A bear hunter based out of Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson in critical condition at Anchorage Providence after an accident above Carter Lake Saturday afternoon, according to Alaska State Troopers. 
 
 Soldotna Public Safety Communications Center received a distress signal via an in-reach device just after 12:00 Saturday afternoon. Two men, Zachary Tennyson, 19, and William McCormick, 28, both of JBER, shot a bear on a ridge above them. 
 
 The bear then rolled down the slope, dislodging rocks in the process. Troopers say McCormick was struck by both a rock and the falling bear. Tennyson was reportedly uninjured, but McCormick was hand carried to a LifeMed helicopter and transported to Anchorage Providence with life threatening injuries. 
 
 Alaska State Troopers, Bear Creek Fire Department, Moose Pass Volunteer Fire Department, and LifeMed all responded to the scene. 
 
 

 William McCormick, 28, and Zachary Tennyson, 19, were hunting in the area above Carter Lake near Moose Pass at the time of the incident, according to a trooper dispatch. Dispatchers in Soldotna first learned of it at about noon Saturday through a signal from an InReach satellite beacon.
– Getting hurt by a bear in Alaska is rare but not unheard of. But William McCormick's injury is more of the unheard of kind: The Army soldier suffered "life-threatening injuries" last weekend when a bear he shot fell on him. McCormick was hunting with Zachary Tennyson, 19, near Moose Pass; both are stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. They shot a bear positioned above them on a ridge, KTVA reports, and troopers explained the bear then began to roll down the ridge, "dislodging rocks in the process. [McCormick] was injured when he was struck by both a rock and the bear." It's unclear how far the bear was from the men when they shot it, and details about the bear itself weren't available. Tennyson was uninjured; KTUU reports McCormick was carried to a helicopter and airlifted to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage. (This bear killed a hiker in Alaska and mauled a volunteer who went looking for him.)