Friday, February 28, 2014
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
COMMUNITY GUIDE
11
Interior military bases provide training, missile silos Fort Wainwright
The largest Interior military base in terms of personnel, Fort Wainwright is home to some 7,700 soldiers, with plans to increase by about 300 by the end of 2014. According to the post’s official Army history, Fort Wainwright was originally known as Ladd Field. The first soldiers, a 50-man detachment from the Army Air Corps, arrived in April 1940. Ladd Field took on a bigger role in World War II as a transfer point for the Lend Lease Program, which brought more than 8,000 military aircraft to Fairbanks where pilots from the Soviet Union flew the planes across the Bering Sea to the battle front with Germany. The base was re-named Fort Wainwright in 1965. It’s named after World War II general Jonathan M. Wainwright. The largest unit today is the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, a more-than-4,000-soldierstrong unit that operates eight-wheeled Stryker vehicles. The unit deployed three times to Iraq and Afghanistan under the 1/25 flag and under its previous name, the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.
GROWTH
Continued from 4 the 1970s trans-Alaska oil pipeline construction boom and a military expansion in the 2000s. Population changes in Fairbanks follow economic forces and in Fairbanks are driven by the military, tourism, mining and state spending (which is tied to oil production), said Jerry McBeath, a political science professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Population ramped up in the early ’70s for the building of the pipeline, then decreased after it was complet-
Col. Kevin Norgaard of the U.S. Army points to a picture of one of the exposed silos during the construction phase of the Ground-Based Missile Defense Site at Fort Greely. news-miner file photo Fort Wainwright also is home to part of the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, a unit that flies CH-47 Chinooks, UH-50 Black Hawks and OH-58 Kiowa Warriors. Bassett Army Community Hospital, the main military medical facility in the Interior, is on Fort Wainwright.
Eielson Air Force Base
Eielson Air Force Base outside North Pole, is home to 2,500 airmen and more than 340 guardsman and reservists, according to the base’s Air Force profile.
Eielson AFB was originally known as Mile 26 Airfield. The first aircraft landed there in 1944, and much of the base was constructed in the early 1940s and late 1950s. The base has held numerous aircraft over the years including P-51, C-47, WB-29, KC-97, F-102, OA-10 and A-10. Today the base’s main active duty force is the 18th Aggressor squadron, a group of 21 F-16 fighters that play the role of enemy fighters in war games. It also is used by the Air National Guard 168th Air Refueling Group, which uses KC-135s. Eielson is a host base for Red Flag Alaska, an international training exercise usually held three times per year. At 14,507 feet (2.7 miles), Eielson has the second longest runway in North America.
Fort Greely
Fort Greely is a former infantry base that’s been reborn as a missile defense base in the past 10 years. It employs 1,031 people including civilians and contractors, according to the base’s official profile. It is home to 1,622 people. BASES » 14
TANANA VALLEY COMMUNITY HEALTH FAIRS
ed. It took a few years for oil revenue to trigger increased state spending, but that likely caused the population to rebound in the early 1980s. A drop in oil prices to less than $10 per barrel in 1987 and 1988 likely caused people to leave the area as the economy constricted. Another dip in 2002 is likely related to that year’s budget crisis, McBeath said. In addition to growing, the Fairbanks North Star Borough’s population has aged. This is likely a result of the aging Baby Boomer generation and expanding health care resources.
SPRING 2014
Free health screenings Free health education Low cost bloods tests Chemistry/Hematology . . . . . . . . . . $45 (panels 27 different tests Fast for 10-12 hrs. prior) Thyroid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $30 Prostate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25 Vitamin D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $50 A1c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25 Blood Typing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $20
Contact the staff writer Sam Friedman at 459-7545.
*Must be 18 to have blood drawn. Please drink lots of water for all blood draws. Fasting is only required for the $45 chemistry panel. Diabetics should not fast and all prescription medications should be taken as normal. Please bring a stamp for your results.
Come join us, Visit with exhibitors, Chat with a nurse,
Take charge of your Health! For more information please call
907-374-6853 17502052 2-28-14
Or visit us at
alaskahealthfair.org
Nenana • March 22 8 am - noon James A. Coghill Civic Center Salcha • April 5 8 am - noon Salcha Elementary School Healy Tri-Valley • April 12 9 am - 1 pm Tri Valley School, Healy Fort Yukon • April 19 9 am - noon Addie Shewfelt Building, Ft. Yukon Fairbanks • April 26 7 am - 2 pm Alaskaland Pioneer Park Civic Center Central • May 17 8 am - 11 am Central Museum For Spring event details, look under the Health Fair Schedule Tab on www.alaskahealthfair.org