NOME — Two helicopter crews from Kodiak’s U.S. Coast Guard Base have been sent north as part of Operation Arctic Crossroads 2009, a 20-day operation that helps provide medical, dental, optometry and boat safety awareness classes to the people in northwest Alaska.

The operation, which began Aug. 10, involves the Coast Guard, U.S. Air Force, Army National Guard, Air National Guard and U.S. Public Health Services.

Other objectives of Operation Arctic Crossroads are continual observation and assessment of military operations in the Arctic. These include enhancing a national security presence, protecting U.S. sovereignty, protecting marine resources, ensuring safe navigation, pollution response and protecting Arctic maritime commerce.

In a press briefing Monday afternoon in Nome that included a host of several Alaska media outlets, Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen said, “We are here to have conversations, to listen, to understand what the local leads are.”

He admitted there are many unconquered goals in the Arctic.

“We have challenges up here with navigation, communication and other things — but we don’t know exactly what we need until we get up here and test the equipment,” Allen said.

He said the Coast Guard’s presence in the Arctic thus far has involved short-range helicopter operations and deployment of small boats in places like Prudhoe Bay, Nome and Point Barrow.

“We’re going to have to come to grips with what kind of seasonal forward operating location we want — and not just going in with small boats and aircraft, but manning patrol communications and the ability to manage cases as they occur up there,” Allen said.

He said the Coast Guard continues its normal duties, law enforcement, wildlife protection and search and rescue. But, in the frozen north there isn’t a system of robust communications and perfected navigation capabilities. He said the military is working alongside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to achieve their goals and “fill those gaps.”

“I think one of the policy issues that we’re going to have to come to grips with is how do we want to exert U.S. sovereignty up there, how do we want to protect our fish stocks, how do we want to monitor oil and gas exploration and be able to respond to environmental events?”

Currently, Allen said most of the Coast Guard presence is within the Inside Passage, Southwest Alaska, Kodiak and some of Aleutian chain.

Monday’s Coast Guard flight was a continuation of the second season of the Arctic Domain Awareness (ADA) flights — missions that help train pilots to operate in the Arctic, help the U.S. learn more about ice flows, any climate change effects or national security concerns — goals similar to some of Operation Arctic Crossroads’.

The 2009 ADA schedule began with a flight in late March that went from Kodiak to Barrow and back. ADA flights are scheduled bi-weekly.

Monday’s ADA flight began in Kodiak, stopped in Anchorage to pick up media, but was delayed several hours. A second C-130 was brought from Kodiak to bring a replacement part to fix the original C-130. Once fixed, the flight had a shortened ADA route by going above the Arctic Circle, over Kotzebue and down to Nome in time for the press conference.

The flight then returned to Anchorage, but crew does not return to Kodiak until Wednesday.

Nome Mayor Denise Michels said at the press conference she supported the military efforts in her remote corner of the Last Frontier.

“With the prediction of the Arctic opening, Nome is in a key location … (with) all these ocean-going vessels and all this traffic going through, we have some concerns,” Michels said. “We want to be able to work with marine community and all of the boats that are part of this group to make sure that our environment is safe, we have the protection that we need, we’re going to protect our resources, and if there’s ever any emergency, we have the proper response.”

Jane Lubchenco, administrator of NOAA and under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, stressed the operation’s efforts to research climate change.

“Alaska is clearly ground zero for climate change,” Lubchenco said. “It is critically important for many ocean issues, as well. We are here to see, to listen and to learn about the changes that are happening, to talk with people about how these changes affect them and what kinds of things that can be done to adapt to climate change, as well as have ocean policies that are effective, efficient and work for the common good and the long term.”

Mirror writer Bradley Zint can be reached via e-mail at bzint@kodiakdailymirror.com.