Sailor Overcomes Obstacles in Haiti, America, and Beyond

Filed under DoD News, Wednesday Warfighter by on February 8, 2012 at 7:34 am {no comments}

By U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Kaitlyn Johnson
CJTF-HOA Public Affairs

U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Dominique Pierre stands atop a watercraft with Maritime Security Squadron 4 at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. (U.S. Air Force Photo Illustration by Senior Airman Kaitlyn Johnson)

CAMP LEMONNIER, Djibouti – With tears in his eyes, U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Dominique Pierre paused before recounting a 30-year journey that led him to his greatest life lesson.

“You never know where people come from,” he said. “That’s why you have to respect them.”

The lesson took him from his birthplace on a remote island of Haiti to the streets of Miami and finally to Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, where he currently serves with the Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadron 4, ensuring the safety of Djibouti’s ports and surrounding waters. He said the journey not only brought him pain and sorrow, but also pride and accomplishment.

Pierre was born in 1982 on Ile de la Tortue, a small island north of the Haitian mainland with a population of approximately 25,000 residents. Pierre’s father died when he was just four years old. He says he has brothers and sisters in Tortue, but doesn’t know most of them.

As a child, Pierre suffered through abuse and neglect. The pain it caused drove him to run away from home multiple times.

“It was rough and I just wanted to get out of there,” Pierre said.

In 1994, Pierre got the chance to live in Miami, Florida, leaving his homeland behind. It was a new life for him – or so he thought. The hardship continued in America, forcing Pierre, by then a high school student, to sleep in a broken down car. Finding life a struggle even in the United States, he wrote a letter home to his mother describing the hardship he was now facing in his new country. A distant cousin wrote back with bad news. Pierre’s mother had died and his letter arrived in Tortue on the day of his mother’s burial.

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Episode #69: Weekly News Roundup for Jan. 14

Filed under DoD News, Emerging Media by on January 14, 2011 at 12:24 pm {no comments}
In the “DoD This Week” podcast for Jan. 14: This week we remember the tragic earthquake that devastated the island of Haiti; Vice President Joe Biden visited visited Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq to visit with troops and talk with leaders; Secretary of Defense Robert Gates traveled to Asia this week to talk with leaders about the need for international cooperation to maintain peace; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen briefed the foreign press in Washington D.C. about the progress being made by service members and their Afghan partners.
Listen to the podcast.

Haiti, One Year Later

Filed under DoD News, Emerging Media by on January 12, 2011 at 2:33 pm {no comments}



YouTube DoDLive

By Matt Mientka

Many people died a year ago today when a powerful earthquake struck Haiti near Port-au-Prince, knocking down buildings and trapping thousands beneath the rubble.

Perhaps as many as 200,000 perished last January after the 7.0 magnitude  quake, which was followed during the next 12 days by 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater. In the capital city and around the country, another few hundred thousand people suffered injuries with many waiting painful hours and days to be rescued.

Cholera, thirst, hunger and violence would soon land on the poor Caribbean nation. Help, too. Within hours, the United States and other countries from around the world began sending aircraft laden with workers and equipment. Within a few days, the U.S. Navy’s USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier arrived off the coast, providing support to others there to help. Aboard the ship, Sailors prepared to deliver 600,000 daily rations in addition to potable water and water-purification equipment. Later, the USS Comfort arrived in the area, boosting medical capacity with more than 1,000 beds and 12 operating rooms. (more…)

Episode #67: Weekly News Roundup for Dec. 30

Filed under DoD News by on December 30, 2010 at 2:01 pm {no comments}
In the “DoD This Week” podcast for Dec. 30: This week, we revisit the major events of 2010. In January, servicemembers began humanitarian aid in Haiti after the country was devastated by an earthquake; in April, the U.S. Coast Guard began operations to clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; in June, U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal resigned from his position as Commander, International Security Assistance Force/United States Forces Afghanistan and Gen. David Petraeus took over as Commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force; July saw servicemembers deliver more than 20 million pounds of relief supplies to Pakistan after the country sustained the worse monsoon season in 100 years including and flooding that submerged one fifth of the country; the months of August and September saw 30,000 more troops deployed to Afghanistan in to continue the battle against the Taliban and terrorist networks there, and Operation “New Dawn” began in Iraq; several changes came in December including Congress ratifying the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia, Retroactive Stop-Loss Special Pay deadline was extended, and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, the ban on openly gay men and women serving in the military, was repealed.
Listen to the podcast.

Top Blog Posts on DoDLive in 2010

Filed under DoD News by on December 27, 2010 at 12:07 pm {no comments}

Listed below are the 10 most popular posts according to the number of visitors to DoDLive.mil in 2010. Read the top 10 stories viewed on Defense.gov in 2010. You can also view the top 10 videos featured on Armed with Science.

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle in the encapsulation cell at the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Fla. The X-37B is the U.S.'s newest and most advanced unmanned re-entry spacecraft. (Courtesy photo)

 10. Air Force Bloggers Roundtable: Air Force set to launch first X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle. In April 2010, Mr. Gary Payton, Air Force Deputy Under Secretary for Space Programs, and Lt. Col. Erik Bowman, 45th Launch Support Squadron commander, Patrick AFB, Fla. hosted a media teleconference on the first launch of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle. The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle provided a flexible space test platform to conduct various experiments and allow satellite sensors, subsystems, components and associated technology to be efficiently transported to and from the space environment. The X-37B is the first vehicle since NASA’s Shuttle Orbiter with the ability to return experiments to Earth for further inspection and analysis. Read the fact sheet.

Read the blog post.

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    An United States Air Force C-130J Hercules cargo aircraft from the 146th Airlift Wing, California Air National Guard, conducts flare training off the Ventura County coast. The flares are used as tactical infrared countermeasures to confuse and redirect heat-seeking missiles.

    (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Dave Buttner)


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    Famed Yankees pitcher “Lefty Gomez” once remarked “I’d rather be lucky than good,” but for one Tuskegee Airman, luck and good combined to make him one of the most successful combat pilots of World War II.

    During the summer of 1944, 2nd Lt. Clarence D. “Lucky” Lester was flying the P-51 Mustang over the skies of Italy’s Po Valley providing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers with cover support on their way to attack airfields in southern Germany.

    Lester was assigned to the 100th Fighter Squadron, a part of the 332nd Fighter Group, and had earned the nickname “Lucky” “because of all the tight situations from which I had escaped without a scratch or even a bullet hole in my aircraft.”

    Read the story of a flight that helped Lester earn his nickname here.


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    The only African-American ace of World War II, and a former Tuskegee Airman, went on to have a career in the Air Force, as well as success in the business world.

    Lee A. Archer joined the Army in 1941 with high hopes of becoming a pilot, but was initially denied because of his race. When the Army’s policy changed about a year later, Archer was accepted to the training program for black aviators at the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama.

    Archer is best known for a day in late 1944 when he was involved in a series of dogfights over German-occupied Hungary. Flying a P-51 Mustang fighter, Archer shot down three German fighters. He would go on to add two more German fighters to his credit to become the first and only African-American ace of the war.

    As a civilian, Archer enjoyed even greater success, serving as vice president for urban affairs with General Foods, as CEO of North Street Capital Corp. and chairman of Hudson Commercial Corp. He also served on the board of directors of Beatrice International Foods and the Institute for American Business.

    Read the rest of his story here.