Commander of the Alaskan National Guard(Palin briefed on highly classified military issues??)

NRO ^

[maccaca]

Hey Jonah,

Before you dismiss that Commander of the Alaska National Guard stuff. This came from a reader who plays the game and it jibes with my knowledge.

Alaska is the first line of defense in our missile interceptor defense system. The 49th Missile Defense Battalion of the Alaska National Guard is the unit that protects the entire nation from ballistic missile attacks. It’s on permanent active duty, unlike other Guard units.

As governor of Alaska, Palin is briefed on highly classified military issues, homeland security, and counterterrorism. Her exposure to classified material may rival even Biden's.

She's also the commander in chief of the Alaska State Defense Force (ASDF), a federally recognized militia incorporated into Homeland Security's counterterrorism plans.

Palin is privy to military and intelligence secrets that are vital to the entire country's defense. Given Alaska's proximity to Russia, she may have security clearances we don't even know about.

According to the Washington Post, she first met with McCain in February, but nobody ever found out. This is a woman used to keeping secrets.

She can be entrusted with our national security, because she already is.

[SE Mom]

Here are some links that illustrate the importance Alaska plays in the security of our country- beginning with the link Jonah mentioned in his piece on NRO.

pppsssttt... the Governor of Alaska is Sarah Palin. Her security clearance is certainly higher than Obama’s.

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2008/08/commanding-the.html

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=2483

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=47177

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/arng-ak.htm

[fightinJAG]

There’s another thread up today about Palin and Israel. It’s a beautiful thing.

[IreneE]

Is that “bear” a prop plane?

Great photo.

There’s a youtube video of Palin addressing an international committee and I think she mentions she is pregnant on it... or just had the baby.

[fightinJAG]

There are some great pics somewhere around here of Palin visiting the ANG troops in Kuwait.

Also the U.S. Army does almost all of its service-wide artic training in Alaska. There’s a reason for that besides snow.

[papasmurf]

Excellent find, thanks.

[Eye of Unk]

At the outbreak of World War II there were fewer than 300 soldiers in Alaska, at Chilkoot Barracks near Haines. There was no naval base to protect a coastline longer than that of the entire United States. In 1939 and 1940, Congressional appropriations finally provided for naval stations at Dutch Harbor, Sitka and Kodiak; for Fort Richardson and its air base, Elmendorf Field, at Anchorage, and for an aircraft cold weather testing station (later Ladd Field) at Fairbanks. Preparations came too late. Japanese forces bombed Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians in June, 1942, and occupied Kiska and Attu without opposition. Alaska at War: World War II and the Aleutian Campaign The few Aleut residents were interned in Japan. The U.S. removed the remaining inhabitants of the Aleutians west of Umiak Island to temporary camps in southeast Alaska, where many died under sub-standard living conditions. The others were returned after the war to homes that had often been looted and vandalized. American troops re-took Attu in May, 1943, and Kiska in August. Later the Aleutians were used as a base for air raids on Japan. A unique aspect of the war was the ferrying of 7,926 American aircraft to the Russian front in Europe, via Great Falls, Montana, Fairbanks, Nome, and Siberia.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Is that an C130BL?

Didn’t know the AK ANG ever operated them.

[Eye of Unk]

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/tu-95.htm

The Tu-95 ‘Bear’ first flew in 1954 and entered service little more than a year later. It is a classic post-war aircraft design, with jet-type performance provided by four extremely powerful turboprops, each driving massive contra-rotating propellers and mounted on swept flying surfaces. Powered by four turboprop engines, driving contra-rotating four-blade propellers 18 ft across, the Bear is one of the world’s noisiest military aircraft. ‘Bears’ were initially operated by Long Range Aviation, which was the Soviet strategic air force. The Bear was also use by the Soviet Navy as a long range maritime reconnaissance and ASW aircraft. The successor states of the Soviet Union still operate about 125 Bears in strategic roles. The original ‘Bear-A’ is a strategic Bomber, with a 20 ton payload of free-fall weapons. ‘Bear-Bs’ and ‘Bear-Gs’ are missile carriers, while the latest ‘Bear-H’ is a dedicated long-range cruise missile carriers, armed with 10 AS-15 ‘Kent’ air launched cruise missiles.

