Combat Center Marine to Receive Navy Cross

Filed under DoD News by on May 18, 2012 at 7:58 am {no comments}

Sgt. Clifford Wooldridge will receive the Navy Cross from the Undersecretary of the Navy Robert O. Work during a ceremony in front of the members of his former Twentynine Palms, Calif.-based unit, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines. (Courtesy Photo)

A former Combat Center Marine will be presented with the nation’s second highest award today in recognition of his courageous actions in Afghanistan.

Sgt. Clifford Wooldridge will receive the Navy Cross from the Undersecretary of the Navy, Robert O. Work, during a ceremony in front of the members of his former Twentynine Palms-based unit, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines.

Wooldridge, a Port Angeles, Wash., native, was serving as a vehicle commander on a mounted patrol, June 18, 2010, in the Musa Qala district of Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

The patrol came under heavy enemy fire and then-Cpl. Wooldridge ordered his Marines out of their vehicles and they began to maneuver towards the enemy fighting positions. He led a four-man fire team to outflank the 15 Taliban fighters as they prepared to attack the rest of the Marine patrol.

Opening fire, Wooldridge and his Marines killed or wounded eight of the fighters, scattering the rest.

As his fire team was withdrawing, Wooldridge heard voices from behind an adjacent wall of a nearby compound.

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Family Focus Friday: Father And Son Take Flight

Filed under DoD News, Family Focus Friday by on May 18, 2012 at 7:57 am {no comments}

Every day, naval aviators prepare for more than a dozen flights taking off at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, but none quite as unique as Lt. Ryan Mattson’s latest mission.  His final flight with this squadron is significant for a number of reasons, the most significant reason being the fact that his father is taking to the skies with him.

This explains:



Video provided by DMA Navy

 

 

V-mail and Gmail

Filed under DoD News by on May 18, 2012 at 7:51 am {no comments}

Story by Isaac Lamberth

Auschwitz II - Birkenau - Entrance gate and main track. ( Photo by C.Puisney)

On April 28, 1941 – 71 years ago today as I write this – Leo Morgenstern, my great grandfather, wrote a letter from Nazi-occupied France to his son in America, asking for bribe money to facilitate his escape. The letter arrived in January, 1944, having been held up by a British censor due to concerns over its origins behind enemy lines. If only he could have sent an e-mail, he might not have perished at Auschwitz.

Not being an American GI, though his son was, he could not have taken advantage of V-mail. V-mail (V for Victory) was an ingenious system that converted letters into microfilm, shrinking over a ton of mail down to a mere 45 pounds for shipping. The letters were reprinted on the receiving end.

V-mail may have saved precious cargo space but it’s impact on delivery time was limited since it was still shipped by boat, to say nothing of the privacy issues involved in having one’s letters read and photographed by strangers.

Today the majority of U.S. troops in Afghanistan have daily access to the Internet (albeit slow and clunky), including Skype, Facebook and e-mail.

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Hard Work Is The Price For Gas In Afghanistan

Filed under DoD News by on May 18, 2012 at 7:42 am {no comments}

Spc. Lishan Watson (left), a petroleum supply specialist, rotates her arm in a circular motion with her finger pointed, the signal for Sgt. Rodney Frazier(right), a native of Fayetteville, N.C., section chief for the distribution platoon to start pumping fuel in order to cold-fuel a CH-47F Chinook helicopter. (Photo by Sgt. Richard Wrigley)

Just as blood is the liquid that keeps your body up and moving, so is fuel the liquid that keeps an aviation task force in the air and completing the mission.

You would think that this means that those who are in charge of dispensing the fuel would be hot-shots, always in the lime-light and loved by all for performing their indispensable job.

The reality though is quite different.

“We’re in an aviation unit and the majority of the soldiers are therefore aviation personnel. We’re support guys and they appreciate us, but we can sometimes get lost in the mix,” said 1st Sgt. Eteru Ane, a native of Pago Pago, American Samoa, senior enlisted adviser for Company E, Task Force Spearhead, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division.

These soldiers though are finally receiving the recognition they deserve.

The soldiers of E Company’s distribution platoon have pumped more than three million gallons of fuel during their deployment to western Afghanistan. The important role they play in the task force’s day to day operations simply cannot be overstated.

No generator, Humvee, UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, or CH-47 Chinook helicopter would work without the platoon’s soldiers who provide the fuel that keep these machines operational, said Sgt. Rodney Frazier, a native of Fayetteville, N.C., section chief for the Distribution Platoon.

The soldiers have provided constant support to both the ground and air fleet by taking initiative and displaying a hunger to excel, Frazier continued.

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Worth a Thousand Words: Flight Ops Aboard USS Carl Vinson

Filed under Worth A Thousand Words by on May 18, 2012 at 6:30 am {no comments}

A C-2A Greyhound assigned to Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 40 taxis to off-load passengers after landing aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). Carl Vinson and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17 are deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Andrew K. Haller/Released)(DVIDS)

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    German soldiers of 2nd Company, 1st Battalion, 40th Mechanized Infantry Regiment pull security during an Operational Mentor Liaison Team (OMLT) training exercise at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany.  OMLT XXIII and Police Operational Mentor Liaison Team VII training are designed to prepare teams for deployment to Afghanistan with the ability to train, advise, and enable the Afghan National Security Force in areas such as counter-insurgency, combat advisory, and force enabling support operations. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Ian Schell  (DVIDS)


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    While flying over Colorado a B-2 Stealth Bomber from Whiteman Air Force Base, MO, moves into position for a mid-air refueling via the boom of a KC-135R Stratotanker from the 128th Air Refueling Wing, Milwaukee on 09 May, 2012. The B-2 Stealth bomber and the KC-135 crews conducted the aerial refueling to maintain mission readiness standards.

    U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt Jeremy M. Wilson (DVIDS)


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    Royal Canadian Mounted Police assigned to a Marine Security Emergency Response Team debark from the HMCS Ville de Quebec (FFH 332) to conduct boarding operations during Exercise Frontier Sentinel 2012 May 8, 2012 at sea off Sydney, Nova Scotia. Exercise Frontier Sentinel is a combined interagency exercise involving Joint Task Force Atlantic, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy Fleet Forces Command. The exercise is designed to continue to develop and validate the existing plans, treaties and standard operation procedures for a bilateral response to maritime homeland defense and security threats.

    (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ernesto Hernandez Fonte / Released) (DVIDS)