Overview
- The 11th Airborne Division says a brown bear injured two soldiers during a land-navigation exercise in Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson’s Arctic Valley on Thursday.
- Both soldiers are receiving medical care, and the Army is withholding their names and conditions until families are notified.
- Each soldier carried bear spray and used it, which wildlife officials said may have saved their lives.
- Investigators from the Army and Alaska Fish and Game say the encounter likely was a defensive reaction by a bear emerging from a den, and they have not located the animal.
- Base leaders closed the remote training area west of the Glenn Highway to recreation during the probe, and officials said the site’s limited access lowers public risk.