Green Berets

Gear in the Wild: Search and Rescue personnel save lives

South Florida Urban Search and Rescue, Florida Task Force 2, out of Miami, Fla., conduct reconnaissance missions in Bucksport, South Carolina, Sept. 25, 2018, by GPS marking neighborhoods to identify areas and properties that are flooded, as a result of rising waters in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. These reconnaissance missions are critical for first responders to know exactly where citizens are, if they are in affected or potentially affected areas, and if they choose to shelter in place. Local citizens are urged to listen to their local authorities and to “turn around, don’t drown” if they come across cones, barriers or flooded roads when traveling in the affected areas of S.C. The South Carolina National Guard’s priority is always to ensure that all assets for any life-saving missions are in place and ready as the state sees rivers rise and flooding continues.

U.S. Army National Guard Photo by Staff Sgt. Jorge Intriago

See drone footage of the flooding in South Carolina below:

Gear in the Wild: The fine line between bad camping and a good field op

Participants of the Swedish Basic Winter Warfare Course rest in front of a fire during the course’s culminating event in Arvidsjaur, Sweden, Jan. 23, 2018. Marines from the Black Sea Rotational Force and the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, along with troops from 9 other countries, participated in the Swedish Basic Winter Warfare Course.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by SSgt. Marcin Platek

Watch Marines participate in the Swedish Basic Winter Warfare Course below:

Gear in the Wild: It’s getting a little hot around here…

U.S. Marines assigned to Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) with Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron conduct fire containment drills at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, Oct. 12, 2018. The training was conducted in order to maintain proficiency extinguishing aircraft fires in support of the air station’s mission of launching and recovering aircraft. ARFF is a special category of firefighting that involves the response, hazard mitigation, evacuation and possible rescue of passengers and crew of an aircraft involved in a ground emergency.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Andrew Jones

Learn more about what it is to be a Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting Marine in the video below:

Gear in the Wild: Divers work to recover bodies of lost WWII bomber crew

Per the Department of Defense:

Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Eugene P. Ford, killed during World War II, has now been accounted for.

On Dec. 17, 1944, Ford was the a member of the 765th Bombardment Squadron, 461st Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force, as the pilot of a B-24J aircraft known as The Tulsamerican. Accompanied by a crew of nine service members, the Tulsamerican was the lead aircraft in a group of six B-24s from the squadron to participate in a combat bombing mission targeting oil refineries at Odertal, Germany. Coming out of a cloud bank near the target, the aircraft were attacked by more than 40 German Me-109 and FW-190 fighters. The unit suffered heavy losses with three of their six aircraft shot down and the other three damaged. The Tulsamerican sustained heavy damage, forcing Ford to abort the mission and crash land in the Adriatic Sea, near the Isle of Vis, in present-day Croatia. Seven crew members of the aircraft survived and were rescued, however three, including Ford, were killed in the crash, and their bodies were unable to be recovered.

Interment services are pending; more details will be released 7-10 days prior to scheduled funeral services.

DPAA is grateful to the divers who discovered the crash site, as well as the Croatian Government (especially the Croatian Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Veterans Affairs, and Ministry of Culture), the Croatian Conservation Institute, the University of Zadar, Lund University, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the National Park Service and the Croatian Navy, most especially the Captain and Crew of the DBM-82 Krka, for their partnership in this mission.

Ford’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery in Italy, an American Battle Monuments Commission site. A
rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Watch the team of divers working around the wreckage in the video below:

Gear in the Wild: The right gear for chemical attacks (or for when you forget your gym bag in the trunk)

U.S. Army Sgt. Cory Sweetman radios back to an operations center during an exercise at Atlantic City International Airport, N.J., Nov. 7, 2018. Sweetman is with the 21st Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Team (21st WMD-CST), New Jersey National Guard.

U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Matt Hecht

Watch how U.S. troops train to operate after a nuclear, chemical, or biological attack below:

Gear in the Wild: Astronaut uncovers relic aboard the International Space Station

A collection of 3.5″ discs that must have been aboard the International Space Station for years were uncovered by European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst. Gerst posted his discovery to Twitter:

I found a locker on the @Space_Station that probably hasn’t been opened for a while… / Ich habe hier auf der #ISS ein Fach gefunden, das vermutlich schon seit einer Weile nicht mehr geöffnet wurde… #SpaceStation20th pic.twitter.com/XOc3FS8tMm

— Alexander Gerst (@Astro_Alex) November 20, 2018

Take a tour of the ISS below: