THE FRIDAY FOTO (July 14, 2023)

NIGHT DELIVERY.

(U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sergeant Corban Lundborg) Click on photo to enlarge image.

A U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III cargo transport plane from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, offloads a  MH-60 Blackhawk at Las Palmas Air Base in Lima, Peru on July 5, 2023 for exercise Resolute Sentinel 23.

Led by the 12th Air Force, a component of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), Resolute Sentinel seeks to improve readiness through joint training of U.S. and partner nation forces’ civil engineers, medical professionals and support personnel in a series of humanitarian assistance activities. This year Resolute Sentinel is being held in Peru and will integrate combat interoperability and disaster response training to the medical aid and construction projects.

First held in 2021, Resolute Sentinel evolved out of two annual joint humanitarian assistance exercises in Latin America and the Caribbean. Participating nations this year include Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and the United Kingdom, according to Diálogo Américas.

The C-17 Globemaster serves as the Air Force’s primary strategic lift aircraft for global transport of troops and equipment. According to Military.com it can carry 102 paratroopers, 36 litter cases and 54 ambulatory patients and attendants or 170,900 pounds (77,519 kilograms) of cargo. The MH-60 Blackhawk helicopter weighs 2,511 pounds (5,675 kilograms) empty and has a 50-foot-long fuselage, so you know the C-17 can handle big loads. This Blackhawk is part of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), also known as the Night Stalkers.

If you are curious or confused about the long name McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, or whether it’s an Army, Navy or Air Force base, the answer is all three. McGuire Air Force Base, the Army’s Fort Dix and Naval Air Engineering Station Air Station Lakehurst — all in New Jersey — were combined into one joint operation in 2009 by the congressionally-mandated Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process.