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Gulf of Oman. (May 27, 2023): In this photo by MC2 Juel Foster, Cryptologic Technician (Collection) 2nd Class Drew Appleton, assigned to the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS McFaul, establishes communications during a replenishment-at-sea with the dry cargo ship USNS Alan Shepard in the Gulf of Oman.
There are three basic types of Cryptologic Technicians in the Navy, Collection, Interpretive, and Technical whose duties involve the collection and processing of airborne, shipborne, and land-based communication signals.
A Cryptologic Technician (Collection) collects, analyzes, and reports on communication signals using specialized computer-assisted communications equipment. These highly skilled professionals exploit signals of interest to identify, locate, and report enemy activity at sea. Cryptologic Technician (Collection) class "A" school is approximately 16 weeks long and is in Pensacola, Florida. Currently, there are 3,500 Sailors working in the Cryptologic Technician (Collection) on active duty.
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Kadena Air Base, Japan. (June 3, 2023): The Navy SEALs have their brutal log-roll, the Rangers endure a 12-mile march with a 35-pound ruck, and in the Air Force, a bunch of special operators get together to tote a 85 ton aircraft around with a rope.
If you own a fleet of combat aircraft… why not?
In the above photo by Staff Sergeant Jessi Roth, Air Force Special Tactics Airmen with the 320th Special Tactics Squadron pull an MC-130J Commando II one hundred and fifty meters across the flightline during Monster Mash, an operational readiness and resilience training. These training events include some of the most physically and mentally demanding tasks in the military and are routinely conducted among special tactics units to ensure operational readiness.
Special Tactics Airmen are the Air Force equivalent to the Marines Force Recon, the Army’s Delta Force, and the Navy SEALs. One of the most highly trained and elite airmen in the U.S. Air Force, Special Tactics troops are rapidly deployable and equipped with highly specialized aircraft to perform missions ranging from precision application of firepower to infiltration, exfiltration, and aerial refueling.
Air Force's Special Tactics teams consist of airmen in three career fields: combat controllers, pararescue men, and special reconnaissance. Each of these special operations career fields requires the most specialized intensive training in the U.S. military.
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Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. (June 4, 2023): In this photo by Richard Eldridge, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) personnel and NASA staff hoist Campos, a fire and rescue training manikin, into a seat at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. AFRL and NASA tested the most current iteration of an astronaut crew seat and flight suit that will be used on the Orion space capsule during the next mission to the moon under the Artemis Program.
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a scientific research organization dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of aerospace warfighting technologies as part of the Air Force science and technology program. The lab was formed in 1997 to conduct numerous experiments and technical demonstrations with NASA, the Department of Energy National Laboratories, Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) and other research organizations within the Department of Defense.
The lab’s mission is to develop cost-effective and survivable aerospace vehicles capable of accurate and quick delivery of a variety of future weapons or cargo.
The Artemis mission will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. NASA will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon. Part of the Trump administration's push towards the moon included an enlarged role for private aerospace firms, including Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, to develop landers that can take astronauts to the moon's surface. This will be the first step in America’s quest to send the first astronauts to Mars.
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Puerto Rico. (June 1, 2023): In this photo by Ricardo Castrodad, Coast Guard Cutter Donald Horsley’s small boat crew interdicts a vessel in the Mona Passage, an 80-mile-long stretch of dangerous seas between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola (Dominican Republic). The Coast Guard returned 24 of 29 migrants from this case to the Dominican Republic while four others are facing federal prosecution at the U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico. Coast Guard crews also medevac’d a pregnant woman, who was experiencing contractions, to a local hospital in Puerto Rico.
The Coast Guard is the primary agency responsible for enforcing U.S. immigration laws at sea and securing the maritime border. U.S. immigration law authorizes the Coast Guard to make inquiries, examinations, inspections, searches, seizures, and arrests upon the high seas and to engage in maritime surveillance and interdiction. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan signed an executive Order authorizing the interdiction of Illegal Aliens and the law was revalidated by President George H. W. Bush in 1992. No other U.S. agency is more involved in maritime migration interdiction operations than the Coast Guard.
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In this photo by Sergeant Matthew Bragg, Marine Lance Corporal Tristan Stecki hands a young boy a balloon during a community relations event at Calangitan Elementary School in Capas, Philippines. Stecki is a combat engineer assigned to Alpha Company, 9th Engineer Support Battalion and he is a native of Waukesha, Washington.
Marines were participating in Balikatan 2023, an annual U.S./Philippines training exercise that included several humanitarian relief projects to benefit local communities. Combat engineers are experts at construction, civil engineering, and sanitation.These skills were put to work in local relief efforts in Luzon, one of the poorest regions of the Philippines. The exercise involved more than 17,600 participants who received training in maritime security, amphibious operations, live-fire training, urban operations, aviation operations, counterterrorism, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief.
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Fort Stewart, Georgia. (June 2, 2023): In this photo by PFC Summer Parish, soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division low crawl with a simulated casualty, one of many arduous tasks they must complete to earn their Expert Field Medical Badge. Soldiers must pass a written test followed by a physical assessment before entering the field portion of the program that includes day and nighttime land navigation, a 12-mile foot march, and a speed test on disassembling and reassembling the M-4 rifle. Troops must demonstrate their ability to provide combat care while under extreme stress under realistic combat conditions.
The physical fitness test consists of 15 burpees, 15 rowers, a 400-meter run, and a 50-meter drag of a 160-pound Sked. As you can imagine, the Expert Field Medical Badge is not easy to earn, with a passing rate of just 29 percent.
The 3rd Infantry Division, nicknamed Rock of the Marne, was activated on 21 November 1917 and fought in France during World War I. The 3rd Infantry earned this nickname for its heroic defense against overwhelming German forces at the Marne River which turned out to be the turning point in the war.