Forget the open-air sleigh and a tuckered herd of flying reindeer, Santa and Mrs. Claus made an early gift delivery in a military C-17 cargo plane and a camouflaged Humvee in rural Alaska this past week. The Humvee pulled into the parking lot at the high school in Yakutat, a Tlingit village, situated in the lowlands of the Gulf of Alaska, about 225 miles northwest of Juneau. Nearby is the Hubbard Glacier, which is frequently photographed by tourists on cruise ships to Alaska. Santa’s ride was arranged by the Alaska National Guard, which has been leading special visits and gifts to several Alaska Native villages each year, typically ones that suffered some type of hardship. For Yakutat, that distress came in January 2022 when up to 6 feet of snow feel in a short period of time, and the weight of the snow on the roofs threatened the integrity of some buildings. Extra people were hired by the borough to help shovel roofs, but even more help was needed. That’s when the Alaska National Guard sent 31 guardsmen to Yakutat to help shovel buildings. Their task was likely a little more fun _ and less laborious _ on the latest visit, when they helped deliver backpacks to about 120 children in the community. Each back was filled a gift like a toy, books, schools supplies and treats. In Alaska, about 86% of its communities are off the road system, leaving airplanes and boats as the main options for travel. “We tend to visit rural communities where it is very isolated,” said Jenni Ragland with the Salvation Army Alaska, which partners with the Alaska National Guard on the program. “A lot of kids haven't traveled to big cities where we typically have Santa and big stores with Christmas gifts and Christmas trees, so we kind of bring this the Christmas program on the road,” she said. Thomas Henry, 10, said the contents of the backpack were “pretty good,” he had already identified the one gift that would get the most use. “There’s one thing in there that I will mostly play with, the dinosaur,” he said, holding the plastic version of a reptile that went extinct about 65 million years ago, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Mackenzie Ross, 9, who was walking around the school gym holding her stuffed seal toy, realized she was fortunate to be around for Santa’s visit. The only other time Operation Santa made a visit to Yakutat came in 2005. “I think it’s special that I have this opportunity to be here today because I’ve never experience this before and I think I never will in the future,” she said. Salvation Army volunteers and guardsmen boarded the Alaska Air National Guard C-17 Globemaster III at Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson in Anchorage for the hour-long flight to Yakutat early the morning of Dec. 18. The view out the cockpit window afforded a beautiful red sunrise and views of snow-capped mountains in nearby Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. After the plane landed, everyone was taken in passenger vans to town and the plane had to return to Anchorage, not for any other mission but because the plane was so big, there was no place to park it out of the way for when Alaska Airlines’ jets made the scheduled two stops in Yakutat during the day. The C-17 returned later to pick up Santa, Mrs. Claus and the elves for their trip back to Anchorage. Operation Santa started in 1956 when the residents of St. Mary’s, Alaska, had no money to buy children Christmas presents after flooding severely impacted hunting and fishing. Since then, Guard members try to visit at least two rural communities a year, delivering Christmas gifts and other needed supplies. This year, visits were planned to two communities that were impacted by flooding it the last year. The trip to Circle went off Nov. 6 without a hitch, but severe weather prevented the visit to Crooked Creek. Christmas was saved when the children’s gifts were delivered Nov. 16.