Patrolling the Skies over Alaska

I'm currently in Alaska, where I've been spending time with some unsung heroes - the men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard and the Alaska Air National Guard.

Two days ago I had the privilege of accompanying a crew of Coast Guardsmen on a high-tech helicopter patrol over Kodiak Island. The rescue pilots spend lots of time responding to emergencies in the area, since some of the communities around them are so remote that travel to medical facilities would normally be measured in days.

But with these pilots willing to go at a moment's notice in all kinds of weather, hundreds of lives are saved each year.

Further north, the 212th Rescue Squadron is an air guard unit of pilots and para-rescuemen who perform similar functions in Alaska's rugged interior. Over the weekend, this team was busy working one of more than 100 real-world missions they do each year when a small plane went down in bad weather 150 miles from Anchorage.

Many of these "PJ's" are veterans of multiple combat deployments in the Global War on Terror. Their experience saving the lives of their brother soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan makes them perfectly prepared to respond to even the most grisly and dangerous rescues in the last frontier.

In Alaska, the weather is their worst enemy, but at least here, nobody is shooting at them.

Stay tuned for some great video from our embeds here in Alaska.