Posts tagged ‘FRIDAY FOTO’
THE FRIDAY FOTO (March 23, 2023)
NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE.
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communications Specialist 2nd Class Matthew Dickinson) Click on photo to enlarge image.
Navy SEALS can do a lot of amazing things but walking on water isn’t one of them.
What this February 27, 2023 photo does show is U.S. Naval Special Warfare Operators (SEALs) and NATO special operations forces landing a combatant rubber raiding craft (CRRC) aboard Ohio-class guided-missile submarine USS Florida somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea.
According to the Defense Department, operations like this demonstrate U.S. European Command’s ability to rapidly deploy Special Operations Forces throughout the region “at a time and place of our choosing,” while also demonstrating U.S. commitment to train with Allies and partners to deploy and fight as multinational forces.
THE FRIDAY FOTO (March 17, 2023)
SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Alejandro Peña) Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
The strange angle from which this photo was taken caught our attention this week. It took a moment to even figure out what we were looking at: Paratroopers photographed either by one of their own jumping with them or from a plane looking up from below them — although that sounds prohibitively risky.
What we’re seeing is paratroopers from the U.S. Army’s 11th Airborne Division jumping out of a U.S. Air Force C-130J Super Hercules cargo plane.
But wait, there’s something else unusual about this photo. All these sky soldiers are women.
It was an all-women’s jump over Malemute Drop Zone, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska on March 7, 2023. The airborne operation was held in recognition of women’s history month, and marked the first all-female jump in division history.
Every battalion in the 2/11 was represented in the jump, as well as members of Division staff. All of the jumpers are assigned to the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) of the 11th Airborne Division.
The C-130 was supplied by the 19th Airlift Wing, from Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas.
To read more about this fascinating airborne op, and see some arresting photos, click here for a the whole story.
Oh, and before it’s too late, HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!
THE FRIDAY FOTO (March 10, 2023)
THE ONE WITH THE RED STRIPE
(U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Diolanda Caballero) Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Terrapin makes its way surrounded by U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team (MSRT) response boats and Royal Canadian Mountain Police (RCMP) response boats near Vancouver, British Columbia on February 28, 2023.
The MSRT is an elite Coast Guard unit that specializes in maritime counter-terrorism operations and high risk law enforcement. MSRTs are trained to board from small boats or helicopters and secure vessels including those controll by terrorists holding hostages.
We thought the colors, or lack thereof, in this photo were quite arresting. No pun intended. Everything in this photo, the sky, trees, water — even the snow appears gray — except for the white boat with the red slash on its hull. The iconic blue, white and red slash racing stripe emblem was created in the 1960s by the design firm of Raymond Loewy/William Snaith, Inc., which had just redesigned the interior and exterior of President John F. Kennedy’s aircraft, Air Force One.
Loewy was a legendary industrial designer credited with the white logo on Coca-Cola bottles, the Greyhound Scenicruiser bus, the supersonic Concorde jetliner’s interiors, NASA’s Skylab, as well as logos for Lucky Strike cigarettes, Shell and Exxon oil companies and the Art Deco-styled Pennsylvania Railroad’s S1 steam locomotive.
Loewy also redesigned Nabisco’s red corner logo that’s still in use today. (Photo Raymond Loewy/Facebook via allthatsinteresting.com)
The president was so pleased with the design outcome that he suggested the firm look into improving the visual image of the federal government. Kennedy suggested starting with the Coast Guard. “The firm recommended the Coast Guard adopt an identification device similar to a commercial trademark. The firm believed the symbol should be easily identifiable from a distance, easily differentiated from other government or commercial emblems or logos, and easily adapted to a wide variety of air and sea assets,” according to a 2012 article in Sea History.
The company presented its findings to Coast Guard leadership in January 1964. After four years of study, testing and tweaking some of the design firm’s ideas, Coast Guard Commandant Edwin Roland issued Instructions on April 6, 1967 ordering servicewide implementation of the Integrated Visual Identification System.
THE FRIDAY FOTO: March 3, 2023
ARRANGEMENT IN PINK AND BLUE No. 1
(U.S. Defense Department photo by Jason W. Edwards) Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
Both the women in this photo are Army nurses, Army captains and both named Megan. What are the odds?
In this strikingly lit photo we see emergency trauma nurses Captain Megan Honeywell and Captain Megan Gross — we’re not 100 percent sure which is which — treating a simulated patient during the Tactical Trauma Reaction and Evacuation Crossover Course (TTREX) at Joint Base San Antonio in Lackland, Texas on February 23, 2023.
The eight-hour course incorporates battlefield trauma simulations, evacuation procedures, and forward resuscitative care in an austere environment. More than 40 participants took part in the first time, two-day exercise developed to give medics and nurses hands-on experience.
