SHAKO: St. Patrick’s Day

Wearin’ of the Green.

(Army photo by Staff Sergeant Opal Vaughn)

There seems to be a lot of photos coming from the Defense Department website today with a green theme. Oh wait, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, a day honoring the patron saint of Ireland and a day when anyone with a little Irish blood in them wears the color green.

That’s not why U.S. Army Captain Andy Jenks is painting his face green in the above photo. But we thought it was an eyecatcher photo.

Captain Jenks is applying camouflage paint during Exercise Sky Soldier 16 at Chinchilla training area in Albacete, Spain. Jenks is assigned to the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

. ( U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Eric Miller)

It’s probably just a coincidence that airmen from the New York Air National Guard’s 274th Air Support Operations Squadron were using green signal smoke during Close Air Support (CAS) training at Fort Drum’s urban training site in Upstate New York on March 5. But hey, Paddy’s Day!

(U.S. Army photo by Davide Dalla Massara)

And everything looks emerald green when seen through a night vision scope.

Here an Army paratrooper notes measurements at night during Exercise Rock Sokol at Pocek Range in Postonja, Slovenia on March 10.

The training exercise between U.S. and Slovenian troops focuses on enhancing readiness between allied forces. The emerald paratrooper is assigned to 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

(U.S. Navy photo by Lieutenant Matthew Stroup)

The only things green in this photo are the Manhattan street signs and the green stripe painted down the middle of Fifth Avenue for New York’s massive St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Here we see the Navy Band Northeast marching up the avenue during the 255th St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Speaking of the New York Parade, we leave you with this photo and the accompanying story.

(Army National Guard photo by Colonel Richard Goldenberg)

This 2013 photo shows members of the New York National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment leading two Irish Wolfhounds, their mascots, up Fifth Avenue.

The “Fighting 69th” — a nearly all Irish unit during the Civil War — traditionally leads the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. To read more about this fabled unit (Warner Brothers made a movie about their World War I exploits in 1940) click here.

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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.

AFRICA: Ivory Coast Attack Fallout

Beach Bloodshed.

Officials in the West African nation of Ivory Coast say the death toll from Sunday’s terror attack at a beach resort has risen to 19. Twenty-four people injured in the attack remain hospitalized.

The victims reportedly came from six different countries. Eleven Ivorians were killed, and four French citizens were among the dead, as well as one German, one Nigerian, one Macedonian and one Lebanese, according to the Voice of America website.

Armed with grenades and assault rifles, the attackers stormed three hotels on Sunday and sprayed the beach with bullets in the resort of Grand Bassam, located 40 kilometers from the commercial capital Abidjan.

Al-Qaeda’s North Africa branch in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), claimed responsibility for the attck, saying it was revenge for a French offensive against fighters in the Sahel region and called for France to withdraw them.

President Alassane Ouattara has pledged that Ivory Coast would not be “intimidated by terrorists,” Al Jazeera reported. In a statement broadcast on radio and television, Ouattara said “Ivory Coast is standing up, standing up to fight the cowards and protect its people.”

French helicopters in Africa (Ministry of Defense photo)

Meanwhile, France has announced plans to send paramilitary forces to the capital of Burkina Faso to counter the threat posed by Islamist militants in West Africa. A team from the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN) will be deployed in Ouagadougou to respond in the event of a “terrorist crisis,” said French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve according to the BBC. The announcement comes 48 hours after the attack that left four French nationals among the dead.

For the first time, Ghana’s government has put the nation on high alert in the wake of Sunday’s deadly terror attack in neighboring Ivory Coast, the VoA website reported.

Since November, al-Qaeda militants have attacked hotels in two other regional capitals, Bamako (Mali) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso).