During an exercise in the Philippine Sea
Marines and sailors navigate a combat rubber raiding craft after launching from the USS Ashland during an exercise in the Philippine Sea, Feb. 24, 2021.
Photo By: Marine Corps Sgt. Danny Gonzalez
Courtesy: US Department of Defense
| Biographies: Army Maj. Gen. James C. McConville Related Sites: NATO International Security Assistance Force |
| Related Sites: Armed Forces Blood Program |
 By Army Spc. April York 2nd Brigade Combat Team KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Dec. 12, 2011 - An Army father and his soldier daughter have reunited in Afghanistan.
"I knew that I was going to be near Amanda so when I got to Kandahar Airfield I put my feelers out to get over her way," the sergeant major said. "It's freaking awesome that my dad could come out here to see me," Amanda said. "I feel blessed." "It's been good to see her," the command sergeant major said, "and if I could stay around here for the next six months to be deployed with her, I would." | ||
The Massachusetts colony was founded in 1630 By Bill Boehm National Guard Bureau ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 12, 2011 - The origin of the nation's state National Guard organizations sprang from the forming of militia in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early 17th century.
The military organization we know today as the National Guard came into existence with a direct declaration on Dec. 13, 1636 when the Massachusetts General Court in Salem established that all able-bodied men between the ages of 16 and 60 were required to join the militia. The North, South, and East Regiments were established with this order. The decree, which excluded ministers and judges, stated that citizen-soldiers who mustered for military training could be and would be called upon to defend the colony when needed. Owing to many failures in the time that English settlers had attempted colonization in the Massachusetts frontier and elsewhere in North America, leaders decided that a proactive and ready state of mind must be kept by all citizens, particularly those training in military tactics. Being part of citizenry in small villages meant that a price must be paid for the freedoms that could potentially be enjoyed, were the colony to ultimately succeed. That price meant taking responsibility for defending the settlements of the Massachusetts colony. The outposts were austere, and the colony relied upon male pioneers to provide food, shelter, and defensive protection. Even with all available hands working, this was difficult. Worse, the nearby Pequot Indian tribe proved a restless and unpredictable neighbor, leaving the Massachusetts colonists vulnerable to guerilla-style attacks that could decimate the fledgling settlements. In an environment rife with disease, poor sanitation, and harsh weather conditions, all able-bodied members of the Massachusetts colony pulled together out of necessity. Self-sufficiency proved instrumental. In the New World, hiring mercenary fighters in the European tradition to ward off Indian attacks would be impossible. For one thing, the colonists had no money. Other foreign interests in the New World such as the French and Spanish, even if they were available for defensive purposes, did not share English views on religion and political matters. They would have seriously undermined the stability of the Massachusetts colony. Governing and policing the settlement would have to be left to the colonists themselves. The militia system of self defense proved successful. Soon after the militia was established in Massachusetts, the entire New England region defended itself against the aggression of the Pequot nation. Other colonies such as Connecticut and Rhode Island mustered militia units, and succeeded in forcing the Pequots to capitulate in 1638. Ultimately, the militia enlisted from the many small villages proved a strong component in building confidence for the settlement as a whole. Other colonial settlements in North America such as those in Florida, Virginia, and New Mexico utilized military protection to allow settlers safe passage and defend against aggressors, but Massachusetts proved to be the first to have its government establish and raise a militia of continuous service. That legal precedent and record of service has remained continuous and unbroken, no matter the change in each unit's function as a part of the militia or National Guard. This distinction qualifies it as the birthplace of the militia in the United States. With the North, South, and East Regiments established, its exemplary military tradition continues through this day with four Massachusetts National Guard units -- the 101st Engineer Battalion, the 101st Field Artillery, the 181st Infantry Regiment, and the 182nd Infantry Regiment. Today, Massachusetts' population numbers 6.5 million people, and the commonwealth figures prominently as a center of manufacturing, electronics/technology, and finance. Much has changed since 1636, but one thing has not: the National Guard still consists of citizen-soldiers and airmen providing assistance during natural disasters, training regularly to uphold high standards of readiness, and deploying to far-away countries to protect the United States' national interests. Although America's growth and expansion has made it a large military force around the world, the National Guard remains a community cornerstone -- just as it did when it was born on Dec. 13, 1636. | ||
| Related Sites: 375th Birthday of the National Guard History and Videos 375th Birthday of the National Guard Downloads | ||
