DoDLive | Department of Defense Blog

Worth a Thousand Words: Strait of Gibraltar

Filed under Worth A Thousand Words by dmoss on May 2, 2012 at 6:30 am {no comments}

Marines with 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, provide ship security during Defense of Amphibious Task Force operations, April 20, 2012, as the ship sails through the Strait of Gibraltar. The 24th MEU, partnered with the Navy’s Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, is currently deployed as a theater reserve and crisis response force capable of a variety of missions from full-scale combat operations to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. (Official Marine Corps Photo by Sgt. Richard Blumenstein)

Let The Games Begin – First Lady Speaks At 2012 Warrior Games

Filed under DoD News, Warrior Games by jtozer on May 1, 2012 at 2:55 pm {no comments}

First Lady Michelle Obama and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, applaud as the All-Marine Warrior Games team make their way down the Olympic pathway during the opening ceremony of the 2012 Warrior Games in Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Heidi Agostini)

Hundreds of wounded warriors, family members and supporters gathered here for the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Warrior Games.

The Warrior Games comprises seven sports — swimming, cycling wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball, archery, shooting and track and field — in which injured, ill or wounded service members from each branch of service and the U.S. Special Operations Command will compete.

This year, the opening ceremony was held at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. All of the athletic events will be held at the U.S. Air Force Academy, with the exception of shooting, which will be held at the training center.

More than 200 service members are expected to compete in the 2012 games.

“For me, these games embody the enduring resilience of our profession,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey. “Your commitment to teamwork and dedication to persevere at these games are the very same qualities that led you to serve our nation. Those qualities don’t go away.”

The ceremony opened with playing of the national anthem and “God Save the Queen,” the British national anthem. This is the first year British wounded warriors have participated in the games.

The anthems were followed by a flyover by F-16 Fighting Falcons.
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Military Leads in Brain Injury Care, Specialists Say

Filed under Brain Injury Awareness, DoD News by glenn.selby on May 1, 2012 at 8:08 am {no comments}

Brain Injury Awareness

Story by Lisa Daniel, American Forces Press Service

Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps medical specialists and civilian experts are working closely with one another to develop the best traumatic brain injury prevention, diagnosis and treatment practices.

“(The Defense Department) is in the lead in making sure we learn all we can about the brain and brain injuries,” Maj. Sarah Goldman, director of the Army Medical Specialist Corps traumatic brain injury program, said during a Pentagon Channel panel discussion about military brain injury programs.

Goldman, a research specialist with a doctorate in kinesiology in the Army surgeon general’s office, was joined by her counterparts representing the other services’ traumatic brain injury programs: Cmdr. (Dr.) Jack Tsao, a neurologist at the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery; Maj. (Dr.) Laura Baugh, a neurologist with the Air Force Medical Support Agency; and Navy Capt. (Dr.) David Tarantino, a family practice physician assigned to Marine Corps headquarters.

“We have different lenses we bring to the table, and it’s that diversity that gives us strength,” Goldman said.

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Raising $13,000 for Wounded Warriors

Filed under DoD News, Warrior Games by jtozer on May 1, 2012 at 7:56 am {no comments}

Participants begin the 10K run on Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, April 28, in support of wounded soldiers from the 14th Combat Engineer Battalion. In all, more than 300 participants turned out for the event, raising more than $13,000 that will go to helping injured soldiers and their families travel to Joint Base Lewis-McChord for the unit's welcome home ceremony. (Photo by Sgt. Marc Loi)

When she saw the soldiers in her unit get sent home early with injuries from IED blasts, Spc. Adrianne Snyder knew she needed to do something to help them.

She eventually encouraged other service members to use the arms and legs they were lucky enough to still have to raise money for those who no longer had theirs.

Deployed here in support of Operation Enduring Freedom with the 14th Combat Engineer Battalion from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., Snyder put together a fundraising t-shirt sale, culminating the two-month event with a 10K-run.

“I noticed that a lot of people were doing runs around here and figured we could put one together since we also had some wounded guys,” said Snyder, who currently works as a liaison officer with the battalion’s Headquarters and Headquarters Company. “We just designed a few t-shirts and started selling them, and things just started selling really fast.”

Deployed here since July, the unit comprises mostly of combat engineers whose daily missions include clearing Afghanistan’s routes of IED’s and as a result, has seen its fair share of injuries sustained from IED blasts.

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Chasing the Dragon: Fighting Afghanistan’s Drug Trade

Filed under DoD News by jtozer on May 1, 2012 at 7:20 am {no comments}

Produced by Lance Cpl. Tyler Reiriz, 1st Marine Division

For police in Afghanistan, putting a stop to the narcotics production and trade in their country could mean a severe blow to insurgents. Drugs and weapons trafficking are often used as a source of income for terrorists.

Members of the counter-narcotics police of Afghanistan, National Interdiction Unit, rehearse and upcoming raid in Helmand province with U.S. Marines. The NIU are a special operations unit tasked with putting a stop to the smuggling of illegal drugs that help fund the insurgency in Afghanistan.