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Bujumbura, Burundi. (September 21, 2024): Americans have a special place in their hearts for the tiny country of Burundi, the poorest nation on earth according to the World Bank. In this photo by 1st Lieutenant Katherine Sibilla, Army Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Rabie, an obstetrician, lends a Burundian obstetrician a hand performing a cesarean section during a medical readiness exercise. The Army program brings U.S. and African partners together to exchange medical practices and procedures under sometimes primitive conditions. These collaborations establish long-term relationships between the participants and improves their ability to cooperate in an emergency.
The U.S. Army’s Southern European Task Force, Africa conducts these medical readiness clinics across Africa every year. U.S. Army medical units’ partner with host nation military medical providers to establish outreach clinics across Africa. This is the second of eight exercises scheduled for the African continent this year.
During the three-week exercise, twenty person teams of U.S. Army medical personnel collaborated with local doctors on a wide range of medical services, from general surgery to obstetrics. Teams of doctors, nurses, medics, and equipment specialists drawn from units across the United States offered a wide range of expertise including anesthesiology, gynecology, and emergency room procedures.
Although Burundi suffers significant poverty, they can always rely on the American people to lend a helping hand.
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Mesch, Netherlands. (September 12, 2024): For eighty years, the Dutch citizenry here has celebrated the heroic deeds of Allied Paratroopers who attempted to liberate them from the Nazi’s. In this photo by Sergeant Austin Robertson, a World War II veteran gives a thumbs-up as he rides in a vintage Army Jeep during the opening ceremony commemorating Operation Market Garden and the 82nd Airborne Division.
Each year, U.S. Army Paratroopers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division join Dutch communities to share history, personal experiences, and to express gratitude for the sacrifice of so many young men.
Operation Market Garden, a brainchild of British General Bernard Montgomery, was a plan for an Allied invasion of Germany from the North, through Holland. Although a huge gamble, the plan predicted the Allies would be across the Rhine on Germany's frontier and end the war by Christmas 1944.
This was to be achieved by a combined British and American Airborne force that would seize nine bridges and hold the terrain until land forces arrived. Over forty thousand paratroopers from the American 101st and 82nd and British 1st Airborne Divisions jumped into Holland in what turned out to be a military catastrophe. Allied planners underestimated the size of the German forces in the area including reports of two SS Panzer Divisions.
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Monterey Bay, California. (September 19, 2024): There are hundreds of organizations battling the effects of climate change, but one entity is often overlooked… the U.S. Navy. In this photo by Dan Linehan, newly minted Climate Security Fellows join Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) leaders at Standford University’s Hopkins Marine Station. At right, Ashley Blawas, a postdoctoral scholar in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability's Oceans Department, shows a tracking tag she developed for measuring the heart rate of whales. The NPS and the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability joined forces recently to form an Educational Partnership Agreement to address the impacts of climate change.
Rising sea levels and global temperatures have resulted in more severe storms, wildfires, droughts, floods, and extreme weather that threatens national security. That is why the Navy has established a new Climate Security Fellowship program with Stanford beginning in 2022. Under the current effort, twelve graduate and postdoctoral students from NPS and Stanford were charged with developing new ideas and innovative solutions to operational threats facing the Navy and Marine Corps.
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Martial Glacier, Venezuela. (September 13, 2024): American Marines will literally go to the ends of the earth to train. In this photo by Corporal Samuel Qin, instructors with the U.S. Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center hike in three-person teams as they traverse the Martial Mountains in Ushuaia, Venezuela. The event was hosted by Venezuelan Comando de la Infanteria or Naval Infantry Command and its five hundred amphibious troops.
The Americans travelled to this tiny town located at the southernmost portion of South America to exchange ideas and “tricks of the trade” in fighting in mountainous terrain. The U.S. troops experienced the extreme conditions on this sprawling two thousand high island plateau whose low temperatures and rough terrain made for serious training.
The U.S. Marine’s Mountain Warfare Center in California sits on 46,000 acres of often freezing terrain with elevations as high as twelve thousand feet. In winter, snow can accumulate to eight feet and temperatures drop as low as twenty degrees below zero.
Conducting exchanges like this helps develop bonds between U.S. and Venezuelan forces that last for years. This was a unique opportunity to share hard earned knowledge our friends at the tip of the world.
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Marine Corps Base, Hawaii. (September 12, 2024): At most military ceremonies, the troops form up in four ranks and conduct a “pass in review” in front of their commanders. But what is the historical significance of the time-honored tradition? In this photo Lance Corporal Hailey J. Riddle-Chan, Colonel Mark F. Schaefer, a commanding officer with Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, passes in review during a Change of Command ceremony.
The custom dates to the arrival of Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben (That was his actual name) who we know as Baron Von Stueben. He was a Prussian General hired by Congress to help General Washington at Valley Forge. The winter of 1778-1779 at Valley Forge was extreme, even by Pennsylvania standards. After two years of fighting, and retreating, America’s Army was disintegrating. Von Steuben was charged with restoring order and discipline among the ranks and building a force capable of defeating the British in the spring. He formed a model company of soldiers and trained them to march, fire a rifle, use a bayonet, and execute orders quickly on the battlefield. His constant focus on military drill is credited with rejuvenating the Continental Army and he played a major role in the Army’s eventual victory.
The purpose of the Pass in Review drill is to allow an incoming commander an opportunity to inspect their troops to see how ready they are for combat. As they say, first impressions mean everything and the troops take extra pains to ensure their uniforms and equipment are sparkling and ready for inspection.
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Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. (September 18, 2024): In this photo by Senior Airman Alexis Orozco, Air Force Master Sergeant Michael Brick rings a bell in honor of firefighters who died in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. According to the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), 343 members of the FDNY were killed and in the 23 years since more than 360 members have died of World Trade Center-related illnesses.
While most of the victims were from New York, others were killed when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon and United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania after a passenger revolt. It took many years, but the United States caught up to 911 mastermind Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011, killing him at his compound in Pakistan.
MSgt Brick is an assistant fire chief of health and safety for the 944th Fighter Wing, a reserve unit that trains reservists during peacetime to be ready for world-wide deployments. As part of remembrance ceremonies, over one hundred Airmen conducted a solemn 5k run/march followed by events to honor the fallen.
The 944th is assigned to Tenth Air Force under the Air Force Reserve Command based at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona.