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Atlantic Ocean. (February 16, 2024): This striking image of the wreck of USS Jacob Jones is one of the highlights of a joint recovery effort between the English Ministry of Defense’s Salvage and Marine Operations and the American Naval History and Heritage Command. In this photo by 2nd Lieutenant Mary Andom and later enhanced by the UK National Oceanography Center, the silhouette of the World War I Destroyer is revealed during a joint salvage survey. Using remotely piloted submersibles, the teams mapped the wreckage, recovered the ship’s bell, and even placed a wreath and an American flag on the wreck in tribute to the Sailors lost 107 years ago.
The Jacob Jones was discovered off the Isles of Scilly, England, in 2022 by technical divers and efforts have been underway to fully document and study the wreck site for its long-term preservation and protection. The destroyer was sunk by a German submarine on Dec. 6, 1917, and was the first U.S. Navy destroyer lost to enemy action. The ship sank eight minutes after being struck, with the U-boat commander radioing the approximate location of the survivors to the nearest American base for rescue.
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Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii. (February 7, 2024): It is the largest U.S. military training area in the Pacific few civilians know about. Situated on 133,000 acres of Hawaii’s “Big Island”, Pohakuloa is the central training facility for all U.S. and multinational forces in the Pacific. In this photo by Lance Corporal Clayton Baker, a Marine with 3d Littoral Combat Team, 3d Marine Littoral Regiment, 3d Marine Division, guides his team through a marked path during a platoon attack during Exercise Bougainville III. Bougainville III is a live-fire exercise to prepare the battalion to operate and support each other from dispersed locations.
The Pohakuloa site has firing ranges that allow units to conduct small-arms and crew-served weapons familiarization training and qualifications, as well as artillery and mortar live fire. Located 6,000 feet above sea level, the training area is perched between the Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa mountains on a barren landscape created by multiple volcanic eruptions.
The base was established during World War II as a Marine Corps artillery live-fire training area in preparation for the Iwo Jima and Saipan campaigns. Today, the facility has its own fire and police departments, an airfield with a 3,700-foot runway, a medical clinic, and even a post theater.
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Arlington, Virginia. (February 9, 2024): America rendered final honors to one of the few remaining Montford Point Marines, the first African Americans to serve in the Corps. In this photo by Lance Corporal Joseph E. DeMarcus, Brigadier General Melvin G. Carter presents the U.S. flag to Mable Bryant following the funeral service for her husband, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Albert Bryant at Arlington National Cemetery.
Bryant was one of over 20,000 African Americans who volunteered for the Marines at the outbreak of World War II. Up until then, the Corps refused to recruit Black people, Native Americans, or other minorities into its ranks. The recruits faced daily discrimination while training in segregated facilities between 1942 and 1949 at Montford Point, North Carolina. Black troops lived in Quonset huts “across the tracks” from Camp Lejeune and were not authorized to use on-post facilities, not even the chapel. The Montford Point Marines went on to serve with great distinction at Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and the Battle of Okinawa with approximately 2,000 seeing action.
It was not until Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Fair Employment Practices Commission in 1941 that forced the Corps, despite objections from its leadership, to begin recruiting African American Marines.
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F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. (January 26, 2024): In this photo by Airman 1st Class Mattison Cole, Airman 1st Class Victor Glavan and Airman David Dicken of the 90th Civil Engineer Squadron participate in an Ice Rescue Course for military and civilian life savers. The two-day course teaches everything from self-rescue to the medical effects cold temperatures have on victims.
The course begins with classroom instruction on how to retrieve a victim who is submerged in an icy lake without becoming a victim yourself. The first danger facing rescuers is the uncertainty of the thickness and stability of the ice. Students are taught the types of ice formations that may show signs of weakness and to always assume it won’t support you and your equipment. Students also learn how to diagnose and treat hypothermia and other freezing weather injuries.
During the second half of the training, students don exposure suits and practice rescue methods using their equipment in nearby Pearson Lake. The exposure suits not only keep the rescuer warm but also provide plenty of buoyancy depending on the type of suit they wear. As long as rescuers keep their neck above the surface of the water, they also will be kept dry.
Next comes the physical aspect of ice rescues which are summarized in the acronym Reach, Throw, Row, and Go.
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McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas. (February 11, 2024): In this photo by Airman 1st Class Gavin Hameed, First Lieutenant Micala Bruce, a 349th Air Refueling Squadron pilot, and Lieutenant Colonel Kristen Smith, the 349th ARS director of operations, give WWII veteran Katie Conkling a tour of the base to celebrate her 103rd birthday.
This remarkable person is a living witness to world events, including the Pearl Harbor attacks, that have shaped our society today. Conkling served as an Army Air Corps Staff Sergeant in the South Pacific during the war and the Air Force wanted to acknowledge her service and her incredible personal milestone.
Born Katherine V. “Katie” (Lawrence) Conkling in Coffeyville, Kansas on Jan. 18, 1921, she was the daughter of a first-generation German American carpenter from Wisconsin and a Texas landowner’s daughter. Her father died when she was a baby and her mother couldn’t care for her and her three brothers so they were placed in a Wichita Children’s Home. After graduating high school in 1939, Katie held a variety of posts until the Japanese attack on Pear Harbor spurred her to join the armed forces.
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Philippine Sea. (January 29, 2024): Back when folks worked on their own cars, the “shade tree” mechanics would often boast about the size of the engines they have tackled. Nothing compares, however, to the size and complexity of the mighty turbines that power today’s Navy. In this photo by MC1 Ryre Arciaga, Gas Turbine Systems Technician (Electrical) 2nd Class Alyssa Bruce, from Powhatan, Virginia, regulates generator voltage using the electrical plant control console aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey. Gas Turbine Systems Technician – Electrical oversees the operation and maintenance of enormous gas turbine engines and other propulsion systems on a ship.
These highly trained technicians must know everything from operating electrical plants to repairing wiring and circuitry, all under the demanding pressure of a warship at sea. They operate the ships electric plant and perform many of the duties one expects from the local power company. They test circuits, batteries, connectors, and circuitry and repair and maintain all digital data equipment associated with the engines.