United States Army Alaska

United States Army Alaska
United States Army Alaska
Active	1994 – present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Army
Part of	United States Army Pacific
Garrison/HQ	Fort Richardson
Nickname(s)	America's Arctic Warriors (Special Designation)
Commanders
Current Commander	Major General Bryan R. Owens
Command Sergeant Major	Command Sergeant Major Michael A. Ferrusi
Insignia
Distinctive Unit Insignia

United States Army Alaska (USARAK or "America's Arctic Warriors") is a military command of the United States Army located in the U.S. state of Alaska. A subordinate command of the United States Army Pacific, USARAK is the ground element of the Alaskan Command. USARAK is headquartered at Fort Richardson and commanded by a major general.

The U.S. Army's important history in the Great Land began at the very moment Alaska became American soil on October 18, 1867. Elements of the 9th Infantry were on hand as the Russian Golden Eagle was lowered and the Stars and Stripes were raised in Sitka, which then became headquarters for the Alaska Military District.

Charged with maintaining law and order in the new territory, U.S. Army soldiers helped quell uprisings and built new forts at Wrangell, St. Paul Canal, Kodiak Island, and on the Kenai Peninsula. They also enforced regulations regarding the killing of fur seals, whose population had been severely depleted during the Russian reign.

The Army relinquished control of Alaska to the U.S. Treasury Department in 1877, but did not entirely leave the territory. The Signal Corps operated weather stations, and a number of officers led small geographic explorations to learn more about the territory. These expeditions into various parts of Alaska continued through the turn of the 20th Century, as mapmaking and road and bridge building expanded the frontier. The Klondike Gold Rush in Yukon Territory, Canada, and later gold rushes in Alaska helped that expansion, as thousands of people poured into Alaska.

Although the Royal Canadian Mounted Police maintained law and order in the Yukon during the Gold Rush, the U.S. government, after sending Captain Patrick H. Ray and First Lieutenant Wilds P. Richardson to study the situation, did not deem it necessary to send the Army into Alaska as peacekeepers. As more and more people came into Alaska and northwestern Canada, the need for better communications with the lower 48 states became critical. The Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System (WAMCATS) connected all the forts in the territory with Seattle. By 1903, the line stretched from Seattle to southeastern Alaska, Valdez, the interior, and Nome. The project fell under the direction of Brigadier General Adolphus W. Greely. Lieutenant William "Billy" Mitchell, another officer who would later achieve military fame, also worked on the four-year project.