2 soldiers injured in bear attack during Alaska training exercise

[Tanuki]

🐻

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2026/04/18/2-jber-soldiers-injured-bear-attack-during-training-exercise.html

"A bear attacked and injured two soldiers who were participating in a training exercise in a remote location at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Thursday, military and state wildlife officials said Friday, April 17.

The U.S. Army 11th Airborne Division soldiers were hurt in the encounter with a brown bear while participating a "land navigation training event" at the base's Arctic Valley training area, Lt. Col. Jo Nederhoed, a public affairs officer for the division, said in an email.

The soldiers were "receiving appropriate medical care" as of late Friday morning, Nederhoed said. The military was withholding details about their condition pending notification of their next of kin, she said.
......
The timing of the encounter is unclear, though it appeared to have been a defensive attack from a bear that had recently emerged from its den, wildlife officials said.
The bear hadn't been located as of Friday, according to the Fish and Game statement.
.....

Both soldiers were carrying bear spray and used it during the encounter, officials said."....(more)

[DiverDave]

1. DON'T READ

Alaska bear tales.
Had my head on a swivel when I was up there.

[Tanuki]

2. Well, now you've made me want to read it!

🐻🐻🐻🐻🐻

[DiverDave]

5. It will scare you.

Boils down to stay as far away from them as possible.

[Chautauquas]

7. Another title to avoid

Many years ago I read a book titled Night of the Grizzlies while my brother and I were on the road to Glacier Park for a back-country hike. Not a good choice for reading material because the book is about two separate incidences that occurred in Glacier on the same night where grizzlies killed two people. I thought about that book a lot while we were hiking through grizzly habitat. {We had a bear encounter on that hike, but it was a black bear.)

[Sequoia]

8. While we're on the subject....

Don't read the bear chapter in "Death in Yellowstone" either.

[onethatcares]

3. was stationed at FT Richardson 72-75

in the H Q bldg was a mounted brown bear about 13 ft tall with claws that could decapitate a person in one swipe.

I always wondered how a creature that large could move so silently.

Bears..........They can kill you........

[DiverDave]

6. They can outrun a horse.

So running is a non starter

[Midnight Writer]

4. "The military was withholding details until they can figure out how to blame the attack on Joe Biden."

[haele]

9. Why would they schedule an exercise during end of hibernation?

And not have some areas off limits as "we know there's bears around there"?
Coming out of hibernation, bears are starving. And they're bigger, faster, and heavier than two people can be. If they smell food, they're heading that way.
If the soldiers weren't trained on how to defensively operate in bear country, especially during Spring wake-up, it can easily end in tragedy.