U.S.
Arctic Eagle exercise takes off in Michigan
Stars and Stripes
April 8, 2016
U.S. Coast Guard, Ninth District, teams from St. Ignace and Charlevoix, Mich., participate in ship boarding and clearing as part of Exercise Arctic Eagle, April 04, 2016. During the exercise, unidentified hostile forces seize a merchant ship. (Tyler Piper/ Michigan National Guard )
U.S. Coast Guard, Ninth District, teams from St. Ignace and Charlevoix, Mich., participate in ship boarding and clearing as part of Exercise Arctic Eagle, April 04, 2016. During the exercise, unidentified hostile forces seize a merchant ship. (Tyler Piper/ Michigan National Guard )
U.S. Coast Guard, Ninth District, teams from St. Ignace and Charlevoix, Mich., participate in ship boarding and clearing as part of Exercise Arctic Eagle, April 04, 2016. (Helen Miller/Michigan National Guard)
A Soldier of the 53rd Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team, Indiana National Guard, takes radiation readings with an angry mob following behind during an Arctic Eagle 16 simulated radiological dispersal device blast at Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center, Mich., April 5, 2016. (David Kujawa/National Guard)
A Marine of the I Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, based in Johnson City, Tenn., and a member of the 1 Danish Home Guard converse while walking together during an Arctic Eagle 16 combined arms exercise at Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center, Mich., April 5, 2016. (David Kujawa/Submitted)
U.S. Coast Guard, Ninth District, teams from St. Ignace and Charlevoix, Mich., participate in ship boarding and clearing as part of Exercise Arctic Eagle, April 04, 2016. (Helen Miller/National Guard)
A Marine of the I Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, based in Johnson City, Tenn., and a member of the 1 Danish Home Guard move up range together during an Arctic Eagle 16 combined arms exercise at Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center, Mich., April 5, 2016. (David Kujaw/National Guard)
CHARLEVOIX, Mich. — The 2016 Arctic Eagle exercise is under way at Camp Grayling, where a late-season storm dropped temperatures below zero and dumped six-plus inches of snow in the area.
The two-week event is a National Guard-led joint interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational exercise.
During the exercise on Monday, April 4, unidentified hostile forces seized a merchant ship. The team practiced hostile ship boarding and retake.
Coast Guard and National Guard troops from Michigan and Massachusetts used a museum ship in Mackinaw City, Mich. – the former U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw – to stage a series of attacks and counter-attacks on the ship.
“The complexity of this exercise shows the capacity that we enjoy here at Camp Grayling,” said Maj. Gen. Gregory Vadnais, the adjutant general of Michigan.
At Camp Grayling's Combined Arms Training Facility, Marine Corps reservists from the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, based in Johnson City, Tenn., were focused on another aspect of Arctic Eagle – providing security and response to seek out the “terrorists” in the exercise. Working with the Marines were some 80 members of the Home Guard of Denmark, a volunteer unit somewhat similar to the U.S. National Guard.