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Naval Air Station Mayport, Florida. (January 4, 2024): A joyful reunion! In this photo by MC1 Brandon J. Vinson, a Sailor assigned to the Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Thomas Hudner hugs his family after arriving at Naval Station Mayport after an eight-month deployment. The Hudner deployed as a part of the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Red Sea to protect freedom of navigation in this vital waterway. During the deployment, the Hudner, a guided missile destroyer, shot down multiple one-way attack drones launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen. According to Central Command, the warship shot the drones while on patrol in the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait, a major waterway vital to the world economy. There was no damage to the ship or injuries to her crew.
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Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. (January 12, 2024): Unlike their civilian counterparts, Air Force Fire Protection Specials face hazards that are unique to flight operations. In this photo by Senior Airman Zachary Rufus, Airman 1st Class Kyle Datu and Staff Sergeant Matt Trevizo with the 99th Civil Engineering Squadron extinguish a fire during an aircraft live fire training exercise. The training employed propane ignitors built into multiple positions throughout and around the training fuselage to give firefighters a realistic training environment.
Air Force Firefighters must deal with everything from grass fires to exploding rocket fuel and be ready to respond to aircraft emergencies around the clock. They are also responsible for specialized rescues, hazardous material responses, and even weapons of mass destruction. Air Force Firefighters are required to complete these training sessions twice a year under both day and night conditions to maintain their certification.
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Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. (January 10, 2024): The age of electric flying machines has arrived. In this photo by Airman 1st Class Gianluca Ciccopiedi, an ALIA electric conventional takeoff and landing aircraft sits on the flight line after final test flights at Duke Field, Eglin Air Force Base. The ALIA test flights were supervised by the 413th Flight Test Squadron, the Air Force’s rotary wing squadron responsible for evaluating its new aircraft.
A product of BETA Technologies, the ALIA has both conventional and vertical takeoff configurations and is the Air Force’s first zero-emissions aircraft. The craft is expected to revolutionize tactical air travel with its near silent engines that eliminate the need for fossil fuels.
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Chabelley Village, Djibouti. (January 9, 2024): There is no greater joy than seeing young children (and the not so young) dancing with such obvious delight. In this photo by Staff Sergeant Allison Payne, Air Force Captain Elise Hart shows off her dance moves with local kids during a community engagement in this tiny African village. Air Force servicemembers visited the village to deliver books and personal hygiene items and to develop closer bonds with their hosts.
Djibouti is located on the Horn of Africa on the Red Sea and is bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, and Eritrea in the north. A country of just under 9,000 square miles, Djibouti is a mostly French and Arabic speaking country of over 920,000 that are 90 percent Muslim.
Its strategic location near the Gulf of Aden and world's busiest shipping lanes makes Djibouti extremely important to world commerce. It serves as a key port for American warships to refuel and provision while patrolling the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait, a narrow waterway that controls access to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
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McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. (January 12, 2024): When we think of the Coast Guard, we often imagine fast boats chasing drug dealers and performing daring rescues at sea. What many may not realize is that ice rescues are one of the Coast Guard’s major missions. In this photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Graves, Petty Officer 1st Class Joshua Tangermann and Petty Officer 2nd Class Harrison Bauer lower themselves into the water while practicing ice rescue techniques in frozen Antarctica. The USCG holds these training sessions each year during Operation Deep Freeze, an icebreaking and resupply mission to the South Pole. (More on this in our next newsletter).
In these rescues, Guardsman are fighting the “1-10-1” rule; once in the water a victim has one minute to control their breathing, 10 minutes before they are unable to rescue themselves, and one hour before they will succumb to hypothermia. Hypothermia is when your body loses heat faster than it can produce it. Symptoms of hypothermia begin with shivering, slurred speech, and slow, shallow breathing. Later stages include clumsiness, drowsiness, confusion, and loss of consciousness.
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Fort Worth, Texas. (December 23, 2023): In this photo by Rayna Grace, the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Football Squad celebrates their win against James Madison University at the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl game. The Falcons capped their 2023 season with a 9-4 record defeating JMU, 31-21, in a wild game at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
The Falcons are a member of the Division 1-A Mountain West Conference and play their home games at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. These football players/cadets are full-time military who are studying to become Air Force officers. Upon graduation, they will serve a minimum of six years as the new generation of Navy leaders.