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New York City. (May 31, 2025): In this photo by Lance Corporal Christopher Prelle, members of the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon execute their "bursting bomb" sequence during Fleet Week in Times Square. The first Fleet Week in New York was held in 1984, timed with the Memorial Day weekend, and has been a tradition ever since. During the annual celebration, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard ships dock in New York harbor to allow the public to tour vessels and meet service members.
The famous Silent Drill Platoon is a highly disciplined drill unit that exemplifies the pride and professionalism of the Marine Corps. The platoon is a 24-man rifle squad that performs military drill movements without any verbal cadence or commands. Each member is individually selected from the Schools of Infantry located in Camp Pendleton, California and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Once selected, Marines are assigned to Marine Barracks Washington to serve a two-year ceremonial tour.
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Novo Selo Training Area, Bulgaria. (May 12, 2025): Situated on the Black Sea, the tiny country of Bulgaria plays an outsized role in defending NATO’s eastern flank. In this photo by Specialist Nathan Arellano Tlaczani, Specialist Samuel Roberts heads to cover after planting a charge during a live fire exercise at this sprawling military base. The U.S. Army and the Bulgarian military maintain a strong military-to-military relationship, characterized by joint exercises, training rotations, and the sharing of military facilities.
In April 2006, joint Bulgarian–American Military Facilities were established for tank gunnery, reconnaissance, nuclear, biological, and chemical defense training. As part of the agreement, U.S. Army units conduct numerous joint maneuvers with the Bulgarian Armed Forces including urban assault courses and military police exercises.
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Groton, Connecticut. (May 13, 2025): It is a submariner’s worst nightmare, finding themselves trapped in a stricken submarine hundreds of feet below the waves and the air is running out. To allay these fears, the U.S. Navy has established the Basic Enlisted Submarine School to teach Sailors how to escape in such situations. In this photo by Seaman Duncan Woodard, a student enters the school's pressurized submarine escape trainer. The trainer teaches Sailors how to escape from a submarine that is unable to surface and then survive on the surface until help arrives. The school is an eight-week introduction to the basic theory, construction, and operation of nuclear-powered submarines with courses on shipboard organization, submarine safety, and escape procedures.
The curriculum focusses on three critical areas: firefighting, damage control, and how to escape from a submarine.
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Yokota Air Base, Japan. (May 15, 2025): In the sixties, most American youngsters could be found building and launching rockets in their back yard, dreaming of the day they too would travel into space. In this photo by Airman 1st Class David S. Calcot, Space Force Lieutenant Colonel Kaoru Elliott, second from left, Deputy Commander of U.S. Space Forces-Japan and Nikki Palmer, a Space Systems Command chief engineer, watch model rocket launches with Yokota West Elementary School students. The event is part of the American military’s science, technology, engineering, and math education (STEM) outreach program. A Space Systems Command team visited Defense Department schools overseas for the first time to expand its outreach beyond the continental U.S. and reinforce its commitment to engaging military-students in the hard sciences.
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Camp Pendleton, California. (May 16, 2025): When an American aircraft goes down in enemy territory, the military must move fast to recover air crews and any extremely sensitive information on board. In this photo by Sergeant Bryant Rodriguez, Marines cut into a vehicle during the Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel (TRAP) course, a program specifically designed for the recovery of aircraft, personnel, and equipment in the event an aircraft goes down either due to mechanical failures or by enemy fire.
The course teaches how to develop and execute plans to recover the personnel, aircraft, and any sensitive material in the event that they go down. Once assembled, a highly skilled team of professionals will safely extract downed aviators while destroying downed aircraft to prevent sensitive materials from falling into the wrong hands.
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Okinawa, Japan. (May 26, 2025): A weapon invented to lay siege to castles continues to serve today as a Marine Platoon’s personal artillery piece. In this photo by Lance Corporal Rodney Frye, Corporal Juan Garcia employs an M224 60mm mortar during a field training exercise. Corporal Garcia, a native of the Dominican Republic, is a mortarman with 12th Littoral Combat Team, 12th Marine Littoral Regiment, 3rd Marine Division.
The use of mortars in combat dates to the invention of gunpowder during the 13th century. The Koreans were reportedly the first to use mortars in a naval battle in 1413. These early gunsmiths fashioned a gourd shaped weapon called a wan'gu that quickly became a fortress-defense weapon.