{"id":2666,"date":"2026-04-17T23:43:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=2666"},"modified":"2026-04-17T23:43:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:43:54","slug":"2-alaska-based-soldiers-injured-encounter-brown-bear-132151858","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=2666","title":{"rendered":"2 Alaska-based soldiers injured in encounter with brown bear during training exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB  \">ANCHORAGE, Alaska &#8212; <\/span>Two U.S. Army soldiers have been injured after encountering a brown bear in a mountainous training area in Anchorage, the military said Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The incident happened Thursday as the soldiers were participating in a \u201cland navigation training event\u201d in Arctic Valley, part of the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson\u2019s training area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The soldiers were receiving medical care as of Friday, a military official told the Anchorage Daily News. Messages sent to base spokespersons were not immediately returned to The Associated Press Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The soldiers\u2019 conditions were not released pending notification of relatives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Both soldiers used pepper spray on the bear, the official said. Few other details were available about the incident because it was still under investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cThe safety and well-being of our personnel is our highest priority,\u201d Lt. Col. Jo Nederhoed, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army 11th Airborne Division, said in an email to the Anchorage Daily News.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cThe incident is under investigation, and we are coordinating with local wildlife authorities to ensure the safety of all personnel in the area,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">The base encompasses 100 square miles (259 square kilometers) within the Municipality of Anchorage, where up to 350 black bears and 75 brown bears roam freely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANCHORAGE, Alaska &#8212; Two U.S. Army soldiers have been injured after encountering a brown bear in a mountainous training area in Anchorage, the military said Friday. The incident happened Thursday as the soldiers were participating in a \u201cland navigation training event\u201d in Arctic Valley, part of the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson\u2019s training area. The soldiers were<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[219,197,62,57,395,31],"tags":[236,27,930,38],"class_list":["post-2666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gear-gear-news-and-events","category-general","category-news","category-newsletters","category-security-security-news","category-us","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-general-news","tag-military-and-defense","tag-u-s-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}