FRIDAY FOTO Extra (Sept. 20, 2013)

Commando School, French Style

Photo by R. Connan, copyright French Defense Ministry

During their initial training, cadets from France’s elite  Saint-Cyr Special Military School undergo a four-week training session at Les Saint-Cyrien au Centre national d’entrainement commando (CNEC) — National Commando Training Centre. There they can earn the designation “monitor commando.”

Training ranges from alpine climbing and rapeling to martial arts and aquatic skills as we see here. After jumping from a motorboat going full speed, these cadets have to swim to zodiac boats and clamber aboard.

To see a slide show of all the tricks of the trade that must be mastered, click here on the French Defense Ministry website. Caution, it’s all in French.

 

FRIDAY FOTO (May 17, 2013)

The Big Lonely

Copyright French Ministry of Defence

The commanders of the Joint Tactical Group and the Régiment de marche du Tchad (a unit of the French 2nd Armored Brigade) observe maneuvering ground troops from a sand dune near Qatar’s Al Qalayel military camp during Exercise Gulf Falcon 2013.

(Click on the photo to see a larger image)

For three weeks, nearly 3,000 French and Qatari military participated in the bilateral exercise. The effort is planned and conducted under  cooperation agreements between the two countries that were reached in 1994.

The French military see the exercise as an opportunity to toughen the men and materials of the Army, Air Force and Navy to harsh desert conditions.

To learn more about the exercise and see more photos, click here. Be advised the site in in French.

FRIDAY FOTO (April 6, 2012)

Garde d’honneur

U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Teddy Wade

For a change of pace, we thought we’d show a little pageantry in this week’s FRIFO, and when it comes to pageantry few military organizations can touch the French Defense Forces: camouflage uniforms with gold epaulettes!

Here French soldiers — we think they’re soldiers (note the diamond-shaped anchor patch on their sleeves, possibly Marines?) — render military honors to U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno during an arrival ceremony at L’Hotel National Des Invalides in Paris Thursday (April 5). Les Invalides is a complex containing an Army museum, monuments, a hospital and retirement home for military veterans. It also houses the tomb of Napoleon.

Odierno was in France as part of a tour of several U.S. commands and installations in Europe, according to Stars and Stripes.  The visits come as the Army prepares to shrink its personnel and facilities in Europe as part of the post-Iraq and Afghanistan drawdown and the Pentagon’s shifting focus on Asia and the Pacific. While in Paris, he delivered a speech at the French War College to students from more than 60 nations.

To see more photos of the ceremony — and how the new U.S. general officer’s uniform stands up against the French in the gold braid competition — click here. There are also some pretty interesting French uniforms, colorful kepis (caps), white gauntlets, etc.

We’d also like to hear from any visitors who also think that the French Army chief of staff’s kepi appears to be a size too small — compared to the other officers and enlisted men’s headgear.

FRIDAY FOTO (April 2, 2010)

Concentrate Sailor

Defense Dept. photo by Sgt. Alex C. Sauceda, U.S. Marine Corps. (Click on image to enlarge)

U.S. Marine Corps marksmanship instructors Sgt. Matthew Johnson and Lance Cpl. Gerald Minster correct a sailor’s form during a small arms qualification series aboard the amphibious dock landing ship USS Ashland while underway in the Atlantic. Both  instructors are riflemen (Every Marine A Rifleman) with the 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). Marines from the 24th MEU coached and shared their expertise to help the sailors re-qualify with their weapons, including the 12 gauge shotgun. The Marines of the 24th MEU spent most of March meeting and training with French forces at a joint U.S.-French base in the east African nation of Djibouti on the Horn of Africa.  Usually based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, the 24th MEU is on a seven-month deployment aboard Nassau Amphibious Ready Group vessels that has included earthquake relief work in Haiti.