THE FRIDAY FOTO: May 17, 2024

PICTURE-PERFECT PATROL

(U.S. Coast Guard photo by Tim Cusak, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)    Click on the photo to enlarge the image.

A small boat launched from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Oliver Henry patrols near a volcanic island in the Northern Mariana Islands on April 23, 2024.

The small (2-kilometer, 1.24-mile)-wide island of Farallon de Pajaros (also known as Uracas) is the northernmost and most active volcano of the Mariana Islands. Its relatively frequent eruptions,dating back to the mid-19th century, earned it the nickname “Lighthouse of the Western Pacific.” It is also part of the Mariana Trench National Marine Sanctuary.

The Oliver Henry is a Sentinel-class fast response cutter (FRC) designed for multiple missions, including drug
and migrant interdiction; ports, waterways and coastal security; fishery patrols; search and rescue; and national defense.

The Oliver Henry is one of three fast response cutters based at Guam,  the largest, most populous, and southernmost of the Marianas. The 154-foot-long vessel with a crew of 24, arrived at the northern Pacific island in December 2020 following a nearly 11,000- nautical mile journey from Key West, Florida.

The cutter is named after Oliver T. Henry, Jr., an African American Coast Guardsman who enlisted in 1940 and was the first to break the color barrier of a then-segregated Service, where all black sailors served as mess stewards or cooks. During World War II, Henry served aboard the Cutter Northland, becoming the Coast Guard’s first black machinist mate.

With the help of Lieutenant Commander Carlton Skinner, Northland’s executive officer, Henry was transferred to the engineering division where he blazed a trail for minorities in the military as he climbed from enlisted ranks while serving on 10 different Coast Guard Cutters, finally retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer in 1966.

THE FRIDAY FOTO (May 3, 2024)

ENTER THE DRAGON.

(U.S. Army photo by K. Kassens) Click on photo to enlarge image.

Soldiers in the Chinese language course at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, perform a dragon dance at a Language and Culture Day event at Clay Hall on the school’s campus at Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg), North Carolina on April 25, 2024.

The dance is performed by a team of dancers who manipulate a long flexible giant puppet of a dragon using poles positioned at regular intervals along the length of the dragon. The dance team simulates the imagined movements of this river spirit in a sinuous, undulating manner.

The event, part of Heritage Week, featured various performances, exhibits, language demonstrations and food sampling from the eleven current languages taught at the Special Warfare Center and School, which provides professional growth and learning for soldiers in the Army’s three special operations branches: Special Forces, Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations.

THE FRIDAY FOTO (January 12, 2024)

HEAVE HO!

(U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Graves) Click on the photo to enlarge the image.

The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star “tows” the cutter while on the fast ice in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica on December 29, 2023. Fast ice (also called land-fast ice, landfast ice, and shore-fast ice) is sea ice that has  fastened” to the coastline, to the sea floor along shoals, or to grounded icebergs. 

But what is really happening here? The crew of the cutter Polar Star were participating in an ice liberty, sort of a break or recess, during the serious work of Operation Deep Freeze 23. The free time gives the crew a moment to walk on the ice and pose for a photo of them appearing to tow the largest vessel in the U.S. Coast Guard.

Polar Star, the only U.S. heavy ice breaker, and its crew journey to the southern continent annually in support of Operation Deep Freeze,  a joint military service mission to resupply the U.S. Antarctic stations of the National Science Foundation, the lead agency for the United States Antarctic Program.

 The icebreaking cutter plays a key role in the operation, making a channel through thick ice to allow fuel and supply ships to reach McMurdo Station, the U.S. Antarctic Program’s logistics hub and largest station.

The U.S. military’s support of U.S. Antarctic research began in 1955, according to the Defense Department. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command continues to lead the Joint Task Force-Support Forces Antarctica team in providing logistic support for the United States Antarctic Program. However, it is a New York State Air National Guard unit — the 109th Airlift Wing, at Stratton Air National Guard Base, Schenectady, New York — that provides airlift support to the National Science Foundation’s South Pole research program by flying LC-130H Hercules airlifters, modified with wheel-ski gear.

THE FRIDAY FOTO (December 29. 2023)

A HOLIDAY ALBUM:

Since this will be the last last FRIDAY FOTO of 2023, your 4GWAR editor thought we’d end the year with a series of photos capturing the holiday spirit across the services and around the globe.  To enlarge the image, just click on the photos.

We hope the remaining 12 Days of Christmas are merry and the New Year brings all of you joy, peace and prosperity.

There will be some new features and some neglected old ones coming to 4GWAR Blog in 2024. so keep in touch.

(U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sergeant Alan Ricker) Click on photo to enlarge image

Service members and their families celebrate the start of the holiday season during the 54th annual Freedom Tower Lighting Celebration at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Hawaii on December 15, 2023.

