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Camp Pendleton, California. (November 21, 2023): In this photo by Sergeant Sean Potter, retired U.S. Marine Corps and Army veteran Maj. Billy Hall, age 97, enjoys the view of the California coastline during an honor flight in a UH-1Y Venom helicopter with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 267, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.
Major Hall celebrated the 82nd anniversary of his graduation from Marine Corps Recruit Training by reconnecting with his Marine brothers who volunteered to take him aloft one more time. Major Hall has the distinction of being the last living veteran to join the armed forces before the U.S. entered World War II, at just 15 years old.
He went on to see combat action in three wars: World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
Hall served as a radioman and gunner on Guadalcanal in 1942 and later flew bomber aircraft on over one hundred combat missions. After the war, Hall joined the Army National Guard as an infantry officer and was deployed to Korea where he devised ways to improve radio communications between units. In Vietnam, Hall trained as a helicopter pilot where he flew over fifty insertion and extraction missions during nine months in-country.
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Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. (November 17, 2023): Given the recent seizures of private vessels by Iran-back Houthi rebels off the coast of Yemen, the U.S. Navy has ramped up training to go into action should these violations continue. In this photo by Corporal Ryan Ramsammy, Marines with Battalion Landing Team 1/8, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit race along in their rigid-hull inflatable boat during visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) training off Chesapeake Bay. This VBSS course teaches Marines how to properly board suspicious vessels and the procedures and maritime rules for interdicting vessels in international waters. Not everyone measures up as the school has a wash-out rate around thirty percent.
VBSS teams are designed to capture enemy vessels involved in terrorism, piracy, and smuggling and to conduct customs or safety inspections. To qualify, candidates must pass three courses lasting eight weeks each as well as follow on training. Students are taught Close Quarters Battle skills, hand-to-hand combat tactics, search methods, and arrest procedures. The teams practice tactical movements including rappelling from helicopters onto suspect vessels.
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Honolulu, Hawaii. (November 30, 2023): When people think of Hawaii, images of swaying palm trees and pristine beaches come to mind. For the Soldiers with the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, it is a jungle with steep mountains and stifling heat. In this photo by Specialist Brendon Donahue, 25th Division Soldiers celebrate a combat victory over their rival Blue forces at the newly opened Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC). The Army’s newest combat training facility is in the mountainous center of the island of Oahu with over 17,000 acres of really tough terrain.
The 25th Infantry Division was established in 1908 to provide defense of the island’s main port, Pearl Harbor. Nicknamed the Tropic Lightning Division in 1941, the 25th fought in some of the bloodiest battles in World War II. The division today is a highly mobile light infantry unit supported by a range of aviation units guarding the Asia-Pacific region. The new center operates in three training rotations, one in Hawaii, another in the freezing terrain of Alaska, and another at satellite locations in friendly countries.
Credit for keeping these rotations running smoothly goes to the 196th Infantry Brigade, the training support brigade for the 25th Infantry Division and the 11th Airborne Division. During this cycle, as many as 6,000 participants underwent realistic training in an environment that they would likely encounter in the steamy jungles of the Pacific. The current cycle includes Soldiers from New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, and Thailand who developed closer cooperation with their American allies.
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Syndalen, Finland. (November 17, 2023): While “Kamikaze” drones and Predator unmanned aircraft have dominated the headlines, another type of autonomous system is being developed by the Navy that is literally beneath the waves. In conjunction with commercial scientists, this aggressive program will develop and build unmanned underwater vehicles to perform a wide range of shallow water missions. In this photo by Corporal Mary Kohlmann, Corporals Gabriel Hawks and William Morris with Combat Logistics Battalion 6, Combat Logistics Regiment 2, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, prepare to retrieve the “AMY”, an unmanned surface vehicle during a series of tests to experiment with its capabilities. The AMY is a lightweight (145 pounds) autonomously operated platform that can handle missions ranging from delivering lifesaving supplies to scanning for mines and much more.
Working with Arizona-based Hydronalix Corporation, the Marine Corps is experimenting with equipping these underwater drones with various x-band radars, side scan sonars, and even a high-speed bandwidth connection via satellite for communications and control. Powered by twin electric jet drives, the AMY can reach a top speed of 18 miles per hour, even in rough surf conditions, while searching for mines or obtaining measurements such as depth and water temperature.
The goal is to use the AMY to send vital supplies ashore especially when helicopters cannot. A Marine could load a lifesaving cargo of plasma and morphine, for example, then select a destination on shore and dispatch the AMY directly to that location. The system requires no central ground station and the AMY can be programed to return to be recovered, reloaded, and sent off again.
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Oiapoque, Brazil, (November 15, 2023): Welcome to the Amazon! In this photo by Specialist Joseph Liggio , U.S. Army PFC Bailey Driskel, a combat engineer assigned to Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), applies camouflage face paint during the final movement of Exercise Southern Vanguard 24. Exercise Southern Vanguard 24 is an annual exercise sponsored by the U.S. Southern Command, responsible for Central and South America, to improve coordination between allied forces. The event allows a select few U.S. Army Soldiers a chance to train with some of best warfighters in the world in the most challenging environments. Brazil is an enormous country, with a land mass only slightly smaller than the continental U.S., with a landscape ranging from the Amazon, the world’s largest jungle, to dry grasslands, rugged hills, and miles of seashore.
Brazil's armed forces are the second largest in the Americas, after the United States, and the largest in Latin America. They currently have 334,500 active-duty troops including 15,000 special troops of the Brazilian Army Readiness Forces who are ready for combat 365 days per year. This division is composed of paratroopers along with armored cavalry brigades that have conventional combat capability.
The 1,300 or so Americans joined their 1,000 Brazilian Army comrades of the 52nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Brigade in conducting air assault operations, urban maneuver, weapons familiarization, and a brutal jungle familiarization course. The joint forces conducted an air assault followed by practice infiltrating hostile territory to combat irregular forces.
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Red Sea. (November 23, 2023): According to the U.S. Central Command, the USS Thomas Hudner and crew shot down multiple attack drones launched from by Iranian-backed Houthi Rebels from Yemen while on patrol this week.
It appears they have picked the wrong fight this time.
In this photo by MC2 Jordan Klineizquierdo, Lieutenant Jr. Grade Caitlyn Thomas, left, and Lieutenant Jr. Grade Michaela Mosley along with Lieutenant Jr. Grade Branson Bitzer stand watch on the bridge aboard the USS Thomas Hudner on patrol in the Red Sea.
On October 8th, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin directed the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier group, including the Hudner, Carney, and Roosevelt destroyers into the Mediterranean, a day after the Hamas attacks on Israel. Since then, the Hudner has shot down two sets of drones fired at Israel from Houthi controlled territory in Yemen. The ship and crew sustained no damage or injury, according to the U.S. Central Command. The Houthis have declared their support for Iranian ally Hamas and have also seized a ship purportedly owned by Israeli interests and is holding its crew hostage.
Commissioned in 1 2018, the USS Thomas Hudner is more than a match for whatever the Iranians and their Houthi friends have in mind. With a crew complement of 380 officers and enlisted, the Hudner bristles with the world’s most sophisticated and deadly weaponry. An Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, the ship can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles and the Phalanx and MK series of large caliber anti-aircraft guns and surface to air missiles. The ship has a heliport for its two MH-60R Seahawk helicopters used to conduct armed boardings at sea.