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Normandy, France. (June 6, 2024): The free world salutes the gallant troops that stormed these beaches eighty years ago to free Europe from the evil grip of the Nazis. In that these memorials are held every five years; this is the last time living participants will attend.
In this photo by MC2 Grant Grady, Retired Army Staff Sergeant Jake Larson embraces active-duty Seaman Nicole Gonzalez during a ceremony honoring the veterans who landed at Omaha Beach that fateful day. The ever-dwindling number of veterans like these travelled to Normandy to remember fallen comrades and to share their experiences, most likely for the last time.
Over sixteen million Americans served during World War II and fewer than one hundred thousand are expected to be alive by the end of 2024 according to the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs. Most are in their late nineties and by the 85th anniversary in 2029 they will be in the triple digits.
For these reasons, the U.S. military pulled out all the stops for this year’s celebration.
Parachutists jumping from World War II-era planes provided a dramatic backdrop for events honoring D-Day survivors that included fireworks, remembrances, and solemn ceremonies attended by world leaders. England’s King Charles III joined twenty-five heads of state to literally give these veterans the royal treatment. Veterans Affairs estimates one hundred and fifty American veterans travelled to Normandy and, of these, two dozen took part in the invasion.
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Undisclosed Location. Saudi Arabia. (May 27, 2024): The U.S. Marines have returned to the blazing sands of Saudi Arabia to participate in Exercise Native Fury 24. In this photo by Corporal Alfonso Livrieri, Marines and Sailors from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates conduct a long-range convoy to assess their logistical readiness. In its eighth year, Exercise Native Fury is sponsored by the U.S. Central Command and is designed to evaluate the ability of the Marines to strategically deliver logistics across the Arabian Peninsula.
More than 600 U.S. Marines, Sailors, Soldiers, and Airmen from 2nd Marine Logistics Group, 1st Theater Sustainment Command practiced responding to various hypothetical scenarios. Most of the action occurred at the Red Sea port of Yanbu where Saudi and U.S. troops offloaded an amphibious expeditionary force. The job involved moving the Command’s hundreds of vehicles, tactical operations centers, cyber communication capabilities, and communications networks. Once offloaded, the expeditionary force moved hundreds of miles inland to take up the pre-positioned equipment it would use in combat.
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Pacific Ocean. (May 25, 2024): With the arrival of artificial intelligence, the job of protecting the Navy from cyber-attack is more critical than ever. In this photo by Seaman Joey Sitter, Cyber Warfare Technician 2nd Class Paul Mendez (left) and Cyber Warfare Technician 1st Class Romeo Mashaka conduct a training exercise aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
Formerly called Cryptologic Technicians, these warriors fight in the battlespace of the future. Cyber Warfare Techs use state-of-the-art computers to perform offensive and defensive cyber operations and to investigate and track enemies in cyberspace. They are also responsible for protecting Navy networks from attack. They are also experts in communications defense and using forensics to investigate threats against Navy computer systems.
Crypto Techs detect, react, and recover from any disruptions initiated by the enemy and continually assess network vulnerability. Should a breach occur, these highly skilled warriors use their forensic skills to investigate the incident, reconstruct what happened, and then develop countermeasures to correct the problem.
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Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. (June 2, 2024): In a historical first, an active-duty Air Force officer has been crowned Miss America. In the above photo, Second Lieutenant Madison Marsh, who won the crown on January 14, 2024, proudly shows off her purple ribbon lapel pin that highlights pancreatic cancer awareness, a disease her mother died from in 2018.
In winning the crown, the 22-year-old dispelled a lot of myths about beauty pageants and those that compete in them. For Marsh, dreams of becoming an Air Force aviator began at the tender age of thirteen when she and her classmates visited NASA’s Space Camp. She set a goal to attend the Air Force Academy and began preparations for a future in flight. She did well in school and started training for her civilian pilot’s license, something she achieved at seventeen. She went on to graduate from the Air Force Academy in the spring of 2023 with a degree in physics. Upon her commissioning, she realized her dream when she received a pilot's billet.
Then tragedy struck.
In 2018, Marsh lost her mother at forty-one to pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms of the terrible disease. After her death, the family established the Whitney Marsh Foundation to raise funds for research and awareness. The foundation’s mission is to educate the public about the early warning signs of the disease to increase future patient’s chance of survival. Marsh became the charity’s co-founder and president while pursuing a master’s degree in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
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Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. (June 1, 2024): There is an old saying “Drivers may not be the pride of the ride, but without them, the pride don’t ride”. In this photo by Corporal Megan Ozaki, Marine Corporal Gage Barbieri with Headquarters Battalion, 2d Marine Division works on a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. Officially called Motor Transport Operators, these dedicated professionals are responsible for maintaining and operating both commercial and tactical vehicles.
They operate wheeled vehicles of all kinds to transport cargo and troops over rough terrain in support of combat operations. They make sure all vehicles are inspected and maintained in top condition and ready to go into combat. Operators also oversee repair and maintenance of transport equipment including fuel and water tankers that are essential to support units in the field. They are also experts on the proper loading and unloading of cargo and convoy defense techniques. They also prepare vehicles for movement via air, rail, or sea.
To become a Motor Transport Operator, candidates must pass 10 weeks of Basic Combat Training followed by six weeks of Advanced Individual Training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. The training is a mix of classroom work and simulators plus over two hundred hours spent in actual vehicles in field training environments. Training subjects include loading/unloading operations, vehicle-mounted navigation, and Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) systems, radio communications, convoy security and defense, and the safe transport of Hazardous Materials.
While not the flashiest of jobs in the military, Motor Transport Operators are the backbone of all logistics and combat missions.
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Saudi Arabia. (May 28, 2024): To achieve air superiority over the enemy, America flies the most sophisticated aircraft in the world. However, these fifth-generation fighters are useless without somewhere to land and take off. In the photo above, an Air Force pavement and equipment technician assigned to the 378th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron cuts concrete to repair the flightline. The success of any air campaign rests on the skill and technical expertise of these specialists to keep runways operating in some of the most austere environments in the world.
Pavement and equipment technicians construct and maintain asphalt runways, aircraft parking spaces, and roadways. Their job involves everything from construction duties to detonating explosives as they build runways and create the needed facilities. They operate and maintain heavy construction equipment such as loaders, graders, bulldozers, backhoes, and dump trucks. They also transport heavy equipment in tractor-trailer combinations quickly and safely to where they are needed. Once on site, these technicians ensure that all safety and environmental regulations are followed in the handling and storing of construction materials. Perhaps the most dangerous part of their job is designing demolition projects and placing and detonating explosives.
To become a pavement and equipment technician, candidates must be at least seventeen and possess a high school diploma or equivalent. After Basic, students attend sixty-nine days of advanced training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and are likely to be deployed overseas in support of air operations.
America’s sophisticated aircraft can land virtually anywhere in the world thanks to these highly trained runway construction crews.