**** **** ****

          (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sergeant Olivia Ortiz)

U.S. Marines with 4th Law Enforcement Battalion maneuver snow machines and sleds filled with toys in Galena, Alaska on December 17, 2023. The 1st Marine Aircraft Wing’s Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 153 — part of , Marine Aircraft Group 24 —  transported snow machines, personnel and sleds filled with toys to assist in delivering a message of joy and hope to children in small Alaskan villages throughout the holiday season. The Toys for Tots mission serves a dual purpose: Bolstering community relations on America’s last frontier while enhancing the Marines’ ability to operate in the Arctic.

**** **** ****

               (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sergeant Kendra A. Ransum)

Soldiers in the U.S. Army’s Silver Wings Parachute Demonstration Team freefall over the landing zone near Fort Moore, Georgia as part of Operation Toy Drop on December 13, 2023. There were four lifts in all, the first three consisting of static line drops by Army paratroopers while the final lift was a high altitude – low opening jump — that included the Grinch.

**** **** ****

               (U.S. Navy Photo by Musician 1st Class Seth S. Johnson)

Members of the U.S. Navy Band Sea Chanters perform a selection for a Holiday Concert in Washington, D.C. Several of the ensembles within the Navy Band perform a show together at the end of the year to celebrate the holidays.

**** **** ****

(U.S. Army photo by SSG Torrance Saunders)

A soldier gets help strapping on his helmet during another toy drop  at Fort Liberty, North Carolina on December 7, 2023. The U.S Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne), in conjunction with local Fort Liberty and partner nations’ airborne organizations, conduct the Randy Oler Memorial Operation Toy Drop 2.0, a combined airborne training event at Fort Liberty between December 4 and December 15, 2023 to increase joint airborne proficiency and community relations.

**** **** ****

               (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Katie Mullikin)

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Storm Dillard helps a student communicate over land mobile radios during “Radio Santa” at Beck Row, Suffolk, England on December 8, 2023. Airmen volunteer annually at local schools surrounding Royal Air Force Mildenhall to give young students an opportunity to speak with Santa Claus.

**** **** ****

   (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Technical Sergeant Mackenzie Bacalzo)

U.S. Airmen and their families welcome Santa after he arrived on an F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, South Carolina, on December 2, 2023. The kids talked to Santa, played games and decorated cookies with Mrs. Claus.

**** **** ****

                    (U.S. Army photo by Sergeant Gabriel S. Villalobos)

U.S. Army Command Sergeant Major Keyon Cummings, of the 36th Engineer Brigade, places a wreath at the headstone of a veteran at the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen, Texas on November 25, 2023. Active duty military at nearby Fort Cavazos were encouraged to attend the event and participate in honoring those laid to rest at the cemetery.

**** **** ****

                 (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Spencer Tobler)

Members of the U.S. Air Force, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, Royal Canadian Air Force, Republic of Korea Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force as well as civilian volunteers decorate bundle boxes during the annual bundle building event in support of Operation Christmas Drop 2023 at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on December 2, 2023. The tradition began during the Christmas season in 1952 when a B-29 Superfortress aircrew saw islanders waving at them from the island of Kapingamarangi,  3,500 miles southwest of Hawaii. In the spirit of Christmas, the aircrew dropped a bundle of supplies attached to a parachute to the islanders, giving the operation its name. Airdrop operations now include more than 50 islands throughout the Pacific.

**** **** ****

                          (U.S. Air Force photo by Yasuo Osakabe)

U.S. Air Force Captain Miranda Bapty, deputy mission commander of the Operation Christmas Drop 2023 (OCD 23), flies over the Republic of Palau on December 3, 2023 on one of OCD 23’s package drops. Bapty’s aircraft, CallSign Santa 36,  delivered two bundles to the people of Koror. Each year, the U.S. Air Force and partner nations deliver to remote islands in the South-Eastern Pacific.

SHAKO: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, U.S. NATIONAL GUARD

THE OLDEST SERVICE TURNS 387.

On Wednesday, December 13, 20232, the U.S. National Guard celebrated its 387tth birthday. Yes, that’s right. The National Guard is older the Army or the Navy — 140 years older than the United States of America.

That’s because the Defense Department considers the dates of initial authorizing legislation to be the birthdate of organized units. For a detailed explanation, click here.

On December 13, 1636, the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony ordered the organization of the colony’s militia companies into three regiments: the North, South and East Regiments. The colonists had adopted the English militia system which obligated all males, between the ages of 16 and 60, to possess arms and participate in the defense of the community.

The First Muster by Don Troiani (Courtesy U.S. National Guard)

The early colonial militia drilled once a week and provided guard details each evening to sound the alarm in case of attack. Growing friction with Native Americans boiled over into brutal warfare in the 1630s, requiring the Massachusetts militia to be in a high state of readiness. The organization of the North, South and East Regiments increased efficiency and responsiveness. Although the exact date is not known, the first muster of the East Regiment took place in Salem, Massachusetts.

