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Published: 22 July 2025

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YAKIMA TRAINING CENTER, WASH, (July 22, 2025): Soldiers participate in a night live-fire range event to certify crews on indirect fire missions using an M777 towed 155 mm howitzer at . The exercise was one of the culminating events of Raven Focus, a two-week collective training event. Photo by Army National Guard Spc. Tristin Salisbury

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Published: 18 July 2025

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.MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, CALIF, (July 18, 2025): Marines prepare for a free-fall jump during training. Photo by Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Judith Ann Lazaro

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Published: 16 July 2025

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ATLANTIC OCEAN 07.13.2025 Story by Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Nye USS BULKELEY (DDG 84) NORFOLK, Va. – The crew of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Bulkeley (DDG 84) arrived in Norfolk June 17, 2025 after completing exercise Formidable Shield and shifted their mission focus to participate in the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit’s Composite Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX).

USS Bulkeley was underway for approximately 25 days in the Atlantic Ocean with the Iwo Jima ARG and 22nd MEU integrating capabilities with the ARG-MEU team.

“We train how we fight aboard USS Bulkeley and this crew must maintain high levels of lethality and interoperability with joint maritime forces in all domains,” said Bulkeley’s Commanding Officer Cmdr. Arturo Trejo.

Led by Carrier Strike Group Four, COMPTUEX is the Department of the Navy’s commitment to deliver highly capable, integrated naval forces to promote our nation’s prosperity and security, deter aggression, and provide tailorable options to our nation’s leaders. COMPTUEX also allows the Navy to assess all aspects of prior readiness generation activities, which provides leaders information needed for process and resource allocation decisions for future warfighting development.

“Our ability to work alongside with the Marines of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit and the Sailors of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group is a symbol to our Nation and our allies and partners that our Navy’s warfighters form a formidable, flexible, and powerful naval force ready to answer the call any time—24 hours a day, seven days a week—around the globe,” Trejo said.

For Bulkeley’s crew, COMPTUEX highlighted the importance of integration with the fleet while sharing and maintaining a common picture of the battlespace across all domains and warfare areas. Bulkeley’s crew participated in evolutions during COMPTUEX including (name the exercises ex. strait transits).

Integrating naval forces provides command-and-control flexibility and bolsters the Navy’s ability to deliver flexibility, as required, to our Nation’s leaders, the Fleet, and the combatant commanders across multiple areas of operation. For 250 years, the Navy has defended the Nation by preserving freedom of the seas, deterring aggression, and winning wars.

USS Bulkeley is underway in the Atlantic Ocean with the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) participating in Composite Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX). COMPTUEX is the Department of the Navy’s commitment to deliver highly capable, integrated naval forces to promote our nation’s prosperity and security, deter aggression, and provide tailorable options to our nation’s leaders. COMPTUEX also allows the Navy to assess all aspects of prior readiness generation activities, which provides leaders information needed for process and resource allocation decisions for future warfighting development.

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Published: 16 July 2025

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July 2, 2025 Approximately 8,500 military personnel attached to Joint Task Force Southern Border continue to enhance U.S. Customs and Border Protection's ability to identify, track and disrupt threats to security at the southern border, the Defense Department announced today during a press conference at the Pentagon

Since being established in March of this year by U.S. Northern Command, the task force has conducted more than 3,500 patrols, including more than 150 that were jointly carried out with CBP and the Mexican military, said Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell.

"The strong partnership and coordinated efforts between the Department of Defense and Customs and Border [Protection] yielded exceptional results between June 28 and June 30, [2025], with zero 'gotaways' across the entire southern border during that timeframe," Parnell announced.

He added that the U.S. has made "incredible progress," and it will continue to work toward achieving 100% operational control of the border.

In addition to the task force's successful patrols, Parnell said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently directed the secretaries of the Navy and Air Force to establish a pair of national defense areas along the southern border.

The Air Force will be responsible for the South Texas NDA, which will encompass federal property on and along 250 miles of the Rio Grande.

The Navy will control the Yuma NDA, which encompasses approximately 140 miles of federal property along the U.S.-Mexico border near the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range in Arizona.

Four people wearing camouflage uniforms are inside, grabbing large backpacks off the floor.

"These will be the third and the fourth designated national defense areas along the border and will continue to enhance the department's ability to protect the southern border from unlawful entry," Parnell said.

The first two NDAs established by the DOD earlier this year are in New Mexico and West Texas.

Parnell also noted that the National Guard continues to play an essential role in protecting the U.S. southern border from illegal entry and maintaining the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of the United States.

He said over 4,200 guardsmen are on state active duty in support of Operation Lone Star, and an additional 70 guardsmen are on state active duty, conducting base camp security at the recently established "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades. 

In addition to supporting border security efforts, Parnell said that approximately 5,000 military personnel, comprising California National Guardsmen and roughly 700 Marines, are currently mobilized to protect federal functions, personnel and property in the greater Los Angeles area. 

"These federalized California National Guard [soldiers] and U.S. Marines have supported more than 170 missions in over 130 separate locations from nine federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement [Administration], U.S. Marshals Service, [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and the Department of Homeland Security," he said.

In other military personnel news, Parnell provided an update on DOD's recruiting efforts, stating that both the Air Force and Space Force have hit their fiscal year recruiting goals three months ahead of schedule.

"Enthusiasm to serve is at an all-time high," he said. "Since November 5, 2024, the U.S. military has seen the highest recruiting percentage of mission achieved in 30 years."

Parnell said the department recently established a task force to sustain the strong spike in recruiting efforts and numbers in the future, adding that he credits the leadership of Hegseth and President Donald J. Trump for generating excitement among young Americans to serve.

"Leadership matters, and certainly, their leadership and moral clarity as it pertains to certain issues — not just here within the department but all around the world — has inspired people to want to join and serve this country in great numbers," Parnell said.

By Matthew Olay, DOD News

Published with permission of DOD