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Babadag Training Area, Romania. (December 27, 2024): It is a weapon that terrorized Russians forces in Afghanistan and is knocking their planes out of the skies over Ukraine today. The weapon is the Stinger, a shoulder-launched heat-seeking antiaircraft missile that continues to devastate Russian armor today. In this photo by Sergeant Austin Steinborn, Specialist Alexis Ortega (left) and Sergeant Blaise Harvilla (right) use a Stinger Field Handling Trainer to track a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter during air defense training. These trainers help gunners learn essential weapon handling skills, sighting and ranging, and how to visually track live aircraft.
In the 1980s, the U.S. covertly provided Stinger missiles to insurgents during the Soviet Afghan War helping clear their skies of Russian aircraft. The weapon had such an effect that it is credited with helping end the Soviet occupation that led to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. Today, the Americans and its allies are sending thousands of Stingers to Ukraine to help them do the same.
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Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. (January 5, 2025): It is a place where Special Forces learn to turn themselves into human airplanes, leaping into space and flying themselves to pinpoint locations on the ground. In this photo by Sergeant Nathan Mitchell, a Marine prepares to conduct a high-altitude high-opening jump during military free-fall sustainment training. Learning how to do combat insertions by parachute is the specialty of the Army’s Military Freefall School, a part of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center.
The school teaches members of all services the art of military freefall parachuting in three courses, basic, jumpmaster and advanced military freefall. The center teaches two types of parachute insertion techniques, the HALO (high altitude-low opening) and the HAHO (high altitude-high opening). The goal of each is to parachute from aircraft and arrive at their target with accuracy and stealth.
"High Altitude Low Opening" (HALO) is where a jumper exits the aircraft at a very high altitude and then “flies” great distances before deploying their chutes at low altitude. This longer freefall period increases the precision of the landing. Used extensively by Special Forces operators, the "high" refers to the exit altitude and "low" refers to the parachute opening altitude.
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Iwakuni, Japan. (January 2, 2025): In the hopes of bringing good fortune, U.S. forces joined Japanese troops in a cultural practice that dates back centuries. In this photo by Lance Corporal David Getz, Marine Corps Colonel Richard Rusnok, center, and Japanese Rear Admiral Ichiro Ishikawa, right, hammer rice during a traditional Mochitsuki mochi pounding, an ancient New Year’s tradition.
Mochitsuki , or mochi, is steamed rice that is mashed and pounded with wooden mallets in a traditional mortar. The word mochi means “to have” and the dish is considered an auspicious food that brings good health, long life, and good fortune. The work involves two people, one pounding and the other turning and wetting the mochi. Teamwork is key as they must keep a steady rhythm or they may accidentally injure each other with these heavy mallets.
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Fayetteville, Arkansas. (December 30, 2024): Life for most college students revolves around dating, partying, and a carefree existence. To others, however, college life also involves structure, physical fitness, and discipline. In this photo by Cadet Alexander Chrisco, University of Arkansas Army ROTC cadets complete a water survival training event. These cadets are full time college students who also participate in the military’s Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC) in the hopes of one day becoming a commissioned officer. Unlike their compatriots, these students participate in military training, physical conditioning, and leadership development in addition to their academic coursework.
Each military branch offers four-year ROTC scholarships to eligible students at more than 1,700 U.S. colleges across the country. The Army ROTC is composed of eight brigades which command 273 units of 20,000 cadets at any given time. The selection criteria for Army ROTC scholarships includes SAT/ACT scores, academic achievement, and athletics. The Army also screens for leadership potential, high interview scores, and above average physical fitness. (For the eager beavers, there is also a Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps at 1,600 high schools nationally).
Cadets get a chance to try out military life in the first two years without incurring any future service commitment. For their junior and senior year, cadets sign an agreement with the Army to serve on active duty, the National Guard, or the Army Reserve.
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Tallahassee, Florida. (January 1, 2025): This week, America experienced a great sense of loss in the passing of former President Jimmy Carter. I joined the Army in 1976, the year he was elected, and was proud to serve four years under him as our commander in chief. For those too young to remember, this was a tumultuous time for the nation. The Viet Nam War had just ended and the American military was undergoing a painful transition after ten years of war. With the ending of the draft, the armed forces struggled with the “all volunteer” experiment and it would be many years for the armed forces to recover. The Iranian Hostage crisis, a sluggish economy, and double-digit inflation doomed his presidency yet he was a steady hand who gave our forces time to reform.
Although portrayed in the media as a simple peanut farmer, James Earl Carter was a trained nuclear engineer who worked under famed Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of the Navy's nuclear program. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and was assigned to USS Wyoming as an ensign. He served on various surface assignments and was destined to become the engineering officer for the USS Seawolf, one of the first submarines to operate on atomic power. When his father died in July 1953, Carter resigned from the Navy with the rank of lieutenant and returned to his farm in Georgia. To express its gratitude, the Navy Seawolf-class submarine Jimmy Carter is named for the 39th president.
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Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. (December 28, 2024): Due to increasing attacks by Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea, the Djiboutian Coast Guard has intensified training for at-sea rescues. In this photo by Staff Sergeant Jana Somero, a U.S. Airman recovers personnel from the water by helicopter during operation Bull Shark, a biannual joint training event involving the U.S., Djiboutian, Spanish and French navies. The exercise simulated multiple personnel recoveries at-sea that challenged the ability of participating nations to coordinate land, sea, and air components in an emergency.
To prepare for Bull Shark, the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadron conducted weapons familiarization training for Djiboutian Coast Guardsmen in March. American Sailors also trained with the Djiboutian Navy and Coast Guard for three months on maritime navigation, boat operations, boarding, search and seizure, and rescue operations.