Service members with the Special Operations Command North (SOCNORTH) Signal Detachment trained residents of Savoonga and Gambell on new high-frequency radios in the St. Lawrence Island villages. The training was part of Operation Polar Dagger, a widescale military operation that took place through the end of August 2026.
The radios are part of a new network of HF radios accessible to the Alaska State Defense Force, an all-volunteer, state-authorized militia that operates under the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
“State Defense Force members now have a way to communicate back to the Alaska National Guard any odd things that they see or things that concern them that they might have seen or heard,” Lt. Col. Timothy Matson with SOCNORTH told KNOM ahead of Operation Polar Dagger.
