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SIR YES SIR
These photos of the US Army's 2015 need to be seen to be believed...
The American army is spread across the globe. The force’s best-photos compilation for 2015 are spectacular to put it mildly.
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THE US ARMY had just as busy a year in 2015 as ever.
With training exercises with global partners around the globe and at home, there has been a lot going on. In order to showcase all of the Army’s exploits from the past year, the branch compiled the year in pictures.
We have selected some of the best below:
3 January: Medal of Honor recipient retired Master Sgt. Leroy Petry walks onto the field of the Alamodome in San Antonio with World War II veteran Richard Overton in San Antonio. Petry, awarded the Medal of Honor last year for efforts in Afghanistan, and Overton, the oldest living World War II veteran at 108, delivered the game ball at the US Army All-American Bowl.
21 January: A US Army soldier, participating in a rotation at Lighting Academy’s Jungle Operations Training Center, crosses a river at the 25th Infantry Division East Range Training Complex in Hawaii.
3 February: US Army Capt. Ryan Mortensen, a chaplain assigned to 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, interacts with children of the Middle Mosque of Lopburi, Thailand. Cobra Gold 15 allows US soldiers to bond with the Thai community, continuing a 182-year tradition of friendship.
19 February: Soldiers attending the US Army Mountain Warfare School in Jericho, Vermont, climb Smugglers’ Notch as part of their final phase of the Basic Military Mountaineering Course in Jeffersonville, Vermont. Students in the course spend two weeks acquiring the skills and knowledge required to operate in mountainous terrain.
24 February: A US Army soldier, assigned to 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), salutes his fellow soldiers while jumping out of a C-130 Hercules aircraft over a drop zone in Germany.
9 March: A dog handler with US Army Special Forces clears a building during a close-quarters battle demonstration for US Marines with Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response-Africa in Baumholder, Germany. The use of military dogs is an efficient way to detect hazardous materials and locate people within a structure.
16 March: A US Army Soldier with Operational Detachment Alpha 1215, 1st Special Forces Group, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, runs off the back of a CH-47F Chinook helicopter while conducting a simulated combat dive mission in the water off of Marine Corps Training Area Bellows. The helicopter hovered the ocean and allowed the soldiers to conduct a boat movement leading to reconnaissance of the beach and a raid in the training facility at Bellows.
20 March: US Army Maj. Stewart Brown, 55th Signal Company, jumps from a UH-60 Black Hawk from 1st Battalion, 171st Aviation Regiment during airborne operations at Plantation Airpark, in Sylvania, Georgia. Operation Skyfall is a joint, multilateral combat-camera subject-matter expert exchange hosted by the 982nd Combat Camera Company, which takes place at multiple locations in Georgia.
11 April: US Army and British paratroopers perform a static-line jump at Holland Drop Zone in preparation for Combined Joint Operational Access Exercise 15-01 on Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The exercise is an 82nd Airborne Division-led bilateral training event on Fort Bragg. It was the largest exercise of its kind held on Fort Bragg in nearly 20 years, and demonstrated interoperability between US and British army soldiers, US Air Force, Air National Guard, Royal Air Force airmen, and US Marines.
20 April: US Army Capt. Kristen Griest (center) carries a fellow soldier as part of combative training during the Ranger Course on Fort Benning, Georgia. Nineteen female soldiers made history April 20 when they began the first gender-integrated Ranger Course assessment.
27 April: A US Army soldier from D Company, 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment stands outside a CH-47F Chinook helicopter at the Kahiltna Glacier base camp on Mount McKinley, Alaska.
19 May: For the first time since losing his legs in Afghanistan, US Army Master Sgt Cedric King joined his fellow 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers on a division run to kick off All American Week on Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
22 May: Lithuanian Land Forces Soldiers from 2nd Coy, Iron Wolf Brigade fire a smoke screen from an M113A1 Armored Personnel Carrier during a joint live-fire exercise with their American partners, US Army unit Team Eagle, Task Force 2-7 Infantry, at the Great Lithuanian Hetman Jonusas Radvila Training Regiment in Rukla, Lithuania. As part of Atlantic Resolve, an ongoing multinational partnership focused on joint training and security cooperation between the US and other NATO allies, the Soldiers of Team Eagle work with, and around, their Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, French, and German allies on a daily basis.
