Alaska State Defense Force volunteers stand ready to help Alaska in times of need
Working for the Mat-Su Borough School District as an information technology specialist, Stacey Buzby was roped in as part of the response.
“One of our sister networks got hacked in 2018, and, because of the equipment that I worked on for the school district, they brought me in,” she said. “So, I was there in the early days of recovery for the borough and worked on their storage array. It was pretty intense – a lot of pressure – and I never forgot it. It really hit home that, being IT, I’m a defender. I take care of networks. I support people. I keep our data safe.”
The incident opened Buzby’s eyes to the international threat posed by cyber hackers and motivated her to seek out a way to serve in a way that she could help defend Alaska. Today, she serves as an IT and high-frequency radio chief warrant officer 2 with the Alaska State Defense Force.
The ASDF is the modern successor of the Alaska Territorial Guard, established in 1942 as Alaska’s first line of defense during World War II. The ATG disbanded after the war, but the state legislature established a state militia by statute that ultimately became today’s ASDF.
Buzby, in her role with the defense force, said she sees how her service can reach beyond Alaska’s borders as national defense bleeds into the nebulous cyber realm.
“I come from a civilian world, and when you think about defense of our country, conflict happens over there, right?” Buzby asked rhetorically. “And I looked at that network, and I realized these guys are in our house. It makes an impression that just doesn't ever go away.”
In joining ASDF, a critical and integral component of the Alaska Organized Militia that includes the Alaska Army and Air National Guard as well as the Alaska Naval Militia, Buzby said she feels empowered to move beyond the cyber incident through her efforts in uniform.
“You go from trying to forget to doing something about it,” Buzby said. “That’s what really needs to happen.”
ASDF’s mission is to serve as an organized state military reserve force training to prepare, plan, respond, mitigate and recover from natural and man-made disasters.
When Ex-Typhoon Halong made landfall in October 2025, the widespread devastation to Western Alaska triggered a massive whole-of-government response, which included dozens of ASDF members fulfilling critical roles throughout the region.
Pivoting from cyber defense, Buzby volunteered to deploy to the Bethel Readiness Center to establish an IT network for Task Force Bethel, a critical command-and-control hub for coordinating the response for surrounding communities affected by the storm.
She had to figure out how to get different AKOM components on a common network to flatten communications and eliminate redundancies.
“I opened up a Team in Microsoft and then created the accounts for everyone to use, so that they had a common platform,” Buzby said. “So, file sharing was instantly easier, and they could all look at the same spreadsheet rather than having to yell across the room to see if there's been any updates, which was incredibly inefficient.”
Buzby said the Bethel tour of duty was precisely the kind of service she was looking to provide.
“To be able to take my natural skill set and apply it there was something I thoroughly enjoyed,” Buzby said. “It was really intense 12-/14-hour days every day. But you look back, and it's like, wow, you don't even think about the time because you're doing good work, and you're able to support everyone, and that's really all you need to keep going.”
ASDF Col. John James, Task Force Bethel commander during the opening stages of the Halong response, said ASDF members volunteering from their homes in Western Alaska proved especially helpful with recovery efforts.
“We brought our ties to the community,” James said. “We know the communities – the tribal chiefs – leadership in those communities. So, we had direct, sometimes familial ties with those folks. We know the people whom we serve, we’re in those communities, so our response was swift and immediate.”
James said the ASDF is looking for civic-focused Alaskans to join the organization’s ranks where they can use their skills to serve the statewide community.
“We actually sit down and do an interview initially to determine where that individual would like to serve and of course the needs of the organization come first, but we really try hard to ensure that people are contributing in ways that they feel valued,” James said.
Buzby said she relishes having joined the Alaska State Defense Force.
“For anyone who is service-minded, this is a great place to be,” Buzby said. “There are so many opportunities to do the kind of work that we're talking about and to support your state. What an opportunity to be effective and provide a skill set that may not be considered [like IT].”
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