Walker should revive state defense force

In a letter dated 28 July, 2015, BG Laurie Hummel, Adjutant General of the Alaska National Guard summed up Alaska’s military situation as “National strategy and state budgets are conspiring to preclude revitalization of the Guard as we previously knew it, so we are going to have to be creative.”

During Sarah Palin’s very limited tenure as governor, something happened that is still puzzling, especially during a time of war. Then Gov. Sarah Palin allowed the Alaska State Defense Force (ASDF) to be disarmed.

Gov. Sean Parnell, Sarah’s successor, during his six years in office acted to further diminish the Alaska State Defense Force by relegating it to the status of a State Military Reserve without a mission.

No jurisdiction would disarm their law enforcement, as the weapons carried are for the protection of the police officer.

An unarmed military force is a paradox.

Yet, in the case of the ASDF, former Gov. Palin and Gov. Parnell not only disarmed a part of the organized militia, but acted to deny them the right of self-defense in the face of any potential threat.

The ASDF volunteer is the current iteration of the historic Minuteman of the Great American Revolution: the ASDF volunteer provides themselves, their equipment, arms, training, and transport for the good of the State at no cost to the State until called up to State Active Duty. The only cost to the State until SAD was $26,000-$33,000 provided yearly by the DMVA for administration of the ASDF. When called to State Active Duty, the pay of the ASDF volunteer is approximately $185/day per individual, regardless of rank, armed or not.

During the recent fires near Willow and Kenai, Alaska State Troopers were manning checkpoints to prevent looting and for the public safety. On the surface, one would think that this is a good use of our State Troopers. Until one considers that such duty interfered with, and limited the number of available Troopers to respond to crime and traffic accidents. The cost to the State for each Trooper and car is at least $150 per hour.

In 2001, just after 9-11, then Governor Tony Knowles ordered the Alaska State Defense Force armed, because unarmed troops were just more victims waiting to happen. However, Knowles, was a combat veteran. Palin and Parnell were not and neither were their Adjutant Generals.

Until late 2008, the ASDF had a primary mission as an armed State Military Police Constabulary pursuant to AS 26.05.070. For eight years, the ASDF performed in that capacity without incident. In 2006, the ASDF was called to State Active Duty (SAD) 3 times–2 floods and a fire at Hooper Bay, because the Alaska Army National Guard was fully committed to the war mission. The mission of the ASDF as a State of Alaska armed Military Police Constabulary was to keep the Alaska State Troopers and local law enforcement performing their main mission of public safety.

Since 2011, the ASDF has been given limited opportunities in an unarmed, administrative capacity to support the Alaska Army National Guard during exercises and to answer phones in phone banks. There is nothing wrong using the ASDF in this manner, until one considers the Troopers with their expensive training, equipment, and patrol cars relegated to a fixed checkpoint during a fire response and unavailable for accident or crime response. Manning checkpoints for safety and security, prior to Governor Sarah Palin, was the mission most often assigned to the ASDF.

Today, as implied by the quote from BG Hummel, our Army and Air National Guard assets are subject to the ongoing reduction in force imposed by the Obama Administration. Recently, 2,600 troops were cut from federal Army forces in Alaska.

The ASDF is capable of additional missions to support the Army National Guard and Alaskans. The ASDF can be expanded into Bush Alaska, thereby providing an armed State Military Police Constabulary ‘back-up’ for the village VPSO and village police during times of duress. Although, expanding the role of the ASDF into the Bush would not make up for lost National Guard money, the occasional State Active Duty missions would provide additional money for some families during those times. Further, the ASDF would help keep the military tradition of Bush Alaska alive until the economy improves.

Hopefully, the Walker Administration will find its way to restore the ASDF as an armed State Military Police Constabulary in order to keep Alaskans safe during periods of emergency in the face of diminishing state and federal resources.

Larry Wood is a Palmer area businessman.