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Military features

PHOTO GALLERY

Hundreds of community members lined the streets in Fairbanks honoring veterans and military personnel Saturday, May 12, 2012 during the Salute to Our Military Parade. About 5,000 military personnel from Ft. Wainwright and Eielson Air Force base and other veterans marched during the parade.

Troops Home from Afghanistan

145 Military Police return from a 12 months in Afghanistan.

SOLDIER PROFILES

Alaska's Fallen Soldiers

Running list of profiles of Alaskan, or Alaska-based, soldiers who have died since 2003.

National Guard to help Santa fly again

Associated Press

Published: November 9th, 2011 08:51 PM
Last Modified: November 9th, 2011 08:52 PM

The Alaska National Guard is gearing up to play Santa again in its annual holiday visits to Alaska villages. In its 55th year, Operation Santa Claus will head Nov. 19 to the northern Alaska village of Allakaket and Dec. 3 to the village of Wales at the western tip of the Seward Peninsula.

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The Santa tour began in 1956, when floods and a drought devastated the fishing and hunting season for residents of the Western Alaska village of St. Marys. With no money for Christmas, a local mission asked the Guard for help.

Word spread and the Guard was inundated with donations of toys. It was only natural to bring Santa along.

The mission closed in the late 1980s but the gift-giving effort continued.