Photos

Photo of the day: Recon Marines prepare for extreme hike in South Korea

I remember going through the South Korean ROK Marine Mountain Warfare training center. Those ROK Marines were damn machines during the entire training course. I remember going up into the mountains one day, probably covering a few thousand feet in elevation, and they smoked us. Obviously, this is their backyard and they better be good at it, but damn. We were all in pretty good physical condition and these guys didn’t break a sweat.

Moving on to the ropes course was another interesting training evolution. This consisted of knot tying with regards to combat and survival and then traversing many different types of rope bridges. We all had safety carabiners snapped into the overhead line when going across these bridges. One of the two rope bridges actually crosses a major highway with a steady flow of vehicles and trucks. One of our guys got hung up and lost his footing. Unable to regain his footing to continue across the bridge, one of the Korean ROK Marines quickly went out across the bridge with no safety line snapped in and helped our guy back onto the bridge. They seem to have an increased level of crazy in them. All in all, it was a great training deployment with the ROK Marines.

MOUNTAIN WARFARE TRAINING CAMP, SOUTH KOREA

Petty Officer 3rd Class Cody Goddard covers the rear of the group as Republic of Korea Marines try to use communication equipment before a simulated pre-dawn raid Jan. 22 during Korean Marine Exchange Program 14-3 near the Mountain Warfare Training Camp in Pyeongchang, South Korea. To prepare for the cold weather training, the U.S. Marines went through climatization training which included jumping in a pool of ice water, learning to ski, and surviving with no warming layers. Goddard is a corpsman with 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force. The ROK Marines are with the 1st ROK Special Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st ROK Division.

Photo courtesy of DVIDS

Photo of the day: Small unit insertion in the Diyala province of Iraq

Small unit insertion in the Diyala province of Iraq sometime in ’06-’07. This was my first unit. Named Task Force 300 because the Squadron had roughly 300 shooters and a gigantic Greek commander. Of those 300: 22 would die, 1 in 3 would earn a purple heart, and all would collectively earn a Presidential Unit Citation for the campaign.

We operated much like island hopping in WWII. Moving from village to village setting up a patrol base and stabilizing the area before moving on to the next village. We didn’t really know it then, but we were fighting the infancy of ISIS. It wasn’t an easy deployment but paratroopers aren’t exactly ones to want it easy. I don’t know if I’ll ever be more proud of being a part of anything else in my life.

Author – Seth joined the Army in 2006 and went to Iraq a couple times doing LRRP work for the 82nd Airborne. After that, he played the Private Military Contractor game for a while until he decided to pursue a degree in economics. He now works as a data analyst and firearms instructor.

Photo of the day: Ranger earns Thai Jump Wings

It’s been so long I can’t remember the exact date. Let’s say 1995 based on my rank and sometime around monsoon season in Thailand. Alpha Company 2nd Ranger Battalion in support of Operation Cobra Gold, deployed to Thailand to work with and train the Thai Commandos. In this picture, I’m standing with my non-smiling Ranger counterpart. We had just performed several airborne operations from a Thai Air Force C-130. US Army Rangers and Thai Rangers sharing the skies over their beautiful country. Unlike other countries we’ve worked with, these guys were a real pleasure. They were smart, motivated to learn and always in good spirits. Despite their eagerness to see how we operate as a unit, these Thai Rangers proudly shared their intimate knowledge of the jungle and fieldcraft with us.

Photo of the day: Daily preparedness and duct tape

Being prepared doesn’t mean carrying around the toolbox with you to fix every single thing that Murphy will throw at you. Preparedness is usually dependent on the situation and being realistic about what you can comfortably carry without being cumbersome. There are those few items that will always have multiple uses to get you out of a bind. Duct tape is one of them. The picture below is how I carry duct and electrical tape while minimizing “real estate” in my pack. My tape is wrapped tightly around a “survival” card that came with an ESEE Knife that I bought years ago, but any rigid card will work. Unfortunately, I have to suggest not using an old credit card for an obvious reason. Feel free to share some of the equipment that you carry on a daily and how you do it.

Author – Tony Kuhn

Photo of the day: SERE combat survival training

FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, WA, UNITED STATES

Senior Airman Anthony Fiore, 22nd Training Squadron Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape specialist, presses the ‘hard send’ key on a Combat Survivor/Evader Locator radio, June 13, 2015, in the Colville National Forest, Wash. S-V-80-A combat survival students learned how to communicate with recovery forces using the CSEL radio. The students learned a variety of survival skills including shelter building, fire craft and water procurement.

Check out the following video for more information on the Air Force SERE School.

*Photo Courtesy of DVIDS

Photo of the day: Reconnaissance and surveillance patrol hones Marines readiness

JOINT BASE LEWIS MCCORD, WA, UNITED STATES

Sergeant Ben Deweese, assistant team leader, Company C, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, makes final gear preparations prior to a three-day reconnaissance and surveillance patrol aboard Joint Base Lewis McCord, Wash, April 9, 2015. Marines with the company operated in remote locations of the wilderness and provided surveillance of the surrounding area to paint the commander a picture of the battlefield. During the patrol, the reconnaissance men navigated through several kilometers of thick brush and provided surveillance on numerous named areas of interest. The patrol was one of many exercises the company will complete as part of a combat readiness evaluation in preparation for an upcoming deployment.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Joseph Scanlan / released)

*Courtesy of DVIDS