Davis–Monthan Air Force Base
Four Elements
Lisa Dorenfest, on her blog ‘One Ocean at a Time,’ posted a photo challenge of sorts – a photographic representation of the Four Elements, Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. This seemed such an intriguing challenge, I decided to give it a go. I’m posting some of my photos sans captions–let’s see if they represent well. Oh, and comments are most welcome.
Angel Thunder in Pictures
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.
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Angel Thunder: That Others Might Live
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 oth
er 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.
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U.S. Representative Ron Barber Gets Brief on Angel Thunder
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.
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Angels of Mercy: But, You Don’t Want to Mess With ‘Em
In October 2011, I got a chance to participate in the US Air Force‘s Angel Thunder Exercise. This was my second visit to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona to ‘play’ in this huge search and rescue exercise that includes many US Government agencies, local authorities, and participants from different nations. Below are some of the photos I took during my week there. The Air Force pararescue jumpers, or PJs, are often called Guardian Angels for their role in rescuing d0wned pilots or other people who are in distress, but these are angels with claws that you definitely don’t want to get on the wrong side of.
Charles Ray's Ramblings 