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National Guard to Unveil Painting Depicting Rescue Efforts in Sen. Stevens' 2010 Crash

The painting, by artist Mark Churns, will be unveiled Friday at a ceremony at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

The newest painting in the National Guard’s heritage series will be unveiled during a ceremony Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

The painting “Midnight Sun Guardians: 'So That Others May Live'”, by artist Mark Churns, depicts the Alaska Air National guard rescue efforts in the August 2010 plane crash that killed U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. 

During that rescue mission in the Muklung Hills, an Air National Guard HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter arrived on scene and began treatment on the two most critically wounded. A U.S. Coast Guard HH-60 Jay Hawk transported two additional survivors to Dillingham. All four wounded were later transported to Anchorage aboard a Coast Guard C-130.

Midnight Sun Guardians is the 84th National Guard heritage painting commissioned since 1961. 

General Frank Grass, Chief of the National Guard Bureau and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will present the painting to members of the Alaska National Guard and distinguished guests Friday at 1 p.m.