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 American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2011 - The Army and Navy football teams are preparing to collide tomorrow at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., continuing a tradition of athletic competition and military tradition that's spanned over a century. This year's Army-Navy football game, the 112th, begins at 2:30 p.m. EST. CBS and the American Forces Network will broadcast the game live. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are scheduled to attend. FedEx, a 85,000-seat stadium that's home to the NFL Washington Redskins football team is located in the National Capital Region, which is a fitting venue for the annual Army-Navy football clash, the Army's Black Knights head coach Rich Ellerson told reporters last week at Army-Navy Country Club in Arlington, Va. "There's a special connection between both of our institutions and our nation's capital," he said. The Army and Navy Pep Bands will be in the Pentagon today with their cheerleaders and mascots to fire up the military crowd. As they do every year, the pep bands will march through the Pentagon's halls, making stops at the offices of senior leaders and performing a pep rally or two. The longstanding "Beat Navy" and "Beat Army" banter between the two squads, Ellerson said, showcases the teams' competitive spirit. "The meaning and symbolism go so much farther than what you see on the field," said Navy Cdr. William Marks, the Naval Academy's public affairs officer. "Only in this game do brothers-in-arms become rivals for one day, knowing that ... they will be side by side defending the nation," he added. Fans of these friendly rivals feel game anticipation early before the kick-off, particularly with the pregame spirit videos, said Dennis Herring, mass communications chief in the Naval Academy public affairs office. "It really gets your adrenaline pumping," he said. That rivalry has been part of the game's storied history since its inception in 1890, when a Navy football player challenged an Army cadet to a game. Just three years into the tradition, the Army-Navy game was suspended from 1894 to 1898 after a Navy win in 1893 reportedly caused an incident between a rear admiral and a brigadier general that nearly led to a duel. When the game returned in 1899, it was moved to Philadelphia -- a neutral venue that was about halfway between West Point, N.Y., and Annapolis, Md. Most of the subsequent games were played in various Philadelphia stadiums. Army cancelled its season in 1909 after the death of a cadet in a game against Harvard. War suspended the games during World War I in 1917 and 1918. They were suspended again in 1928 and 1929 because of player eligibility issues. The games have continued each year since. President Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to attend an Army-Navy game in 1905.By 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who hoped the Army-Navy game would boost a war-weary nation, connected the game to a war bond drive. That year's 70,000 attendees were required to purchase war bonds with their tickets. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur cabled West Point head coach Army Col. Earl H. "Red" Blaik from his Pacific base following Army's 23-7 win against a tough Navy team, 23-7. MacArthur's cable read: "We have stopped the war to celebrate your magnificent success." Perhaps central to the Army-Navy game rivalry are the traditions of gags among team members, such as the cadets' annual goat-kidnapping of the middies' mascot. Since 1982, the midshipmen of 13th Company have run the game football from Annapolis to the playing field to try to get the "unlucky" company off the yard. A more involved gag in the name of rivalry is the teams' prisoner exchange, when certain cadets and middies spend a semester of their junior year in "enemy territory." On game day, the middies and cadets return to their own school's sides of the field for the duration of the game during the "prisoner exchange." Another tradition is the Victory Bells, two of which flank the steps of the Naval Academy's Bancroft Hall. One, the Enterprise Bell, originated from World War II's most-decorated ship, the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. A kamikaze attack off Japan destroyed its forward elevator and killed 14 people. The carrier was decommissioned in 1947 and eventually scrapped. Now the ship's bell rings continually from the time of the game's final score until the team returns to Bancroft Hall. On the other side of Bancroft Hall stands the Japanese Bell, a replica of the bell presented to Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry in 1854. Each time Navy defeats Army, the Enterprise Bell is rung from the time the results are known until the team returns. At the team's reception, the Navy score is rung on the Japanese bell by the team captain, coach, superintendent and commandant, followed by each team member. On the field just before the kick-off is the March On, the military presentation of the Brigade of Midshipmen and Corps of Cadets marching onto the field. Herring called it "truly one of the greatest spectacles in all of sports." For the many that can't attend the game or watch it in the comfort of their homes stateside, the American Forces Network broadcasts the game to service members worldwide. Marks recalled watching the game last year on a movie screen at 2 a.m. aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln while deployed in the Arabian Gulf. "You could feel the electricity among the 5,000 crew members," he said. "It was an amazing experience and it meant the world to us to be able to cheer on Navy during our overseas deployment. "I think as a country," Marks added, "we can take a moment to step back and marvel at the quality of these men and the virtues and values they represent." � |
| Related Sites: Army and Navy Pregame Events Game Day AFN TV Schedules |
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The doctors saved the service member's leg By Elaine Sanchez American Forces Press Service SAN ANTONIO, Dec. 8, 2011 - A wounded warrior limped into Ryan Blanck's office at the Center for the Intrepid here one day with a plea for help.
