Pond in the Nugget Mall parking lot while he was sitting in his car, according to JPD.

A probation search of the car revealed a container holding about 7.3 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for methamphetamine, as well as about 1.21 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for fentanyl.

As part of the investigation, investigators executed a search warrant at Pond’s residence, during which they found about 46.63 gross grams of ketamine, 293.56 gross grams of fentanyl, 25.84 gross grams of methamphetamine and 25.5 gross grams of MDMA.

In all, it amounted to just less than a pound of drugs worth $162,500.

Investigators also seized $102,640 in cash and multiple recreational vehicles believed to be associated with the investigation.

Pond was lodged on charges of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, two counts of third-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, five counts of fourth-degree misconduct involving a substance and an outstanding felony probation warrant.

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Alaska

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

Published

1 day ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

SAND POINT, Alaska (KTUU) – A teenage boy who was last seen Monday when the canoe he was in tipped over has been found by a dive team in a lake near Sand Point, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Alaska’s News Source confirmed with the person, who is close to the search efforts, that the dive team found 15-year-old Kaipo Kaminanga deceased Thursday in Red Cove Lake, located a short drive from the town of Sand Point on the Aleutian Island chain.

Kaminanga was last seen canoeing with three other friends on Monday when the boat tipped over.

A search and rescue operation ensued shortly after.

Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team posted on Facebook Thursday night that they were able to “locate and recover” Kaminanga at around 5 p.m. Thursday.

“We are glad we could bring closure to his family, friends and community,” the post said.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more details become available.

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