A Navy SEAL's Warning: Alaska Native Corporation Funding

I was a Navy SEAL and overseas U.S. Government Contractor for over 20 years, and after over two decades of operating in some of the world's most unforgiving environments, I've learned that the most critical assets on the battlefield aren't always the ones you’d expect -- such as Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs).

I’ve worked with them time and time again in big and little ways, all contributing to my confidence in telling you: The United States’s national security sector depends on ANCs -- structurally and tactically. And right now, they’re being threatened as the government attempts to pull their funding.

Losing this funding would hinder their ability to be the force multiplier our national security has come to rely on. The ANC 8(a) program has been swept up in broader government spending cuts, but ANCs aren't in this program because of a diversity initiative — they're in it because of a legal promise made through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, in exchange for sharing their land.

Here’s a glimpse into what we’d lose if this policy initiative goes through.

I remember being in the U.S. Embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and seeing U.S. citizens all around me at work to maintain the property’s security. I had ANCs to thank. As an example, the Bering Straits Native Corporation (BSNC) provide security personnel such as Counter Assault Teams, K-9 units, and Designated Defensive Marksman Teams to many U.S. facilities around the [A1] world–one of the fundamental ways the work of ANCs often goes unappreciated.

Working with Alutiiq, a subsidiary of Afognak Native Corporation, I saw firsthand all the critical supply chain and logistics support [A2] they provide to the U.S. State Department’s flagship international police training program, Global Antiterrorism Assistance. This means ensuring that training equipment, venues, and life support functions were ready and in-place as the U.S. representative trained foreign country military and police forces.

ANCs show up for our military in whatever ways they need it. We can’t say that about every external contractor. Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC), through its subsidiary ASRC Services, Inc., supported U.S. and allied military operations during Operation Enduring Freedom with a $59.5 million contract for airfield and range facility construction and training, awarded through the Joint Contracting Command–Iraq/Afghanistan (JCC-I/A). ASRC's construction subsidiaries brought their expertise in runway construction, base operations, and remote infrastructure to some of the most challenging environments on earth, contributing to the critical military infrastructure that sustained coalition operations in the region.

And the value of ANCs doesn’t stop on base or the battlefield. It follows servicemembers home.

In my work as Oplign’s Founder and COO, where I help veterans transition into other careers utilizing their skillset to pair them in the right jobs, I still see the beneficial work ANCs do. They offer many employment opportunities that closely align to many veterans’ skills acquired through service. As an example, a Navy Electrician Mate can separate from the Navy and quickly transition to an open electrician job that ANCs offer. These job opportunities are also often in direct support of national security efforts in the structural ways mentioned above.

For all the reasons I’ve mentioned here, there’s hundreds more. That’s why cutting their funding in a general 8(a) sweep misses the bigger picture.

I respect President Trump’s efforts to reduce unnecessary funding in government programs, and agree with the overall goals, but the money saved shouldn’t come from scrapping companies crucial to the country’s safety and operational health. 

ANCs lend a hand, or their whole arm, to wherever the U.S. national security sector needs it to ensure safety and optimized performance. They deserve to keep what the government has promised them.

It’s disappointing that even after all I’ve given to my country, along with my fellow active-duty servicemembers, veterans, and contractors that we must fight for entities that support us to be supported.

To Make America Great Again, we must keep it safe first. That can’t happen without Alaska Native Corporations.

Washington debates defense spending in the trillions, yet one of our most undervalued national security assets doesn't wear a uniform — it holds a corporate charter in Alaska.

Jeff Gibson, is a former Navy SEAL and National Security Contractor, Founder and COO of Oplign.