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My annual post is up (one of these years I will be happy with it), and I plan to drink a toast or three, smoke a cigar, and maybe even enjoy some good food as I remember those honored on the day.
Two U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets and two Malaysian air force Su-30MKI Flanker-H aircraft fly in formation during an exercise over the South China Sea, May 10, 2015. The exercise promotes cooperation between the U.S. Navy and Malaysian military. The F/A-18 Super Hornets are deployed with the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group.
U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Jonathan Pfaff
Landing Craft Air Cushion 27 transports U.S. Marines from the amphibious transport dock ship USS New York to shore in Djibouti, May 6, 2015. The Marines are assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, and the landing craft is assigned to the U.S. Navy’s Assault Craft Unit 4.
U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan B. Trejo
A U.S. Army paratrooper secures a room as his four-man team, which includes Georgian soldiers, clears a room during close-quarters battle training as part of Noble Partner 15 in Georgia, May 13, 2015. The field-training and live-fire exercise occurs between the U.S. Army and Georgian military to support Georgia's participation in the NATO Response Force and build military ties between the two nations.
U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Daniel Cole
Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Mark Salvador demonstrates how to use a field containment kit to test viruses such as Ebola during the Defense Department's first Lab Day at the Pentagon, May 14, 2015. Salvador is assigned to the Naval Medical Research Center.
DoD photo by EJ Hersom
U.S. Marines brace for the rotor wash of a CH-53 Super Stallion while conducting flight operations aboard the USS Kearsarge during an integrated training event in the Atlantic Ocean, May 9, 2015. The event helps prepare the Marines, assigned to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, for deployment to the areas of responsibilitly for the 5th and 6th fleets later this year.
U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Andre Dakis
U.S. sailors conduct special patrol insertion-extraction technique training near Naval Station Rota, Spain, May 7, 2015. The training helps sailors prepare for contingencies in which U.S. special operations and expeditionary forces need to quickly extract from areas where helicopters cannot safely land. The sailors are assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 8, Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 28, and Explosive Ordnance Disposal Training and Evaluation Unit 2.
U.S. Navy photo
U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jessica Gomez-Hickman holds a young earthquake victim before placing her in an ambulance at a medical triage area at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, May 12, 2015. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Gunnery Sgt. Ricardo Morales
U.S. Marine Corps photo by Gunnery Sgt. Ricardo Morales
The Marines and Nepalese soldiers who perished in the crash in Nepal have been identified. Even in peace, undergoing rescue and humanitarian operations, our troops are at risk...
This morning, the Chicago media is reporting about Cpl. Sara A. Medina, a 23 year old Marine from Aurora, Illinois, who perished in the crash and was engaged to be married to another Marine.
And the Marine Corps Times has short profiles on each Marine including this piece about their relief efforts filmed right before the crash...:
Capt. Dustin R. Lukasiewicz, from Nebraska, served as a UH-1Y pilot and aviation safety officer with HMLA-469.
Lukasiewicz received his commissioned on March 28, 2008. He deployed to Afghanistan, with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and to Nepal.
Lukasiewicz was featured in a Marine Corps video about relief efforts in Nepal posted days before the helo accident. He described how they delivered rice, potatoes and tarps to remote areas devastated by the earthquake.
U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Matthew Shiver waits for earthquake victims to board an MV-22 Osprey at a landing zone near Charikot, Nepal, May 12, 2015. Shiver is an Osprey crew chief with Joint Task Force 505.
U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Jeffrey D. Anderson