On this day in 1977, U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Sitka was relocated from its original location on Annette Island (where it was originally established in 1944), to its current location in Sitka.
With 130 active duty personnel, Air Station Sitka is considered southeast Alaska’s premier search and rescue service, encompassing the area of the Dixon Entrance north to Central Alaska and from the U.S./Canadian border west to the central Gulf of Alaska.
The area has 12,000 miles of isolated and rugged coastline, numerous remote villages and is characterized by mountainous terrain, severe weather, and vast distances between fuel caches and landing sites. The crews are not only responsible for water-based search and rescue, but also coordinate and conduct numerous inland search and rescues each year.
Original source can be found here.
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