Two soldiers are recovering after a bear attacked and injured them during training in Alaska.
The two soldiers, assigned to the Army’s 11th Airborne Division, were carrying out land navigation training on Thursday, April 16, when they encountered a bear on the grounds of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. The two were attacked and used bear spray to fight off and eventually repel the bear.
Both the Army and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are investigating the attack. The 11th Airborne Division confirmed to Task & Purpose that both soldiers sustained injuries, but declined to give further details about their conditions or the extent of their wounds. It also did not share other specifics about the incident, citing privacy matters. The Anchorage Daily News first reported on the incident.
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The soldiers were in a remote part of the base’s land, which had limited access, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The Army said that it was a brown bear that attacked the two. Base leadership subsequently closed off that part of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson for recreational use. First responders reached the soldiers and were able to get them to medical care. Investigators found no bears at the scene and the bear that wounded the two has not yet been located.
“In this case, having bear spray with them in the field may have saved their lives,” Fish and Game Regional Supervisor Cyndi Wardlow said in the department’s release.
The wildlife department said that it was likely a case of a bear recently leaving its den after waking up from hibernation. Spring weather makes bear encounters more likely, the department said in its statement, although the remote location of where this attack happened means there likely isn’t a public safety risk.
The base covers more than 85,000 acres near Anchorage and is the headquarters of both the Eleventh Air Force and 11th Airborne Division, the Army’s main Arctic warfare force.
Bears are a persistent danger in Alaska. Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson isn’t new to bear encounters, with soldiers encountering bears in the wild. In one instance, bears got inside a base motor pool building and ate several MREs. Soldiers have also been wounded and killed by the animals before. In 2022, two soldiers were injured in a training incident after a mother bear emerged from her den. One soldier, Staff Sgt. Seth Michael Plant, died from his injuries.