1 June: A US Army soldier, assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, fires an M136 AT4 during Decisive Action Rotation 15-08 at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California.
26 June: A US Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter crew chief, assigned to the Alaska National Guard, conducts water-bucket operations during a firefighting mission south of Tok, Alaska. Two UH-60 helicopters aided in fighting the wildfire in coordination with the Bureau of Land Management, Fire Services based out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska.
17 July: A US Army Reserve combat engineer soldier, from the 374th Engineer Company (Sapper), tries to stand up with a loaded ruck sack full of water during Combat Water Survival Training at Fort Hunter Liggett, California.
31 July: A wave splashes onto an MK-2 boat operated by US Army Reserve soldiers Staff Sgt. Chad Bentley, bridge crew member, and Spc. Ben Adams, medic, from 341st Engineer Company (Multi-Role Bridge), during a sling-loading operation on the Arkansas River near Fort Chaffee. Soldiers from various Army Reserve and active-duty units trained together at River Assault, a bridging training exercise that involves Army Engineers and other support elements.
5 August: Snipers from the 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, dash across the rocky desert terrain during a combined-arms live-fire exercise at Fort Irwin, California. The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment was one of several organizations from across the US participating in Operation Dragon Spear, a demonstration which included a joint forcible entry operation with XVIII Airborne Corps, 82nd Airborne Division, 75th Ranger Regiment, 10th Special Forces Group and the US Air Force.
21 August: A US Army soldier, assigned to the Washington National Guard, uses his body to create an opening in a wire obstacle so his team can assault a position during Exercise Grizzly Defender in Alberta, Canada. Grizzly Defender is a joint training exercise with the Canadian army reserve with a focus on offensive tasks, including patrols, convoys, raids, information operations, traffic-control points, and company-level group attacks.
23 August: Soldiers, assigned to Kosovo Force Multinational Battle Group-East’s Task Force Hurricane, made up of soldiers from the National Guard and US Army Reserve, hike to the peak of Mount Ljuboten in southern Kosovo. Led by German members of MNBG-E’s headquarters, these soldiers earned Germany’s Edelweiss Badge by successfully completing the 8,000-foot trek.
20 September: US Army Staff Sgt. Brian Wright, 1st Battalion, 1st Special Operations Group (Airborne), holds a US flag outside a C-130 Hercules during the 2015 Japanese-American Friendship Festival at Yokota Air Base in Japan. The US flag, waved by Wright, was held out on one C-130 and a Japanese flag was simultaneously held outside another taxiing aircraft, symbolizing the US and Japan partnership and reinforcing the general idea of the festival: to increase bilateral relationships between the two countries.
29 September: Soldiers take to the water by jumping out of Black Hawk helicopters in an airborne operation, helicopter cast and recovery, known as a helocast, off the shores of Okinawa. The operation involves inserting and extracting personnel or equipment from a helicopter over water. Helocasting is an effective means of inserting or extracting reconnaissance elements. Units plan and conduct a helocast operation similar to an air-movement operation, except the landing zone is in the water.
1 October: US Army soldiers in Basic Combat Training low-crawl through the final obstacle during the Fit to Win endurance course at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
14 October: A Scout Sniper Team Marksman, part of the Recon Platoon from Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, 53rd Brigade Combat Team, Florida National Guard, fires a Barrett M107 .50-caliber semi-automatic antimaterial rifle at a 1,200-meter target during a live-fire long-range marksmanship training and qualification course at the Arta training range in Djibouti.
3 November: A US Army Green Beret takes one knee during a noncombatant evacuation exercise, as part of Southern Strike 16, on Meridian Naval Air Station in Mississippi.
2 December: US Army Spc. Timmy Racke, an infantryman with the 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 1st Armor Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, engages targets with his M240B Machine Gun while conducting battle drills at Pabrade Training Area in Lithuania.
10 December: US Army soldiers, assigned to 1/25 SBCT “Arctic Wolves,” US Army Alaska, transport equipment using snowshoes and ahkio sleds during an arctic mobility-squad competition in the Yukon Training Area at Fort Wainwright in Alaska.
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