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Naval Base San Diego, California. (January 29, 2024): Suicide among America’s military servicemembers is a recurring tragedy our nation has battled for years. Now, the armed forces have added a new tool, virtual reality, to the fight. In this photo by Seaman Tyler Miles, Sailors assigned to the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer are participating in a suicide prevention training pilot program using the latest virtual reality (VR) technology. This experimental effort, conducted at the Afloat Training Group, will use VR to train servicemembers on how to manage difficult mental health conversations. This new tool couldn’t come at a better time.’
Last year, the Army had the highest increase in suicides followed by the Marines with the Air Force experiencing only a slight uptick. The sad fact is many of these tragedies might be avoided if a fellow servicemember intervenes. The military is determined to equip servicemembers with the conversational tools they can use if they find themselves involved in these extremely challenging encounters.
Currently, the service branches teach suicide prevention in lecture-style courses that often lack practical application; “What can I do or say in these situations?” The VR experience allows students, overseen by coaches, to interact directly with fellow servicemembers in crisis under a variety of virtual scenarios. Participants are equipped with VR headgear in a one-on-one intervention with someone who is struggling with thoughts of suicide and are given prompts to help guide the discussion. Questions may range from “Are you thinking about hurting yourself” to “Do you have a gun in the house” and every encounter looks and feels like the real thing.
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Setermoen, Norway. (January 28, 2024): NATO is welcoming its newest members in a big way by launching Nordic Response 2024, the alliance’s largest military exercise since the end of the Cold War. In this photo by Lance Cpl. Joshua Kumakaw, Sgt. Zachary Harper teaches fellow Marines how to build a fire in the freezing Arctic environment.
With Finland now a member and Sweden certain to join soon, NATO has expanded its annual Cold Response exercises to include Steadfast Defender in Germany, Poland and the Baltic states and another British-led marine exercise – Joint Warrior - which is being conducted in the sea areas between Scotland, Norway, and Iceland.
This year, over 20,000 servicemembers from fourteen countries will participate with Norway contributing around 8,000 troops, Norway adding 4,100 and 4,500 more from Finland. Other participating nations include the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, and Italy. The maneuvers will involve over fifty naval vessels, 110 aircraft , and more than fifty frigates and submarines. On the ground, some 11,000 troops will war game using tanks, artillery systems, and other tracked vehicles.
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Camp Hansen, Okinawa, Japan. (February 10, 2024): What is one of the most powerful weapons on the battlefield but doesn’t fire a thing? Camouflage. In the photo above, Lance Cpl. Alexander Moralesgarcia conducts a patrol during the 3rd Marine Division’s annual Squad Competition. This Marine is concealing his presence using a variety of camouflage methods that have been evolving since World War I.
In the early annals of warfare, individual troops did not spend much time on personal concealment as most battles were fought in large columns or in the trenches. It wasn’t until World War I and the invention of the airplane that military units began to concern themselves with shielding their location from above.
The first crude attempts at employing camouflage to confuse the enemy began with the Navy and the “razzle dazzle” design. These zebra-like patterns were emblazoned on American ships, not to conceal but rather to confuse enemy gunners. The design’s optical effect made it impossible for enemy gunners to get an accurate “fix” on a target’s range, speed, and heading which undoubtedly saved thousands of allied lives.
The use of camouflage by individuals on themselves and their equipment really expanded in the jungles and deserts during World War II. The goal of individual concealment centers on applying colors and distinctive shapes to break up the pattern of the human form or the straight lines of equipment and weapons.
The face-paint worn by the Marine above looks randomly applied but it actually follows a carefully researched process designed to deceive the human eye. This is done through “countershading” or preventing the casting of a shadow. The military also uses “mimicry” to make military vehicles appear to look like something they are not. This tactic was famously used against the Germans when the allies created “dummy” divisions that were supposedly to be led by General George Patton. The deception worked and undoubtedly saves thousands of lives on D-Day.
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America, Feb 13, 2024 - Tons of American love heads out constantly to the troops all over the world. You get it to us, we get it to them. Pretty simple. And while they’re there that somebody back here knows about them, cares about them, and is doing their part to support them. Is this a great country or what!
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OCONUS, Feb. 6, 2024 – Somewhere out there, in places undisclosed, American soldiers take comfort with their One Touch pillows delivered by Your SOT Team, after being provided to us by good Americans and good American companies. From the home front to the front lines, if they're there, we’re with them!® Good job everyone!
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Little Falls, Minnesota. (January 22, 2024): The last place you would expect to find Navy Divers is roaring through frozen forests on snowmobiles. In this photo by Lance Corporal Hunter Jones, Sailors undergo Arctic mobility training during the annual Snow Crab exercises at Camp Ripley, Illinois. This 53,000-acre military and civilian training facility is operated by the Minnesota National Guard and is located near the city of Little Falls in the central part of the state. The location of the camp is ideal due to its numerous frozen lakes and harsh environment for most of the year.
As part of the Navy’s expeditionary combat force, deep-sea divers use the camp to evaluate their performance and to test their equipment in a simulated Arctic environment. At Camp Ridley, the ice is about 16-inches thick and the water temperature hovers just above freezing which leads to equipment challenges that many divers have not seen. During the exercise, the divers spent as much as ten hours below the frozen surface.
The Navy has increased its presence in the Arctic in recent years as have peer adversaries Russia and China. Under the Navy’s Strategic Blueprint for the Arctic, Navy divers are at the tip of the spear in building a more capable Arctic naval force. This global competition ensures we will likely see divers in some strange places well into the future.