[maggief]

Being prepared - Test to see how emergency services react to imaginary crises is tied to national exercise NORTHERN EDGE A GAME THAT’S TAKEN VERY SERIOUSLY

Anchorage Daily News (AK) - May 1, 2007

Author: DON HUNTER Anchorage Daily News ; Staff

EXCERPT

LOCAL COMMUNITIES

Many if not most of the scenarios ahead will hit first and hardest at local communities. City police and firefighters will be the first on the scene, as they almost always are. If the mayor of Juneau or Fairbanks finds explosions taking out buildings downtown, let’s say, and realizes his town’s capabilities are overmatched, Gov. Sarah Palin ‘s people will get a call. It’ll be Palin ‘s job to direct Alaska State Troopers or other agencies to help, and to decide if it’s time to call Washington, D.C.

Every task won’t be deciding how to respond to a collapsing building. A large part of these exercises will be figuring out how to stop someone from blowing the thing up, according to John Madden, director of Alaska’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.

“We decided early on ... that this exercise is focused on sharing information, deterring a threat, and apprehending (plotters),” Madden said in his office in the Alaska National Guard Armory on Fort Richardson.

[roaddog727]

Likely she has SCI or perhaps even codeword.

What does Biden have? Secret at best? I personally would not trust a DEM to have anything beyond Secret (visions of Sandy Burgler).

[Cheetahcat]

Thanks for posting this!

[Twinkie]

Obama and Biden are going to step in it big time when they go down this “put down” road with her.

Obama’s foreign policy seems to have been the photo-ops a couple of weeks ago with all the world leaders he posed with. The commercials with him and the various world leaders looking at him with the puzzled “what’s he doing here” look on their faces will sort of be just desserts. Of course, Elinor Clift thinks that’s real foreign policy experience.

[Eye of Unk]

http://www.176wg.ang.af.mil/

I think they are using mostly the H versions.

I rarely see the c 130 flying over my house anymore, I think its the flight pattern for when they return to land, they do that between 5-8pm every day, now its the c17, usually its a flight of 4.

[mylife]

She can be entrusted with our national security, because she already is.

Mr Obama however couldn't get a job as a GS-5 with his background.

[GonzoGOP]

"Is that “bear” a prop plane?"

Turboprop. It is actually fast for a turboprop, but still much slower than a jet. In compensation the engines are much more fuel efficient than jet engines. Back in the 50's when these were designed, the Soviets were behind us in mid air refueling technology. So they built a bomber that could fly to any target in the US from Russia and back without refueling.

This has proved a great benefit now that the TU-95s are used for maritime surveillance as they can cover an enormous amount of territory. They also can carry cruise missiles when used to attack defended targets. And the Soviet/Russian missiles are much larger than ours, some of them were the size of a fighter aircraft.

[OldNavyVet]

Thank you for the map in your post. Looking at it, I see slavery and human misery -- just across the Bering Strait, from freedom and human opportunity in the US Stare of Alaska.

Look first at the map and spot the Kolyma river -- not too far from the Bering Strait, and know that the Russian Gulag system of slavery and misery is graphicaly described in the Preface to Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago" -- wich begins with these three paragraphs ...

"In 1949 some friends and I came upon a noteworthy news item in Nature, a magazine of the Academy of sciences. It reported in tiny type that in the course of excavations on the Kolyma River a subterranean ice lens had been discovered which was actually a frozen stream -- and in it were found frozen specimens of prehistoric fauna some tens of thousands of years old. Whether fish or salamander, these were reported in so fresh a state, the correspondent reported, that those present broke open the ice encasing the specimens and devoured them with relish on the spot.

The magazine no doubt astonished its small audience with the news of how successuflly the flesh of fish could be kept fresh in a frozen state. But few, indeed, among its readers were able to decipher the genuine and heroic meaning of this incautious report.

As for us, however -- we understood instantly. We could picture the entire scene right down to the smallest details: how those present broke up the ice in frenzied haste; how, flouting the higher claims of ichthyology and elbowing each other to be first, they tore off chunks of the prehistoric flesh and hauled them over to the bonfire to thaw them out and bolt them down."

[JessieHelmsJr]

ping

[IreneE]

Cool info thanks!

[mylife]

A stark reminder of life under the USSR

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Are the ones you see ski equipped? It’s easy to tell because the landing gear doesn’t retract all the way.

I thought the only people operating ski equipped, LC130H Hercs were the NY ANG. They’re used to support scientists in Antarctica.

I know, C130s are getting more and more rare. I’m trying to learn to love the C17 but in an earlier life I worked for a Lockheed sub and prepared manuals for C130s and P3s. I loved the Hercs. There was a time when I think I knew every Herc in US inventory by tail number and could quote you their model and AFC history.