Alaskan Scouts/ARNG
In 1948 the Alaskan units became part of the Army National Guard system with the scout battalions designated the 297th Infantry. In its present organization there are five scout battalions and a group headquarters. The 1st, 2d, and 3d Battalions are "pure" scout units headquartered in Nome, Bethel, and Kotzebue, respectively. Each of these units is made up of a number of scout companies scattered over a geo graphic area equal in size to several of the lower 48 states. The basic scout unit is the five-man scout team consisting of a team leader, a radio telephone operator, and three scouts or observers. Its mis sions are primarily reconnaissance oriented rather than combat oriented. For special operations such as am bushes, raids, or direct combat ac tion, two or more scout teams are organized as a patrol to accomplish the mission. The teams report their observations to their respective company head quarters, which pass the intelligence information to the battalions. From the battalions, the information is passed to the group headquarters and then to the Army Force Commander in Alaska, whose headquarters then sends it to other units within the state. Each scout company has from 10 to 20 teams, depending upon the population in the company area. These scout companies are also unique in that they have female soldiers who are authorized to perform medical, supply, administrative, and communication activities but not ac tive combat missions. The 4th Scout Battalion, located in Juneau and along the southeast Alaska panhandle, is organized some what differently. It is similar to a light infantry unit in that it has light crew-served weapons such as M60 machineguns and 81mm mortars. The unit also has six LCM8 landing craft. The 5th Scout Battalion, in An chorage and Fairbanks, is a mechan ized unit and has both Ml 13 and M577 armored vehicles. This unit has more ground mobility than its sister units and heavier firepower with its .50 caliber machineguns and 107mm mortars. It can be considered a cross between an armored cavalry and a mechanized infantry unit and is responsible for covering the state's in terior road network and for helping to defend the various military in stallations in the interior. The group headquarters company has a company headquarters, a group headquarters, a communication pla toon, an airborne detachment (to per form long range reconnaissance patrols and pathfinder missions), and an aviation detachment (with 18 UH-1 and 4 CH-54 aircraft). Each battalion has an aviation section with two UH-1 and one UV-18 Twin Otter fixed-wing aircraft, and the 4th and 5th Battalions also have combat engineer platoons. Because of their scattered locations and specialized missions, these scouts have to rely on aerial resupply or live off the land.
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