U.S. Coast Guard renames Anchorage-based sector to reflect wider Alaska mission

A Kodiak-based Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter is landed on the tundra northwestern Alaska tundra on July 16, 2017, while conducting training during that year's Operation Arctic Shield. The name of the Coast Guard's Anchorage-headquartered sector now reflects the duties in the Arctic and across Western Alaska. (Photo by Lt. Brian Dykens/U.S. Coast Guard)

The U.S. Coast Guard Alaska sector previously named for the state’s largest city now has a new name: Sector Western Alaska and U.S. Arctic.

While the sector remains located in Anchorage, with a headquarters at the Alaska National Guard Armory on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, the new name reflects the increasing responsibilities in Arctic and near-Arctic waters that are becoming more trafficked as sea ice diminishes, the Coast Guard said. Additionally, the sector serves Interior Alaska.

The change was made in April, but Coast Guard officials last week issued a statement reminding the public of the reason for it.

Capt. Christopher Culpepper, commander of Sector Western Alaska and U. S. Arctic, said in a July 17 statement that the sector carries out Coast Guard missions throughout the state, including the Aleutian Islands, the North Slope, the Interior, and at the borders with Russia and Canada.

“By updating the name, the Coast Guard clarifies that the unit serves a broader public beyond the Anchorage bowl and the change better aligns with the Captain of the Port zone as outlined in the Code of Federal Regulations,” he said in the statement.

That area of responsibility is the largest geographically of all U.S. Coast Guard sectors.

Increased ship traffic in Arctic and near-Arctic waters includes military vessels. Earlier this month, the Coast Guard encountered four Chinese naval vessels that were transiting waters near the Aleutian Islands. Those waters are international, but within the U.S. exclusive economic zone.

A key part of the Coast Guard’s Arctic work is its annual Operation Arctic Shield , in which crews are posted and ships and aircraft deployed in the Arctic region from midsummer through the end of October. The seasonal Coast Guard Arctic base is usually Kotzebue.

In Operation Arctic Shield, Coast Guard members, ships and aircraft are available for search-and-rescue missions. In past years, the Kotzebue-stationed crews have conducted several such missions. One example was the rescue last September of a hunter reported missing near the Chukchi Sea community of Wales.

Crews working in Operation Arctic Shield also provide services in communities like northern and Western Alaska, including small villages. Those services include boating safety education and, at times, safety inspections of vessels and inspections of fuel tanks and other facilities that might pose environmental problems. General presence in the northern Bering Sea and north of the Bering Strait adds to what Coast Guard calls “domain awareness,” and helps build community relationships, including with tribal governments .

Annual Coast Guard Arctic operations are also highlighted by the research cruises conducted by the cutter Healy , one of only two polar-class icebreakers in the fleet.

The Sector Western Alaska and U.S. Arctic operations are in line with the Coast Guard’s national Arctic strategy , released in 2019, and its implementation plan, released last year.

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