2 US Army soldiers in Alaska injured in bear attack during training exercise

[Ooh-Rah]

Oh shit!

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/wildlife/2026/04/17/2-soldiers-injured-in-incident-involving-bear-during-jber-training/

Two U.S. Army soldiers were injured after being attacked by a brown bear during a training exercise in Alaska, a report said.


The troops from the 11th Airborne Division were hurt Thursday while participating in a "land navigation training event" at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson's Arctic Valley training area in Anchorage, Lt. Col. Jo Nederhoed, a spokesperson for the division, told the Anchorage Daily News.

 

[Ranger Psych]

Yep.

I know I've told my sow and cubs story from being stationed up there. Platoon day for the shoothouse, my squad had just finished going through and were supposed to download. Watched mama and 4 cubs bumble across the single access point to the range.... and basically told the corporal running the ASP that no, I'm not downloading for a bit.

There was a bit of a discussion as the LT was within earshot, but he got overruled by the PSG who had been stationed up there for a couple years longer than we had (and was a sportsman up there). We posted up with a mag per, full tube on the breaching shotguns and a single drum from that point forward. Overkill? Not when Mrs. Yogi gives no fucks other than you're between her and her cubs... or just too close to either with no valid reference point as to what too close is till she's comin to getcha.

Moose will fuck you up too. Dumber than a box of rocks and big enough to total a pickup by sitting on the fucking hood.

 

[AWP]

That VA claim is gonna' be wild.

"Not service connected."

 

[Devildoc]

First, I hope the dudes will be OK.

Second, I had to chuckle because I recall all of the the warnings we got for injuring wildlife, especially if it was on some list (endangered, etc.). We were out west training and there was some species of rattlesnake that was protected, we were told "you have a better chance of getting off if you kill another Marine than if you kill one of those snakes."

I hope this isn't a case of senior going up to them in the hospital and saying, "how you doing, soldier? You good? Good. You're under arrest."

 

[Steve1839]

Bears are probably coming out of their dens, hungry, hangry, and looking for food...when I was at Wainwright, we did most of our training between September and April, leaving May through August to the critters...we were supposed to be a light infantry outfit, night fighters, etc., and scheduled training accordingly...during the time we weren't training in the field, it hardly got any darker than twilight, so night training was not going to happen...until a new division commander came in and demanded troops in the field throughout the year...soooooo, a buddy of mine was commanding a company in a sister battalion and had planned a SQT-prep exercise, with all the events happening during daylight hours (0400-2200). Division commander saw that in the training highlights and the word came down from on high that training would take place at night, whenever that was...at the same time, for the same exercise, it was decided that hot meals would be served in a central area, so as not to entice the bears into the bivouac area...the new battalion commander nixed that idea and troops would eat "tactically", either eating at their fighting position or by their hooch...so, Joe is returning to his designated fighting position with his tray ration chow, including blueberry dessert, by way of a narrow path through the black spruce, when a bear decides to take his meal...the bear slaps Joe across the face, Joe screams, bear panics and runs through the bivouac area, smells blueberry dessert on another troop's sleeping bag and takes off with said fart sack, with Joe#2 in it...the troops scare the bear off by firing blanks, yelling, cursing and throwing things at it...at the time, we were not allowed live ammunition anywhere but the range. In years before, each squad had one guy who carried a .45-70 with live ammunition for such occasions, but times had changed...anyway, word came down from on high that certain training areas were to be avoided because of bear activity, but for one troop, it was too late...the exercise had to halt while the two troops were medevac'ed and then cancelled, with the troops making a "night" withdrawal road march back to Fort Wainwright...

 

[AWP]

To be fair, who doesn't love blueberries?

 

[Cookie_]

First, I hope the dudes will be OK.

Second, I had to chuckle because I recall all of the the warnings we got for injuring wildlife, especially if it was on some list (endangered, etc.). We were out west training and there was some species of rattlesnake that was protected, we were told "you have a better chance of getting off if you kill another Marine than if you kill one of those snakes."

I hope this isn't a case of senior going up to them in the hospital and saying, "how you doing, soldier? You good? Good. You're under arrest."

Brown bears are one of the few animals that doesnt extend to.

There was one year our water dogs went up in summer to support the ODAs. We sent two other guys with shotguns to be bear security. Fish and Wildlife even let one of the dudes get a tag, on the off chance they actually had to kill a bear.