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Fayetteville, Arkansas. (December 30, 2024): Life for most college students revolves around dating, partying, and a carefree existence. To others, however, college life also involves structure, physical fitness, and discipline. In this photo by Cadet Alexander Chrisco, University of Arkansas Army ROTC cadets complete a water survival training event. These cadets are full time college students who also participate in the military’s Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC) in the hopes of one day becoming a commissioned officer. Unlike their compatriots, these students participate in military training, physical conditioning, and leadership development in addition to their academic coursework.
Each military branch offers four-year ROTC scholarships to eligible students at more than 1,700 U.S. colleges across the country. The Army ROTC is composed of eight brigades which command 273 units of 20,000 cadets at any given time. The selection criteria for Army ROTC scholarships includes SAT/ACT scores, academic achievement, and athletics. The Army also screens for leadership potential, high interview scores, and above average physical fitness. (For the eager beavers, there is also a Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps at 1,600 high schools nationally).
Cadets get a chance to try out military life in the first two years without incurring any future service commitment. For their junior and senior year, cadets sign an agreement with the Army to serve on active duty, the National Guard, or the Army Reserve.
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Tallahassee, Florida. (January 1, 2025): This week, America experienced a great sense of loss in the passing of former President Jimmy Carter. I joined the Army in 1976, the year he was elected, and was proud to serve four years under him as our commander in chief. For those too young to remember, this was a tumultuous time for the nation. The Viet Nam War had just ended and the American military was undergoing a painful transition after ten years of war. With the ending of the draft, the armed forces struggled with the “all volunteer” experiment and it would be many years for the armed forces to recover. The Iranian Hostage crisis, a sluggish economy, and double-digit inflation doomed his presidency yet he was a steady hand who gave our forces time to reform.
Although portrayed in the media as a simple peanut farmer, James Earl Carter was a trained nuclear engineer who worked under famed Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of the Navy's nuclear program. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and was assigned to USS Wyoming as an ensign. He served on various surface assignments and was destined to become the engineering officer for the USS Seawolf, one of the first submarines to operate on atomic power. When his father died in July 1953, Carter resigned from the Navy with the rank of lieutenant and returned to his farm in Georgia. To express its gratitude, the Navy Seawolf-class submarine Jimmy Carter is named for the 39th president.
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Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. (December 28, 2024): Due to increasing attacks by Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea, the Djiboutian Coast Guard has intensified training for at-sea rescues. In this photo by Staff Sergeant Jana Somero, a U.S. Airman recovers personnel from the water by helicopter during operation Bull Shark, a biannual joint training event involving the U.S., Djiboutian, Spanish and French navies. The exercise simulated multiple personnel recoveries at-sea that challenged the ability of participating nations to coordinate land, sea, and air components in an emergency.
To prepare for Bull Shark, the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadron conducted weapons familiarization training for Djiboutian Coast Guardsmen in March. American Sailors also trained with the Djiboutian Navy and Coast Guard for three months on maritime navigation, boat operations, boarding, search and seizure, and rescue operations.
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Pacific Ocean. (December 18, 2024): Their job is to transfer tons of high explosives, ship to ship, while underway at sea and it is dangerous business. In this photo by Seaman Malina Davy, Lieutenant Commander Maria Relayo inspects ammunition prepared for transport to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. The ammunition is being delivered by the Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship USNS Washington Chambers, the Military Sealift Command’s newest class of dry cargo/ammunition ships.
In the Navy, ammunition is transferred to aircraft carriers primarily through a process called "underway replenishment". The at-sea replenishment concept began in the early 20th century and was used extensively by the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. The ability to replenish ship’s supplies while underway permitted U.S. carrier task forces to remain at sea indefinitely. A dedicated ammunition ship like the Washington sails alongside the carrier to perform either a “connected” or “vertical” replenishment of supplies.
Ammunition can be delivered by a "connected replenishment" method (side-by-side transfer) or a "vertical replenishment" using helicopters to deliver cargo directly to the carrier depending on the situation. Sailing alongside a carrier while transferring ammo between two moving vessels is challenging at best. Both ships must run side-by-side at precisely the same course and speed for a long period of time while managing volatile explosives.
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San Diego, California. (December 19, 2024): To many veterans, their basic training experience was the toughest on earth and many believe today’s standards are softer than those of previous generations. In this photo by Corporal Sarah M. Grawcock, Marine Corps Drill Instructor Sergeant Nicholas Marsh, with India Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, instructs recruits before they are issued their rifles. Will these young troops experience a different type of Basic Training than their elders?
Absolutely. And for very good reasons.
First, the profile of Generation Z is quite different than previous generations. Born into the computer age, young folks today are better educated and more technically competent than any of their predecessors. Likewise, modern drill instructors have adapted their ways to reach this highly technical generation more effectively.
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San Diego, California. (December 19, 2024): It seems that nearly every military in the world has the custom, but what is the purpose of the salute? In this photo by Corporal Alexander O. Devereux, a Marine Corps drill master salutes the colors during a graduation ceremony at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. Every U.S. servicemember quickly learns how to properly render a salute and when and where to do it.
There is no definitive answer to the origin of the salute. The most common rumor dates the practice to medieval times when knights would raise their visors and display an open palm to show they were unarmed. The most likely explanation was a fundamental change in military headgear. In the English Army, for example, a junior Soldier would tip a hat to a superior which worked until the invention of the chin strap. From then on, it was impractical to remove one’s hat so the services adopted the simpler gesture of grasping the hat's visor which eventually morphed into today’s salute.