So Blanck created one. He designed the Intrepid Dynamic Exoskeletal Orthosis, or IDEO, a streamlined, energy-storing brace that delivers nearly instantaneous results. Now, most troops with salvaged limbs who wheel or limp into his office walk out a short time later, pain and limp-free. The injured warriors are impressed by the results. When they strap on the brace for the first time and start walking, Blanck said, some stumble midway across the room, but not due to discomfort. "They're uncontrollably weeping," he said. "It's the first time they've walked without pain in two or three, or seven years in one guy's case." Brace Proves to be 'Game-Changer' Blanck's creation is a lightweight, streamlined carbon-fiber device that can be tucked under a pant leg and into a boot or sneaker. It comprises a cuff that wraps around the leg just under the knee connected to a footplate by carbon-fiber rods. The brace works by offloading the limb and allowing the patient to operate the lower limb in a way that avoids pain, he explained. When a service member's heel strikes, the device stores energy through the gait cycle, then delivers it back to propel the foot forward. "That's the concept behind it all; energy storage and power," he said. Prior to IDEO, Blanck noted, "there wasn't a combination device that would allow offloading, adequate range restriction and then power generation." The device is proving a "game-changer" for service members with salvaged limbs, said Johnny Owens, a CFI physical therapist who is working hand-in-hand with Blanck in treating IDEO-fitted warriors. "We're seeing immediate changes we don't usually see," he said. Owens said the device also is singlehandedly helping to turn the tide on a trend of wounded warriors opting for delayed amputations -- amputations several months after injury. He attributes the trend to the slow, and sometimes frustrating, recovery for troops with lower leg injuries. "Prior to all this, limb salvage was a little bit of an unknown," Blanck explained. "You couldn't tell a patient, 'you're going to run.'" But amputees -- depending on the situation and barring other injuries -- can regain significant functions about six months after amputation, he noted. Meanwhile, limb salvage patients sit on the sidelines watching their amputee battle buddies walking or running as their own progress proceeds painfully slow. Frustrated by their limitations, some troops with salvaged limbs opted for late amputations. "It's enticing," Owens said. "You're in pain, but if you cut your leg off, you can run. Many invested a year or two in recovery and then decided to cut [a limb] off. It was psychologically frustrating to see these guys work so hard and then just cut it off." Thanks to IDEO, these troops now have another option, he said, that enables them to not only walk, but run, sprint and jump. Returning to Service Word is spreading of IDEO and its astounding results, and Blanck now is fitting troops from around the country with his device. After hearing of Blanck's and Owens' success, Army 1st Lt. Matthew Anderson traveled here from his unit at Fort Carson, Colo., hoping for similar results. Anderson, an infantry platoon leader, was injured in October 2010 while on a dismounted combat patrol in Kandahar, Afghanistan. As his unit cleared a building, he stepped on a landmine. "It felt like a jackhammer hitting my ankle," he recalled. The explosive shattered his heel into a dozen pieces. The doctors salvaged his limb, but the injury left Anderson in pain and with a pronounced limp. While he was able to start walking again after about six months, this strapping, lifelong athlete figured his running days were over. It took Blanck just a few minutes to prove him wrong. With the IDEO, Anderson was walking comfortably within minutes and running within days. "It put the biggest smile on my face," the infantry platoon leader said. He had stopped by the CFI early one morning so Blanck could make adjustments to his device and fit him for another. "I went from walking with a severe gait issue and a limp to walking normally," Anderson said. Blanck finished his adjustments, and Anderson pulled a sneaker over the foot plate and walked across the office with a smooth stride. Once he got the brace, "I could run on it, jump vertically, laterally shuffle," Anderson said. "Things that there's no way I'd be doing with that much speed, efficiency or lack of pain. "For a guy that's in his late 20s that's always been a jock athlete, being hampered by these injuries is pretty tough mentally," he continued. "When you're given the option to get back into it, it's huge; it means a lot to me." Anderson soon will return to duty at Fort Carson. Of the nearly 200 cases they've seen, Owens noted, more than 30 have returned to service and 11 have combat deployed. As they test and improve the current design, Blanck and Owens also are looking into what they call a "widespread potential" for people with issues such as ankle arthritis, strokes and head, back and other injuries. The program's success has one limitation: space. Between amputees and warriors with salvaged limbs, the CFI can get crowded at times. The pair would like to see a rehab center like the CFI, but devoted to wounded warriors with salvaged limbs. There would be no shortage of demand, Owens said, noting that for every one amputee, there are about 10 limb salvage patients. Meanwhile, they have no plans to cut back, no matter how great the demand. Just seeing the joy in a wounded warrior's face at walking again pain-free, they said, makes every extra hour at work worthwhile. "I never thought I'd come to work and get hugged by a 220-pound, 6-foot-4, Special Forces guy," said Blanck with a smile, "but I've had a few hugs. "I loved my job before this, but this is a whole new level." � | ||
| Related Sites: Photo Essay Center for the Intrepid | ||
Largest Energy User: "We are ... the largest energy user in the country," she said. "We have a big bill, even by DOD standards, because we have such a large built infrastructure. We have three times more building space even than Wal-Mart, [and] six times more than [the General Services Administration]." As with any large-scale organization, Robyn pointed out, the Defense Department faces challenges. "We have more than 400 threatened and endangered species on our installations," she said. "We are, among other things, a serious environmental steward. As with all things, we do that out of self-interest. We take care of threatened and endangered species to preserve the land so we can use it for testing and training. The desert tortoise is a particular challenge for any of you trying to do solar in the southwest." Robyn expressed optimism in the DOD's efforts moving forward in terms of energy strategy and working with the American Council on Renewable Energy. "We're very excited about what we're doing," she said. "We think this is just absolutely critical to it, and [I] look forward to working with you in the coming months and years." � |
| Biographies: Dorothy Robyn Related Sites: Special Report: Defense Department Operational Energy Strategy Special Report: DOD Goes Green |
