The U.S. Coast Guard is a vital presence in Sitka with an air station and a buoy tender.
Coast Guard Air Station Sitka, with more than 130 officers, enlisted and civilian personnel, has been located on Japonski Island since 1977, when it was moved here from Annette Island, where it had been established in 1944. It’s equipped with three MH-60T Jayhawk helicopters.
Air Station Sitka’s area of responsibility encompasses the entire Southeast region of Alaska from Dixon Entrance north to Central Alaska and from the U.S./Canadian border west to the central Gulf of Alaska.
The region is considered one of the most demanding flight environments for Coast Guard aircraft operations, with 12,000 miles of isolated and rugged coastline, some 180,000 square miles of water and land.
This region includes numerous remote villages and is characterized by mountainous terrain, severe weather and vast distances between fuel caches and landing sites.
The helicopters are used in search-and-rescue operations, environmental patrols, medical evacuations, law enforcement patrols, and installation and maintenance of aids-to-navigation equipment such as buoys and beacons.
Air station personnel have won numerous awards for their expertise and bravery in many dangerous rescues.
The operations center phone number is (903) 966-5447.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kukui, a 225-foot Juniper-class seagoing buoy tender commissioned in the mid 1990s, arrived for duty here in 2018. It’s located on the Coast Guard pier on Japonski Island, just past the O’Connell Bridge. It covers waters from Juneau to Ketchikan – some 1,000 miles of waterways. Its primary mission is servicing of aids-to-navigation buoys. It also has responsibilities of maritime law enforcement, homeland security, maritime environment response, and search and rescue duties.
Although their terms of duty in Sitka aren’t long, the “Coasties” are considered Sitka family, taking part in community life, sponsoring such events as the Rainy Day Bazaar and the Haunted Ship and taking part in many others, such as school and service activities. The Coast Guard helicopter flyovers are high points of the 4th of July and Alaska Day parades.