The organizational descendants of those first Massachusetts militia regiments – the 181st Infantry, the 182nd Infantry, the 101st Field Artillery, and the 101st Engineer Battalion of the Massachusetts Army National Guard – share the distinction of being the oldest units in the United States military.

To mark the occasion, the National Guard Bureau website profiles 25 Army and Air National Guardsmen among the many who have served at home and overseas in places like Niger, Kuwait, Slovakia, Norway and Guatemala in 2023.

Major General Jonathan Stubbs greets returning Guardsmen before they are reunited with their families in Little Rock. More than 350 Arkansas Army National Guardsmen returned home December 9, 2023, from a nine-month deployment to Southwest Asia. (Photo by John Oldham)

*** *** ***

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

THE FRIDAY FOTO (November, 17, 2023)

TUBA TWINS.

(U.S. Department of Defense photo by Navy Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Michael Hogan) Click on the photo to enlarge the image.

Assistant Sergeant Elisio Comboio, left, assigned to the Angolan Armed Forces Band, and U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Will Dellinger, play tubas during a U.S. Marine Corps birthday celebration at the Intercontinental Hotel in Luanda, Angola’s capital city on November 10, 2023.

Dellinger is assigned to the U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa Band’s 5 Star Brass. The 45-member USAFE-AFAFRICA Band toured through Angola in honor of Angolan National Day, November 4-13, 2023. The band partnered with the Angolan government as a way to celebrate the 48th anniversary of the nation’s independence, as well as using music to strengthen cultural ties and the partnership between the the United States and Angola through music.

For more photos, click here.

THE FRIDAY FOTO (September 1, 2023)

THE COWS OF TEXAS ARE UPON YOU.

(U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Heidi Bucins) Click on photo to enlarge image.

Longhorn cattle graze while walking through Altus Air Force Base (AFB), in Altus, Oklahoma, during the base’s 25th Annual Cattle Drive on August 24, 2023.

The tradition started in 1999 in partnership with the local community to pay homage to the Great Western Cattle Trail of the late 1800s, which started in south Texas and went north all the way to the Canadian border.

The Texas longhorn is a hybrid breed resulting from a random mixing of Spanish retinto (criollo) stock and English cattle that Anglo-American frontiersmen brought to Texas from southern and midwestern states in the 1820s and 1830s, according to the Texas State Historical Association.

Leaders of the 97th Air Mobility Wing at Altus saddled up and helped drive approximately 30 longhorn cattle through the base. To date, Altus AFB is the only Air Force base to host a cattle drive.

To see more photos of this moo-ving event, click here.

Apologies for the pun but the 97th Air Mobility Wing’s Public Affairs office made me do it. Click here.

THE FRIDAY FOTO (August 25, 2023)

THE EAGLE AND LADY LIBERTY.

( U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Petty Officer John Masson.) Click on photo to enlarge image.

Sometimes you just want to see a pretty picture.

In this one, the U.S. Coast Guard tall ship, Eagle, lies at anchor near the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor on July 28, 2023. The ship and crew are on a four-month training deployment for Coast Guard Academy cadets and officer candidates that includes visits to Europe, Bermuda and ports along the Eastern Seaboard.

As we’ve noted in previous 4GWAR posts, the Eagle is the only active (operational) commissioned sailing vessel in the U.S. maritime services. USS Constitution (Old Ironsides), launched in 1797, is the oldest commissioned ship in the United States Navy, but serves  as a pierside museum and seldom takes to sea.

A three-masted barque, the Eagle has a permanent crew of eight officers and 50 enlisted personnel to maintain the ship year-round and provide the knowledge and seamanship for training  up to 150 cadets at a time.

In the midst of a tumultuous summer of deadly record-breaking heat across the northern hemisphere, wildfires from Greece to Hawaii, seldom seen-Pacific hurricanes, desert floods, persistent economic concerns and a widening political gap, we thought this peaceful sunset on the waters around one of the world’s busiest cities, might feel a little calming and with a ship named Eagle and a statue named Liberty — maybe a little inspiring.

THE FRIDAY FOTO (July 28, 2023)

KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE COBRA.

(U.S. Army photo by Sergeant Nicholas Ramshaw) Click on photo to enlarge image.

Sergeant Major 1st Class Boworn Pompang, a Special Warfare School Instructor with the Royal Thai Army, teaches — with what appears to be a King Cobra — snake familiarization to U.S. and Thai soldiers during exercise Hanuman Guardian 2023 at the Special Warfare School in Lop Buri, Thailand on July 12, 2023.

Hanuman Guardian is an annual, bilateral army-to-army exercise hosted by the Royal Thai Army with elements from U.S. Army Pacific. The exercise is designed to improve humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capabilities and enhance mission readiness and interoperability between the two armies. At the same time exercise participants work to improve the quality of life in rural areas.

For a short video about the jungle warfare training and a brief interview with the Sergeant Major, click here.

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.