[chico20854]

49TH ALASKA BRIGADE - This unit was originally a MP brigade composed of law enforcement officers and military veterans. With its headquarters in Wasilla and battalions in Fairbanks and Anchorage, the 500-odd members of this unit were called into state active duty with the Soviet invasion of Norway in November 1996. Following a brief period mobilizing, the unit was tasked to protect the Alaska Pipeline from Soviet Spetsnaz raids as well as guarding the Alaska Railroad, maintaining checkpoints on the Alaska and Dalton Highways, and guarding port facilities in Anchorage, Juneau and Valdez. Unlike most state defense forces, the 49th was armed with M-14 rifles, M-79 grenade launchers and M-60 machineguns from federal stocks, reflecting the greater conventional threat faced by the Alaska unit compared to most other states. By the summer of 1997 militiamen of the brigade were engaged in nearly weekly small-scale firefights with Soviet infiltrators that had slipped into the massive state past the defending Army units. When the Red Army crossed into the state in force the unit was brought under federal control and placed under command of X Corps, ordered to concentrate in the Mat-Su Valley if possible (otherwise, militiamen were to attach themselves to the nearest military unit). At that time the unit absorbed 150 additional recruits, students at a “boot-camp” style program for troubled teens, who were assigned to squads as privates. The brigade, lacking weapons heavier than M-60 machineguns, was assigned rear area security roles only. Its most significant achievement was in evacuating most of the population of Fairbanks in advance of the Soviets, passing the civilians through Fort Wainwright without serious incident and onward to the Canadian border, in addition to patrolling the cantonment areas of Fort Wainwright and Eilelson Air Force Base throughout the long winter of 1997-1998. When X Corps launched its counterattack in the spring of 1998, the brigade advanced behind X Corps’ screen and assumed responsibility for the city of Fairbanks as well as restoring services along the Mat-Su Valley. In these duties the unit was hampered by the depopulation of the areas as well as the general lack of resources in the year after the nuclear exchange. It remained in that area for the remainder of the war.
Subordination: X Corps
Current Location: Fairbanks, AK
Manpower: 200