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Nausori Highlands, Fiji. (October 4, 2024): They are separated by 5,700 miles of ocean, but that has not prevented the Nevada National Guard from striking a new partnership with the island nation of Fiji. In this photo by Sergeant First Class Whitney Hughes, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Alec Canepa instructs his Fijian counterparts in military mountaineering techniques during Exercise Cartwheel 2024. The Nevada National Guard is partnered with Fiji and Tonga under the Department of Defense National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program. For twenty-six years, the program has paired American National Guard units with allied countries for training and humanitarian purposes.
This year’s exercise included two weeks of intensive training involving over four hundred multinational forces from seven nations, including the U.S., Fiji, Tonga, Australia, New Zealand, France, and the United Kingdom. The Nevada Guard, including Soldiers from the 609th Engineer Company, spearheaded key activities such as rappelling and live-fire exercises. The Americans also coordinated plans to come to Fiji’s rescue in a humanitarian crisis. The current Defense Cooperation Agreement between the U.S. and Fiji/Tonga includes security funding and considerable support for Fiji’s peacekeeping forces and Navy. The security cooperation agreement also calls for American military protection to ensure the territorial integrity of Fiji.
For the Nevada Soldiers, this was a chance to travel to an exotic locale to develop personal and cultural bonds with our allies in the Indo-Pacific.
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Augusta, Georgia. (September 30, 2024): Activated and commanded by the Governors of their respective States, America’s National Guard has come to the rescue of millions of Hurricane Helene victims and their efforts have just begun. In this photo by Specialist Ayanna Tillman, Georgia Army National Guard soldiers work with Georgia State Defense Force personnel to unload cases of water for distribution to hard hit neighborhoods. Currently, there are over 6,700 Guardsmen mobilized to provide response and recovery help, according to National Guard Bureau Officials. They also predict the recovery will likely be a long process.
After landfall near Tallahassee, Florida, Helene slammed into the Southeast including the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia. As of this writing, 220 people are confirmed dead and hundreds are still missing. Survivors lack basic services like running water and electricity and many are isolated in remote towns where roads have disappeared and there is no cell service.
It has truly been a national response. Soldiers and Airmen from sixteen states have blanketed the area with patrols, helping clear debris, and rescuing stranded people with high water vehicles and boats. The troops delivered all manner of relief supplies to grateful neighbors using more than forty helicopters and over six hundred military vehicles. The Guard helped clear routes for local first responders and conducted numerous search and rescue operations.
The relief operation also includes some of America’s most elite units. The XVIII Airborne Corps deployed a thousand Soldiers to western North Carolina and the 82nd Airborne Division delivered food, water, and other critical aid to North Carolina.
This recovery promises to be long but America can be proud of the National Guard and their rapid response to this and other crises.
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Appalachia, October 8, 2024,
State-activated guard units are continuing to deliver the emergency disaster help desperately needed in the Appalachians after Helene’s destruction.
They continue to save their neighbors in the devastated Carolinas, Northern Georgia and Eastern Tennessee.
SOT is privileged to send $5,000 monetary relief for South Carolina guard members and their families while they take care of everyone else. Awesome Americans in action. Tangible action. Practical action. Knowledgeable action. Action that preserves lives in the real world.
SOT also re-authorized significant food and water distributions for ongoing guard units performing these critical activities, all picked up by 5-tons and taken by air into the devastated areas to sustain the guard’s work.
Makes you proud to be an American when you see how people step up directly for one another.
~~ The SOT Team
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Colorado Springs, Colorado. (September 27, 2024): In this photo by Dylan Smith, the Air Force’s costumed mascot, “The Bird,” performs in the tunnel prior to a football game against San Jose State University at Falcon Stadium. The service chose the falcon, known for its speed, power, and agility. But the burning question is... “Does the Air Force Academy house and train live falcons?”
The Academy does indeed have an aviary of falcons who are maintained by twelve cadet falconers chosen from each new class to replace graduating seniors. The Academy first adopted live falcons in 1959, and they have performed at public events and football games ever since.
Many cadet handlers have little or no experience with birds before coming to the Academy, so it is vital they receive proper instruction. Cadets must learn to successfully train and safely maintain the physical health of the birds. Falconry candidates undergo a weekslong tryout process that includes a raptor licensing exam on biology, feeding habits, and health care of birds of prey.
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“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13
Gulfport, Mississippi. (September 28, 2024): The heroic deeds of a Navy Seabee and his tragic loss were honored this week through a reenactment of the Battle of Dong Zoai which took place in Vietnam in 1965. In this photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class James Hong, Navy Chief Selects reenact the famous battle that took the life of Construction Mechanic 3rd Class Marvin Shields who was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He is the first and only Navy Seabee to be awarded the medal.
The Battle of Dong Zoai was part of the so-called Vietcong Summer and involved an unfinished Army Special Forces Camp that had been overrun by two thousand uniformed Vietcong. Sheilds was assigned to Seabee Team 1104 and deployed to Vietnam in February 1965.
Once the battle began, Sheilds, although wounded by mortar fire, continued to resupply his fellow Americans with ammunition and helped return enemy fire. The Vietcong had launched a massive, close-range attack with flamethrowers, hand grenades and small-arms fire. Wounded a second time, Shields nevertheless assisted carrying a more critically wounded man to safety. After four more hours of non-stop combat, Sheilds was wounded a third time yet still volunteered to help take out a machine gun nest. After conquering the enemy position with a rocket launcher, Sheilds was injured again, shot in both legs, on his way back to safety. He was subsequently airlifted to Saigon.
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Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, Indiana. (September 19, 2024): There are many ways to detect and diffuse land mines, but sometimes a troop simply needs to get down and personal with these killers. In this photo by Jason Wilkinson, Technical Sergeant Clay Gorham, an explosive ordnance disposal technician from the 355th Civil Engineer Squadron Contingency, Exercise and Deployment, displays the oldest and most primitive method of disposing of explosive devices.
The tedious process, which dates to World War II, begins by carefully clearing debris around the device to determine what type of explosive it contains. Next, a knife blade is inserted at a thirty-degree angle into the ground around the mine to allow room to defuse the device. Any careless move spells instant death.
There are two main types of land mines, one to destroy tanks and armored vehicles and the other to kill humans. Anti-tank mines typically are larger and require more weight to set them off. Infantry troops will not likely trigger these devices.