U.S. Army photo by Specialist Clara Soria-Hernandez.
With all the news media hype about Afghans ‘acquiring’ U.S. made M4s (the latest version of the old M16), where’s the hub-bub about the latest undisclosed amount of M4s openly given away by U.S. forces in Iraq?
USA photo by Specialist Clara Soria-Hernandez.
On 04AUG2021, crates of M4s were handed over to Iraqi airborne troops as part of the Counter-ISIS Train and Equip Fund (CTEF). It should be noted that ever since Joe Biden was sworn-in as President of the United States, divestitures (as the Department of Defense likes to call them) of U.S. funded vehicles, weapons and other supplies have skyrocketed in Iraq.
USA photo by Specialist Elorina Santos.
The divestments to Iraqi and Kurdish forces usually takes place on Al Asad Air Base, in Iraq. But the warehouse where all the taxpayer funded stuff is stored is located on Camp Arifjan, in Kuwait. The U.S. military calls the stuff stored in the warehouse “high priority equipment” for “partner forces”.
HEMTT Iron Dome radar carrier. USA photo by Darrell Ames, 15JUN2021.
Iron Dome radar deployed on the ground. USA photo by Darrell Ames, 15JUN2021.
The launch took place from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
HEMTT Iron Dome control room carrier. USA photo by Darrell Ames, 15JUN2021.
The first unit to be equipped with the Israeli system is based out of Fort Bliss, Texas.
Iron Dome launch, 22JUN2021. USA photo by Darrell Ames.
The U.S. Army plans to buy more of the Iron Dome systems and use them as anti-cruise missile weapons, at least until the U.S. develops a successful system of its own.
Promotional music video, by Darrell Ames, of multiple launches against target drones:
Amphibious transport dock ship USS Arlington (LPD 24) departs Naval Station Norfolk, 17AUG2021. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist First Class Jacob Milham.
On 17AUG2021, the USS Arlington shipped-out for Haiti, a Caribbean country known for catastrophic earthquakes.
Inside the Arlington are hundreds of personnel and landing craft loaded with amphibious LARC trucks. USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist Second Class Jack D. Aistrup.
The deployment of the USS Arlington is just one of many military emergency responses by the United States, since August 14th.
Arlington also carries MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopters. USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist Second Class John Bellino.
U.S. Southern Command photo by Sergeant First Class Victor Aguirre.
On 17AUG2021, U.S. Joint Task Force Haiti (created on 15AUG2021 in response to the Haitian quakes on 14AUG2021) and Special Operations Command personnel board a C-130J bound for Haiti, out of Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida.
U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Third Class Erik Villa Rodriguez.
16AUG2021 over Les Cays, Haiti, you can see a USCG helicopter and a Chilean KC-135 on the airport grounds, part of the massive global response to the catastrophe.
USCG video by Petty Officer Third Class Erik Villa Rodriguez, 15AUG2021:
USCG photo.
On 15AUG2021, the day after the quakes, U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) HC-144 Ocean Sentries (Airbus CN-235) deployed from Air Station Miami, Florida.
U.S. Southern Command photo.
Also on the 15th of August on Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida, U.S. Air Force Reserve C-130J Super Hercules were loaded with supplies from USAID bound for Haiti.
USCG video by Lieutenant David Steele, 15AUG2021:
U.S. Air Force photo by Captain Annabel Monroe.
U.S. Army Joint Task Force-Bravo CH-47 Chinook helicopters take-off from Cayman Islands for the Haiti disaster response, 15AUG2021.
USAF photo by Captain Annabel Monroe.
U.S. Army Joint Task Force-Bravo Black Hawk helicopters deployed from Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras, for disaster response operations in Haiti, 15AUG2021. U.S. Air Force Special Tactics personnel also deployed from Honduras.
U.S. Army photo by Staff Sergeant Christopher Stewart, 14AUG2021.
The U.S. Army’s 12th Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB) could be taking part in a wargame called Dynamic Front 21, instead they have joined with USAID in helping the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Tarım ve Orman Bakanlığı) fight fires in the western mountains.
USA photo by Staff Sergeant Christopher Stewart, 14AUG2021.
Flying their CH-47 Chinooks, the 1st Battalion, 214th Aviation Regiment, 12th CAB deployed from their assignment in Bulgaria to fight fires in Turkey, on 12AUG2021.
USA photo by Staff Sergeant Christopher Stewart, 14AUG2021.
USA photo by Staff Sergeant Christopher Stewart, 14AUG2021.
Water bombing aircraft from around the world arrived in Turkey to fight the fires:
On 14AUG2021, a Russian Navy flying boat crashed while fighting a fire in Turkey:
U.S. Army photo by Sergeant First Class Ernest Henderson.
On 11AUG2021, the U.S. military handed Iraqi-Kurdish Peshmerga forces an additional 21 trucks, worth US$5.3 million. The ‘divestiture’ took place on Erbil Air Base.
USA photo by Sergeant First Class Ernest Henderson.
On 08JUL2021, Peshmerga got $741-thousand-584 worth of weapons and ammo. It’s all part of the never ending Counter-ISIS Train and Equip Fund (CTEF) program.
USA photo by Sergeant First Class Gary A. Witte.
On 12JUN2021, Iraqi Border Guards got $4.5 million worth of barbed wire, pre-fab guard towers, generators, water tanks and shower trailers.
USA photo by Specialist Trevor Franklin.
On 03JUN2021, Peshmerga got an undisclosed amount of U.S./NATO funded Russian made/designed weapons.
