Air National Guard changes in Alaska draw critcism

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Kristin Paniptchuk’s water broke on Christmas Eve at her home in the western Alaska Inupiat village of Shaktoolik, and then she began to bleed profusely.

The local clinic in the village of 200 people on the Bering Sea couldn’t stop the bleeding or the contractions brought on by a baby not due for another two months. With winds grounding an air ambulance, medical staff called on the Alaska Air National Guard. Five days after a military helicopter and then a cargo plane whisked Paniptchuk to an Anchorage hospital, she delivered her now-toddler daughter.

“I’m just really thankful that they were able to come and get me,” she said. “Who knows what would have happened if they didn’t?”

The Alaska Air National Guard conducted 159 such missions last year in largely roadless Alaska.

Now, such rescues could be curtailed as personnel changes take a toll in Alaska, Guard leaders and members say.

A nationwide move to balance the number of the top-earning positions among the Air National Guard means the Guard will convert many of Alaska’s highly paid Active Guard and Reserve members — the equivalent of full-time active-duty military — to dual status tech positions, a classification with lower wages, less appealing benefits and different duties. Many say they will quit instead of accept the changes.

The transition, leaders say, could cut the number of the Alaska Guard’s medical rescue missions to about 50 a year and affect national security work in the state just across the Bering Strait from Russia.