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By Jeff [email protected]
The U.S. Army plans to bring 367 additional soldiers to Fort Wainwright by the end of 2014, bucking a larger plan to significantly downsize the ser-vice.
The soldiers will mostly be part of a new engineer battalion within the 1st Stryker Bridage Team, 25th Infantry Division. The 70th Engineer Battal-ion should be activated in October, according to the Army.
The additions to Fort Wainwright aren’t unexpected — the Army had previously said in June that it would boost local troop levels but didn’t provide specific details. The summer announcement said 552 more person-nel would shift to Fort Wainwright, but that figure changed as the plan
was refined, Lt. Col. Alan Brown said.Brown, an Army Alaska spokes-
man, said the increase in troops defies a national trend. The Army plans to reduce its forces by 80,000 soldiers during the next few years, part of a drawdown targeted in the Budget Control Act of 2011.
“That’s significant for Alaska,” Brown said. “It shows the Army understands the strategic importance of Alaska for its long-term strategy.”
A laska won’ t be comple te ly unscathed by the changes. Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, located near Anchorage, will lose 780 soldiers through the elimination of a military police battalion, brigade troops bat-talion and engineer battalion, among other moves.
75 cents THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2014 newsminer.com
T H E V O I C E O F I N T E R I O R A L A S K A S I N C E 1 9 0 3
SOURDOUGH JACK:
“Does this mean my breakfast sausage is a health food now?”
The weather.Today will be cloudy with a chance of snow.
High today ................0Low tonight ........... -13
WEATHER » A9
GOODMORNING
Classified » B8 | Comics » B7 | Dear Abby » B6 | Markets » A8 | Nation » A7 | Obituaries » A5 | Opinion » A6 | Weather » A9INSIDE
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Alaska adopts new regulations to further define ‘medically necessary’ abortions. » A4Inside Today
SLIMMING DOWNNation’s top food companies cut four times as many calories as pledged.
NATIONPage A7
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Aurora forecast.Auroral activity will be high. Weather per-mitting, highly active displays will be visible overhead from Barrow to Bethel, Dillingham and Ketchikan.
This information is provid-ed by aurora forecasters at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
NANOOK EXCELSAlaska shooter Ryan Anderson qualifies for World Cup USA.
SPORTSPage B1
COMEBACKAl-Qaida-linked group increases violence in Mideast.
WORLDPage B5
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SCHOOL DISCIPLINEGovernment says districts need to abandon overly zealous policies.
NATIONPage A7
Participants in the 1-mile memorial walk in honor of Native educator Bernice Joseph stretch before the start Wednesday evening at the Carlson Center. From left are the Rev. Helen Peters, Miranda Wright, Edith Nicholas and her daughter Kristy Malamute. Organizer Kathleen Meckel took donations in exchange for Team Bernice T-shirts to honor Joseph’s passion for running. Any money collected will be donated to the Doyon Foundation in Joseph’s name. SAM HARREL/NEWS-MINER
IN HER HONOR
Army releases plan to boost area force by 367
By Mark ThiessenASSOCIATED PRESS
ANCHORAGE — A citizens’ group hoping to make Alaska the third state in the nation to legalize recreational use of marijuana took a step closer
Wednesday, submitting more than 46,000 signatures to the state election office.
If enough signatures are verified — they need about 30,000 qualified signatures — the question of whether to make pot legal in the nation’s
northernmost state will go before voters in the Aug. 19 primary. Signatures must come from at least 7 percent of voters in at least 30 House districts.
Fort Wainwright to get more soldiers
Stryker vehicles sit in a storage yard at the Port of Anchorage in Anchorage in 2007 after returning from Iraq. The U.S. Army has announced that an additional 367 soldiers will be added to Fort Wainwright, mostly as part of the 1-25 Stryker Brigade Combat Team. AP PHOTO/AL GRILLOARMY » A10
Hydronic heater regulation is growing focus for air advocatesBy Matt [email protected]
The state and federal government both are working on tighter limits on newly man-ufactured wood stoves, pellet heaters and hydronic heaters, but local clean air advo-cates say it’s disappointing that the last one is on the list at all.
Outdoor hydronic heaters, also known as wood boilers, have been a controversial heating source in the Fairbanks North Star Borough that clean-air advocates say are the cause of more than their fair share of winter-time air pollution.
“We believe that the fact that they’re allow-ing outdoor wood boilers at all is based on erroneous information,” said Patrice Lee, the
co-coordinator for Citizens for Clean Air. “They just need to go.”
Lee, as well as other clean air advocates throughout the country, have argued against hydronic heaters, saying the testing for pop-ular units isn’t accurate and that they put out far more pollution than manufacturers and retailers claim.
Conclusive information on the cleanliness or efficiency of the heaters is hard to come by because the devices aren’t as closely reviewed by the Environmental Protection Agency as are wood stoves, which can earn EPA-certi-fication. Hydronic heaters are only eligible to become qualified through a voluntary program.
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New law helps vets get creditsBy Weston [email protected]
A new Alaska law that took effect with the new year should help veterans and cur-rent service members receive college credit for training they’ve already received.
The Legislature passed the law, known as the military training credit bill, during its last session. It sailed through both the Senate and House.
The goal of the law is to ensure military service mem-bers in Alaska are given the opportunity to transfer their military training to post-sec-ondary education as well as other certifications. It requires the University of Alaska, state Division of Profession-al Licensing and vocational facilities like technical schools to review and consider service members’ military training for transfer credit.
More than half the state’s legislators signed on to direct-ly support the bill, filed by Rep. Dan Saddler, R-Ea-
gle River, and it received 21 co-sponsors in the House. Its companion bill in the Senate received 15 co-sponsors. Both passed without a single oppos-ing vote.
The Department of Defense creates a document called a “joint services transcript” for service members of each mil-itary branch that tracks their training. An organization called the American Coun-cil on Education reviews the training, in addition to its review of training provided in private industries, and rec-ommends a certain number of university credit hours, according to Cameron Carl-son, the director of the Home-land Security and Emergency Management program at Uni-versity of Alaska Fairbanks.
Carlson, a military veteran himself, said his own mili-tary training qualified him for university credit. After enlisting in the U.S. Army, he trained as a combat medic.
CREDITS » A10
Group takes next step to legalize pot
MARIJUANA » A10
