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Virginia Beach, Virginia. (February 16, 2024): Wow, that’s one unusual way to get to work! In this photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Trey Hutcheson, Naval Special Warfare operators use a submarine diver propulsion vehicle to transport the team to their objective during underwater training. The Navy formed its unconventional warfare units during World War II to tackle dangerous assignments including direct action, counterterrorism, special reconnaissance, and personnel recovery. These pioneering units included the Marine Scouts and Raiders along with the first underwater demolition teams.
When President John F. Kennedy ordered the services to develop their unconventional warfare capability, the Navy responded by forming SEAL Teams One and Two in January 1962. Using personnel from existing underwater demolition teams, the SEALS were used to conduct counter guerrilla warfare and clandestine operations in maritime environments. In the Vietnam era, the Navy's special units included separate Underwater Demolition Teams (the successors to Navy Combat Demolition Units) and SEAL teams (successors to Scouts and Raiders). In 1983, the Underwater Demolition Teams were merged into the SEALS.
Today, the Naval Special Warfare branch is organized into eight SEAL teams, three Special Boat units, and various supporting commands totaling about 9,200 personnel. The SEALS are the force-of-choice for conducting small unit raids from oceans, rivers, or swamps and they have distinguished themselves as a reliable, highly skilled, and lethal force.
Due to the nature of special operations work, the Navy SEALS go through what is considered by many military experts to be the toughest training in the world
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Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii. (February 13, 2024) The rendering of honors is a solemn Navy ritual to memorialize America’s navy war dead. In this photo by Petty Officer Joshua Sapien, Sailors aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson render honors to the USS Arizona Memorial as it enters Pearl Harbor for a port visit.
Also called “manning the rails,” the tradition is customary for all U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine vessels transiting Pearl Harbor. As a ship passes the Arizona memorial, the Captain sounds “Attention” wherein all hands go topside to give a hand salute until the “Carry On” order is given.
The custom is also extended to show respect for the President of the United States, rulers of foreign nations, and members of the royal family. It is through traditions like these that the Navy binds one generation of mariners to another by honoring those who paid the ultimate price.
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Vilseck, Germany. (February 15, 2024): Ambushes, flanking maneuvers, double envelopment, suppressive fire, these are the core infantry tactics employed by armies since the earliest days of warfare. In this photo by Specialist William Kuang, Soldiers with the 2nd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment prepare their weapons before heading into the bush. Platoon size units like these use flanking methods to close with and destroy the enemy.
In military strategy, flanking is attacking the opponent from the side rather than head on. This is done because the enemy's strength is usually concentrated at the front and you are more likely to find a “soft spot” or weakness hitting the enemy at the sides. The goal is to gain an advantageous position over an opponent by attacking where the enemy is least able to mount a defense.
Typically, this is done in one of three ways.
The first is the classic ambush where a unit sets up a surprise attack from a concealed position. Ambushes often follow the same flanking principle; one side opens fire while another takes a blocking position to prevent the enemy’s escape. The key to a successful ambush, of course, is to arrange fire teams in such a way to avoid confusion and friendly fire.
Another type of flanking maneuver is employed when a unit encounters an enemy in a fortified position. In this scenario, the goal is to “pin” the enemy in place using “suppressive” fire to prevent them from returning fire, retreating, or moving to meet a flank attack. Suppressive fire is defined as “inaccurate fires” designed to keep the enemy occupied while the attacking force concentrates on the flanks.
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Atlantic Ocean. (February 16, 2024): This striking image of the wreck of USS Jacob Jones is one of the highlights of a joint recovery effort between the English Ministry of Defense’s Salvage and Marine Operations and the American Naval History and Heritage Command. In this photo by 2nd Lieutenant Mary Andom and later enhanced by the UK National Oceanography Center, the silhouette of the World War I Destroyer is revealed during a joint salvage survey. Using remotely piloted submersibles, the teams mapped the wreckage, recovered the ship’s bell, and even placed a wreath and an American flag on the wreck in tribute to the Sailors lost 107 years ago.
The Jacob Jones was discovered off the Isles of Scilly, England, in 2022 by technical divers and efforts have been underway to fully document and study the wreck site for its long-term preservation and protection. The destroyer was sunk by a German submarine on Dec. 6, 1917, and was the first U.S. Navy destroyer lost to enemy action. The ship sank eight minutes after being struck, with the U-boat commander radioing the approximate location of the survivors to the nearest American base for rescue.
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Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii. (February 7, 2024): It is the largest U.S. military training area in the Pacific few civilians know about. Situated on 133,000 acres of Hawaii’s “Big Island”, Pohakuloa is the central training facility for all U.S. and multinational forces in the Pacific. In this photo by Lance Corporal Clayton Baker, a Marine with 3d Littoral Combat Team, 3d Marine Littoral Regiment, 3d Marine Division, guides his team through a marked path during a platoon attack during Exercise Bougainville III. Bougainville III is a live-fire exercise to prepare the battalion to operate and support each other from dispersed locations.
The Pohakuloa site has firing ranges that allow units to conduct small-arms and crew-served weapons familiarization training and qualifications, as well as artillery and mortar live fire. Located 6,000 feet above sea level, the training area is perched between the Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa mountains on a barren landscape created by multiple volcanic eruptions.
The base was established during World War II as a Marine Corps artillery live-fire training area in preparation for the Iwo Jima and Saipan campaigns. Today, the facility has its own fire and police departments, an airfield with a 3,700-foot runway, a medical clinic, and even a post theater.
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Arlington, Virginia. (February 9, 2024): America rendered final honors to one of the few remaining Montford Point Marines, the first African Americans to serve in the Corps. In this photo by Lance Corporal Joseph E. DeMarcus, Brigadier General Melvin G. Carter presents the U.S. flag to Mable Bryant following the funeral service for her husband, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Albert Bryant at Arlington National Cemetery.
Bryant was one of over 20,000 African Americans who volunteered for the Marines at the outbreak of World War II. Up until then, the Corps refused to recruit Black people, Native Americans, or other minorities into its ranks. The recruits faced daily discrimination while training in segregated facilities between 1942 and 1949 at Montford Point, North Carolina. Black troops lived in Quonset huts “across the tracks” from Camp Lejeune and were not authorized to use on-post facilities, not even the chapel. The Montford Point Marines went on to serve with great distinction at Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and the Battle of Okinawa with approximately 2,000 seeing action.
It was not until Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Fair Employment Practices Commission in 1941 that forced the Corps, despite objections from its leadership, to begin recruiting African American Marines.