In addition to liking the way this photo was lit, we thought it was the perfect subject to kick off Women’s History Month at the 4GWAR Blog.
And yes, art mavens, the headline at the top is an homage to American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s 1871 work, Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, known the world over as “Whistler’s Mother.”
Interesting to note, Whistler, the son of a West Point-educated U.S. Army engineer, was an Army man himself — briefly. The younger Whistler was admitted to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1851, where he excelled in drawing classes. But he chafed at the Point’s rules, regulations and largely scientific curriculum as well as Army dress and drill. As the demerits mounted, then-West Point Superintendent Robert E. Lee finally lost patience with the eccentric youth, and Whistler was dismissed from the academy in 1854.
Whistler’s younger brother, William, became a physician and served as a field surgeon in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, which — we guess — brings us full circle to a photo of today’s U.S. Army medicos.
THE FRIDAY FOTO (February 24, 2022)
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH IN … ITALY
Italian(U.S. Army photo by Paolo Bovo)
Italian Army and U.S. Army paratroopers conduct an airborne operation from an Italian Air Force C-27J Spartan transport aircraft onto Alpe di Siusi in Bolzano, Italy on February 16, 2023. It turns out Alpe di Siusi is the largest high-alpine pasture in Europe.
The C-27J belongs to Italy’s 46th Air Brigade. The Italian troops are assigned to 4th Alpini Regiment of the Folgore Brigade. The American soldiers are from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, The 173rd Airborne Brigade is the Army’s Contingency Response Force in Europe, capable of projecting ready forces anywhere in the U.S. European, Africa or Central Commands’ areas of responsibility.
THE FRIDAY FOTO (February 17, 2023)
PREPARING FOR THE WORST.
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class David Rowe)
U.S Navy sailors combat a simulated casualty emergency aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in the South China Sea on February 2, 2023.
Nimitz is in the U.S. 7th fleet area conducting routine operations. 7th Fleet is the Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, and routinely operates with Allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
As we’ve said in the past at 4GWAR Blog, the U.S. Navy takes fires very seriously. At the Navy’s only boot camp, Naval Service Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois, recruits are trained in firefighting as one of five basic competencies, which also include: Damage control, watch standing, seamanship and small-arms handling/marksmanship.
The importance of firefighting aboard ship was driven home in July 2020 when the amphibious assault ship, USS Bonhomme Richard, caught fire beside the pier at Naval Base San Diego, California and burned for four days. No one died but the 22-year-old Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) was a total loss.
THE FRIDAY FOTO (February, 10, 2023)
MIND IF I BRING MY DOG, TOO?
(U.S. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Clayton Wear) Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
Master Sergeant Rudy Parsons, a pararescueman assigned to the Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123rd Special Tactics Squadron, rappels from the Big Four Bridge in Louisville, Kentucky, with Callie, a search and rescue dog last December.
When we first spotted this Air Force photo, we thought it was an amusing out-of-the-ordinary thing to do with a military service dog. But we learned that Callie was the first and — may still be — the only search and rescue dog in the entire U.S. military.
The need for such a military canine capability arose while Master Sergeant Parsons and his unit were assisting disaster relief operations in Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
Segments of Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) played a big part in the relief effort. AFSOC’s Combat Controllers specialize in securing safe air fields in war- or disaster-wracked zones as well as providing air traffic control to get needed supplies and emergency assistance in and out safely. AFSOC’s Pararescuemen (PJs), like Parsons, are members of the sole U.S. military unit specially trained and equipped for search-and-rescue (SAR).
In 2010, however, Parsons and his teammates were frustrated with how difficult and slow it was to sift through the rubble of a collapsed school, where 40 children were believed trapped.
A few days into the search, the civilian Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was finally able to land at Port-au-Prince’s crippled airport. They brought a dog to the schoolhouse debris and were able to clear it in about 20 minutes. There were no children or anyone else in rubble pile.
“It had been a couple days of wasted labor that could’ve been used to help save other lives,” Parsons said in a 2019 Air Force news story. “It was at that time that we kind of realized the importance and the capability that dogs can bring to search and rescue. Every environment presents different difficulties, but it’s all restricted by our human limitations.”
Parsons spearheaded developing the squadron’s Search and Rescue K-9 program. The effort, launched in 2018, was designed to increase the capabilities of disaster response teams through the use of canines specially trained in mountain rescue (rappelling plus ice, snow and alpine maneuvers), descending in a static line or freefall parachute drop.
The first was Callie, a Dutch Shepherd, who is still on the job. In August, the now 5-year-old 123rd Airlift Wing veteran was searching for missing people in eastern Kentucky floodwaters.
No word yet on whether Callie and her human colleagues are being sent to Turkey assist in search and rescue efforts following massive earthquakes that have killed thousands.
