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“The first day, everyone is yelling at me. I don’t know what I’m doing. They just shaved my head.” USMC Recruit.
Camp Clark, Nevada, Missouri. (April 12, 2024): These random thoughts from a terrified young recruit are typical of the shock they experienced when entering Basic training. Their angst is often shared by their family members as they too adjust to their role in their loved one’s career. The Marine Corps understands this anxiety and has created a program to help recruits, and their families, prepare for entry into the Corps.
Officially called “Poolees,” the program is for recruits who have signed up but have yet to begin training. Many are still in high school and may spend months in the delayed entry program. The Marines now require Poolees to participate in activities each month including physical training, learning basic customs and traditions, and they also get a chance to meet with Drill Instructors on what to expect.
It is also an excellent opportunity for parents to learn more about Basic training and it allows Drill Instructors to answer any questions or concerns they may have. The Marines even sponsor “Poolees Family Nights” where parents of recent boot camp graduates and those with children currently in boot camp can lend support and share information with Poolees parents.
The result is recruits who are better physically and mentally prepared for Basic training and whose parents have been thoroughly briefed on every aspect of what is come.
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East China Sea. (April 21, 2024): Test anxiety is an unpleasant fact for U.S. Sailors seeking promotion, and for good reason. In this photo by Seaman Apprentice Aaron Haro Gonzalez, Sailors aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt take the Navy-wide advancement exam which will likely decide whether they will advance in their careers. Sailors compete against each other in the same “rate” or profession and for the few promotable slots available which makes the examination all that more critical.
To be eligible to take the exam, Sailors must meet all the necessary requirements and be recommended by their commanding officer for promotion. The test is standardized to provide an unbiased tool to help rank qualified candidates for promotion. The exam consists of 175 questions related to a Sailor’s duties and responsibilities and the results are part of the formula used by the Navy to promote the very best.
For these Sailors, test anxiety is an unpleasant fact as they compete to advance in their careers.
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Atlantic Ocean. (April 11, 2024): Most parents are fearful when their teenager drives the family car, let alone a multi-billion-dollar warship at sea. In this photo by MC2 Jesse Turner, Seaman Aleeke Johnson and Seaman Ijiah Corbett, assigned to the amphibious transport dock USS New York, participate in helmsman training on the ship's bridge. Sailors like these are given the remarkable role of guiding their ship’s course and speed as young as nineteen. They are responsible for steering and adjusting the ship’s course while applying their expertise to navigate ever-changing inshore waters. The crew depends on the helmsman to guarantee the ship will stay on course no matter the weather conditions.
Sailors receive hundreds of hours of hands-on bridge training guided by a veteran helmsman with years’ experience before they can take the helm. Candidates for Master Helmsman are required to “take the wheel” during multiple “evolutions” or deployments to their area of responsibility. During these voyages, these young people learn to maneuver in tricky waters and under the unique scenarios they would encounter in combat.
So, the next time your teenager asks for the keys…
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Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii. (April 15, 2024) In past wars, “signals intelligence” involved the relatively simple task of monitoring enemy radio and teletype transmissions. Today, the military must “sense” multiple enemy signals, from cell phone traffic to heat plumes, to give commanders a comprehensive view of the battlefield. In this photo by Staff Sergeant Samuel Ruiz, Marine Corps Lance Corporal Angel Garcia, an electronic signals intelligence analyst with 3rd Radio Battalion, III Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group, sets up a field expedient antenna during Corvus Dawn 24 exercises.
During the war games, the Marines rehearsed collecting simulated enemy electronic signals while reducing their own “footprint.” The 3rd Radio Battalion is a highly skilled team of specialized signals intelligence and electronic warfare experts who provide targeting assistance and electronic surveillance to unit commanders. These teams operate what is called a “Kill Web,” a network that seamlessly integrates intelligence and warfare capabilities on land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace.
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Cheyenne, Wyoming. (April 15, 2024): In this adorable photo by Master Sergeant Jon Alderman, the daughter of Air Force Major Christopher Valine shows off her new smile, minus a few teeth, since they had last seen each other. Major Valine is returning from a three-month deployment to the U.S. Africa Command. Headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, the Africa Command is responsible for 53 African nations with the exception of Egypt.
Air Force personnel typically deploy for between six to twelve months but they may also do a series of two to three months stints in quick succession. For military families, these rotating deployments can cause havoc with work, school schedules, and vacations.
The Africa Command performs critical missions including neutralizing terrorist groups like al-Shabaab and Boko Haram, interdicting illicit activity in the Gulf of Guinea, and providing humanitarian relief to our African partners.
The Command has military and civilian personnel stationed at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti; RAF Molesworth, United Kingdom, and at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. It also maintains offices of security cooperation in thirty-eight African countries.
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Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington. (April 19, 2024): They are a fearless bunch of parachutists who perform daring rescues of downed pilots and they help prepare others to survive captivity. In this photo by Senior Airman Nicholas Rupiper, an Airman completes a water relay exercise as part of training to become a survival, evasion, resistance, and escape (SERE) specialist. A SERE specialist is an expert on personal survival and enemy resistance who plans and executes personnel recovery missions and trains “high value” targets to avoid or escape from capture. SERE specialists teach individuals how to resist interrogation and exploitation by the enemy.
Today’s SERE training takes lessons learned from the experiences of former POWs to coach potential targets on what is expected of them to “return with honor.” The Air Force 336th Training Group produces SERE instructors as part of its Special Warfare Operations. The instructors teach survival skills, how to evade capture, the military code of conduct, and techniques to escape from captivity. The training is targeted towards people with a high risk of capture such as pilots, aircrew, special operations, intelligence, and foreign diplomatic personnel.
In World War II, the Navy realized that three quarters of its downed pilots had come down alive but only five percent survived. Air crews either could not swim or did not have the survival skills needed. Later in the Korean War, the enemy routinely violated the terms of the Geneva Conventions by torturing and exploiting U.S. prisoners for intelligence or political reasons. Given this new reality, the military put a greater focus on "resistance training". In "resistance" training, SERE instructors function as captors in life-like simulations where soldier/captives are treated as realistically as possible. Trainees are exposed to the hostile treatment they can expect if captured including close confinement, isolation, mock interrogations, and even simulated torture. While it is ethically impossible to reproduce the actual conditions of being an enemy captive, SERE training has proven extremely effective in helping high value targets know what to expect of their captors, and themselves.
To date, SERE Specialists have coordinated over 1300 recovery operations throughout Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, the Philippines, South and Central America.