arizona « Charles Ray's Ramblings

This entry was posted in Photography and tagged arizona, cactus, desert, landscape, photography.

Angel Thunder in Pictures

Posted on April 22, 2013 Updated on April 22, 2013

Once again I had an opportunity to participate in Angel Thunder, the US Air Force‘s personnel recovery exercise. I missed some of the highlights, such as the simulated rescue at the Grand Canyon, one of the first (and largest) military exercises in a national park. But, I was able to observe a simulated air crash at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, where local emergency responders came in to assist, and an emergency response at Playas Training Center in New Mexico involving US, Colombian, Chilean, Brazilian, and Singaporean units responding to explosions that caused casualties in a simulated village. Some of my photos are below.

Local fire rescue personnel respond to simulated air crash at the air base.

Simulated air crash casualty being treated.

An IED exploding kicks off a mass casualty/rescue exercise at Playas, New Mexico.

'Casualties' from the IED. — ‘Casualties’ from the IED.

Colombian, Brazilian, and Chilean forces disembark from Chinook flown by Singaporean pilots.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged arizona, Brazil, Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Emergency service, Grand Canyon, New Mexico, United States, United States Air Force.

Angel Thunder: That Others Might Live

Posted on April 21, 2013 Updated on April 21, 2013

Despite the debilitating impact of sequestration, the U.S. Air Force still managed to hold its largest ever personnel recovery exercise this year. Angel Thunder, a two-week exercise that tests and refines the ability to locate and recover those who are isolated from friendly control and return them to safety, concluded on April 20 at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, and this year included nearly 3,000 personnel from all U.S. uniformed services, a number of federal civilian agencies, participants and observers from more than 20 countries, and local law enforcement, emergency management, and medical officials from several local jurisdictions in Arizona.

Begun in 2006, Angel Thunder was designed initially to give Air Force rescue units the training they couldn’t get through participation in other exercises. With the promulgation of a presidential document in 2008 which directed all federal agencies with personnel overseas to develop programs to ensure their protection should they become isolated, Angel Thunder’s focus was also moved toward interagency cooperation and involved more international partners.

Angel Thunder 2013 included international participants from countries such as Colombia, Brazil, and Singapore, working together and with their U.S. counterparts to refine the techniques for locating, supporting, and recovering individuals who are victims of natural or manmade disaster or who have been taken hostage. The exercise opened with a scenario demonstrating Defense Department support to civil authorities in natural disasters and mass casualty situations, with military forces responding to a major traffic accident in the Grand Canyon by recovering ‘injured’ persons and transporting them to medical treatment facilities.

A small exercise in the beginning, that was held every 18 months, Angel Thunder is now an annual, inter-service, interagency, international exercise that covers an area in the southwestern United States approximately the size of the country of Afghanistan and involves several hundred fixed and rotary wing aircraft in realistic scenarios ranging from the rescue of single individuals to providing medical treatment and evacuation to victims of mass casualties.

This entry was posted in Opinions and tagged angel thunder, arizona, Colombia, Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Grand Canyon, Tucson Arizona, United States, United States Air Force.

U.S. Representative Ron Barber Gets Brief on Angel Thunder

Posted on April 14, 2013 Updated on April 14, 2013

Representative Ron Barber (D), who occupies the House seat once held by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, yesterday visited Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson to get a first hand briefing on Angel Thunder, the largest personnel recovery exercise in the world. Now in its seventh year, Angel Thunder has become a major platform for exercising the national capacity to provide search and rescue and recovery services for American military forces serving abroad, support to the civilian agencies in their efforts to protect their citizens abroad, and defense support to civil authority here in the US. This year’s exercise, despite the restrictions imposed by sequestration, is one of the largest yet, with some 3,000 participants from all of the military services, federal civilian agencies, and local emergency management officials and agencies in Arizona.