USA photo by Specialist Angel Ruszkiewicz.
On 20MAY2021, Peshmerga also got truck-loads of barbed wire and uniforms.
“The Biomeme is a portable, practical, and easy to use piece of equipment that will allow the detection of infectious agents like Zika, dengue, malaria, and many other infectious agents in vectors in less than one hour. Cape Verde is an archipelago where molecular diagnostic services are not yet available on all islands. The Biomeme will be an enormous asset to support screening in field investigations, thus supporting the early diagnosis and monitoring of infectious agents and contributing to the prevention and control of diseases.”-Silvania Veiga Leal, Director of Entomology, Ministério Da Saúde De Cabo Verde
In June 2021, U.S. Navy entomologists made their first of two trips to Repúblika di Kabu Verdi (Cabo Verde, Cape Verde), in search of mosquitos. It’s part of the Navy Entomology Center of Excellence/Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division-Global Emerging Infections Surveillance’s Project Sea Raven.
Catching mosquitoes, 22JUN2021, U.S. Navy photo.
The official goal of Project Sea Raven is to find ways of detecting new pathogens, and help determine how to protect AfriCom (Africa Command) military personnel from those new disease causing pathogens. Project Sea Raven will search other global locations where access to medical care/laboratories are limited or non-existent.
Sea Raven entomologists were able to collect more than 4-hundred mosquitos, despite it being the dry season on Cabo Verde. The next visit will be during the rainy season.
Gowen Field, Idaho, 23JUL2021. Idaho Army National Guard photo by Thomas Alvarez.
Between June 30th and July 29th, the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s Peace Vanguard unit conducted AH-64 Longbow Apache gunnery on the Orchard Combat Training Center for the tenth year now, but this time they got to use Idaho’s new DAGIR system: “The scoring is instantaneous. The second a target is hit, we know about it. It’s a great feature because sometimes you’re not sure if the round went through the target or not.”-Lieutenant Colonel Jack Denton, U.S. Army Flight Training Detachment
Idaho ArNG photo by Thomas Alvarez, 23JUL2021.
The RSAF Peace Vanguard is based on the Arizona National Guard’s Silverbell Army Heliport, where they’ve been flying eight AH-64Ds since 2001.
Idaho ArNG photo by Thomas Alvarez, 23JUL2021.
Idaho’s Orchard Combat Training Center has at least 23 gunnery/bombing ranges. Currently it is one of only two DAGIR ranges in the entire U.S.
Qatar Airways is already flying the Afghan refugees to Dulles International Airport, arriving under cover of darkness. Fort Lee, in Virginia, is serving as the main port of entry for Operation Allies Refuge.
On 29JUL2021, U.S. Northern Command revealed that between the 14th and 19th of July, President Joe Biden ordered Operation Allies Refuge.
Operation Allies Refuge is a Department of State lead mission to give people in Afghanistan, as well as in various African countries, Special Immigrant Visas. I can understand Afghanistan, because the U.S. obviously lost that 20 year undeclared war and Afghans that supported the U.S. military are now targets, but why Africa? Has the U.S. lost its covert war in the various African countries as well?
One of the first busses for the refugees arrives at the Dulles International Airport in Virginia. USA photo by Specialist Cody Nelson, 30JUL2021.
In Afghanistan the program is administered by the Afghanistan Coordination Task Force (ACTF), and already the Department of Defense is tasked with coordinating the transport of 3-thousand-5-hundred Afghan refugees!
U.S. Army photo by Specialist Christopher Rodrigo, 28JUL2021.
Civilian contractors began constructing the temporary in-processing buildings on 26JUL2021.
USA photo by First Lieutenant Tom Burcham the Fourth, 30JUL2021.
Some Afghan refugees will be staying at the Fort Lee, Virginia, Holiday Inn Express.
AAFEES photo.
The Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) is tasked with providing a temporary Mobile Field Exchange, so incoming refugees can go shopping.
U.S. Army photo by Sergeant First Class Class Christie R. Smith, 26JUL2021.
On 26JUL2021, the same day U.S. President Joe Biden announced an end to U.S. combat action in Iraq, U.S. forces in Iraq handed over $25-million worth of ‘strategic communication and maintenance equipment’ to Iraqi forces. The U.S. military officially calls it ‘divestiture’ or ‘divestment’, it’s part of the never ending Counter-ISIS Train and Equip Fund (CTEF) program.
USA photo by Specialist Clara Soria-Hernandez, 26JUL2021.
Also, the Ministry of Peshmerga-Kurdistan Region received more than 70 HMMWVs and Navistars from U.S. taxpayers, on 26JUL2021!
USA photo by Specialist Clara Soria-Hernandez, 26JUL2021.
U.S. Army photo by Sergeant First Class Ernest Henderson, 19JUL2021.
That wasn’t the only giveaway in July 2021, on the 19th of July U.S. forces gave Iraqi forces ammunition and Toyota ‘ambulances’ and pick-ups, valued at more than $2.75 million!
USA photo by Sergeant First Class Ernest Henderson, 19JUL2021.
USA photo by Sergeant First Class Ernest Henderson, 19JUL2021.
USA photo by Sergeant First Class Ernest Henderson, 19JUL2021.
Also included were several Navistar flatbed trucks. Navistar has been paid tens of millions of U.S. dollars since 2007, to deliver trucks to Iraq.
USA photo by Corporal Jacob Gleich, 10JUL2021.
Then on 10JUL2021, U.S. taxpayers gave Iraqi forces $2.5-million worth of Toyotas and backhoe loaders!