The Pentagon said February 8 it had transported two civilian urban search and rescue teams as part of the rapid U.S. relief effort.
THE FRIDAY FOTO (February 3, 2023)
BRADLEYS ON THE WAY.
Ukraine-bound U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicles (U.S. Transportation Command photo by Oz Suguitan) Click on the photo to enlarge image.
After weeks of discussions and negotiations with Germany and other NATO allies, the United States has agreed to send its top ground war machine, the Abrams M1A main battle tank, to Ukraine.
But its going to take several months to get the world’s most capable — but also one of the most complicated — armored vehicle systems to the front. The Pentagon says it’s going to take months to train Ukrainian troops on the Abrams and ready to face an expected Russian offensive late this year.
In the meantime, the U.S. is sending about five dozen M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles to help Ukraine in the war against Vladimir Putin’s ruthless attacks. The Bradley is tracked like a tank, but smaller and in certain circumstances more maneuverable. Unlike the Abrams, the Bradley is considered a mechanized infantry vehicle that can carry a squad of seven soldiers into the combat zone as well as its three-person crew.
Bradleys have both offensive and defensive capabilities and provide “a level of firepower and armor that will bring advantages on the battlefield as the Ukrainian military continues to defend their homeland,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder told a January 5 news conference.
The Bradley’s primary weapon is the M242 25 mm Automatic Cannon. Other weapons include a 7.62 Coaxial Machine Gun and a Tube-Launched, Optically Tracked, Wireless-Guided (TOW) Anti-Tank Missile Launcher. The M2A4 also has a commander’s independent viewer that allows the commander to scan for targets and maintain situational awareness while remaining under protective armor and without interfering with the gunner’s acquisition and engagement of targets.
In the photo above, stevedore drivers work through the night of January 25 to load Bradleys onto the transport ship ARC Integrity at the Transportation Core Dock in North Charleston, South Carolina. More than 60 Bradleys were shipped by U.S. Transportation Command as part of the U.S. military aid package to Ukraine. USTRANSCOM is a combatant command focused on projecting and sustaining U.S. military power around the globe when needed.
(U.S. Transportation Command photo by Oz Suguitan) Click on photo to enlarge image.
Operations hatch foreman Sergeant Ryan Townsend, of the Army’s 841st Transportation Battalion, inspects Bradley Fighting Vehicles as they are parked within the ARC Integrity. Integrity is an American Roll-on, Roll-off Carrier equipped with ramp access and a system of fixed and liftable cargo decks which constitute the main cargo section. This system enables the vessel to be reconfigured quickly to accommodate different cargoes and maximize lift capacity. The ramp systems make the vessels able to load and discharge cargo vehicles without cranes or other port loading facilities. ARC is the American-flagged ship operator moves tanks, helicopters and other equipment for the U.S. government and its various agencies.
THE FRIDAY FOTO (January 27, 2023)
THE COLOR OF THE WIND.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sergeant Jesus Sepulveda Torres) Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
MV-22 Osprey aircraft assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 162 prepare to take-off for a simulated raid during Marine Expeditionary Unit Exercise I at Auxiliary Landing Field Bogue, North Carolina on December 20, 2022. The raid was the culminating Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) mission for the exercise.
The colorful circles are made by two LED tip lights on the end of each rotor blade as they rotate. The colorful display has a practical safety purpose, it makes the Osprey more visible to other squadron aircraft in night flight formations (in a non-combat situation). On the ground, in the dark, the lights also alert other aircraft well as ground personnel nearby where the spinning blades are.
The Osprey can take off and land vertically like a helicopter but also fly horizontally (and faster) like and airplane when the rotors are tilted forward. These Ospreys are with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (26 MEU). An MEU, with about 2,000 Marines, a composite helicopter/tiltrotor squadron and a combat logistics battalion, is the smallest type of MAGTAF (pronounced MAG-TAFF) unit.
THE FRIDAY FOTO (January 20, 2023)
NATURE’S SPECIAL FX.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Technical Sergeant Diana M. Cossaboom). Click on photo to enlarge the image.
U.S. Air Force pilots flying a KC-135 Stratotanker, get a first hand look at the phenomenon of St. Elmo’s Fire while flying through weather in the Middle East on January 6, 2023.
St. Elmo’s Fire occurs through electric friction caused by specific weather conditions. St. Elmo’s fire, or corona discharge, is commonly observed on the periphery of propellers and along the wing tips, windshield, and nose of aircraft flying in dry snow, ice crystals,or near thunderstorms, according to the Britannica website, where you can see a more thorough explanation of the phenomenon, also known as Witchfire or Witch’s Fire.
Thsee aerial refueling tanker pilots are assigned to the 91st Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, part of the 6th Air Mobility Wing at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida.
4GWAR 