13 July 2021 / 23:44-UTC-07 Tango 06 (23 Tir 1400/04 Dhu l-Hijja 1442/05 Yi-Wei [5th month] 4719)
Chubbuck, Idaho, 13JUL2021. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.
The fattest grasshopper I’ve seen in the 25 years I’ve lived in Southeastern Idaho was trying to get in my back door.
Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.
Despite the extreme dry heat, these grasshoppers are looking well fed. This guy had left behind a little something near my apple tree.
Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.
A ghost of his former self, his molt. Apparently he (or she or it?) had just shed its skin.
Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.
I’ve already written about the Grasshoppers and Mormon Crickets seemingly joining together to wreak havoc upon Pacific Northwest farmers. Here’s some links to the most recent news about the worsening situation: Grasshoppers Are Descending on the West in Swarms
New Mexico Air National Guard photo by Airman First Class Lauren McMullen.
On 07JUL2021, active duty military, and National Guard medical personnel from across the United States, took over Greenville High School, in Mississippi.
New Mexico ANG photo by Airman First Class Lauren McMullen.
New Mexico ANG photo by Airman First Class Lauren McMullen.
Operations involving food service, dentistry, ambulance service, optometry, psychiatric care, and even drug distribution (pharmacy) were carried out as part of Delta Wellness Mission 2021. Greenville High School was one of three locations used for the Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) operation.
New Mexico ANG photo by Airman First Class Lauren McMullen.
The military uses IRTs as one way to train for disaster response, but Delta Wellness Mission 2021 is not a drill or training exercise, it is a continuation, under a new name, of a program started under the Obama Administration to provide free healthcare and food service to local residents.
New Mexico ANG photo by Airman First Class Lauren McMullen.
New Mexico ANG photo by Airman First Class Lauren McMullen.
Greenville High School was not the only school to be taken over under Delta Wellness Mission 2021.
New Mexico ANG photo Senior Master Sergeant Daniel Butterfield.
The General Trass High School, Arkansas, was taken over on 05JUL2021.
Air Force Reserve video report; 24JUN2021East Central Georgia Medical IRT mission, which included Burke County High School:
Army Reserve promo video; medical personnel from Ohio deployed to Knox and Clay County, Kentucky, to provide free services to humans and animals, 20JUN2021. The ‘Coal Country’ IRT was requested by local county officials:
South Carolina ANG photo by Lieutenant Colonel Jim Saint Clair.
The South Carolina National Guard deployed for Operation Healthy Delta 2021. The IRT provided medical and food service to two locations in Missouri, and one in Illinois, from June 14th to the 24th.
South Carolina ANG photo by Lieutenant Colonel Jim Saint Clair.
Army Reserve video report, IRT used as excuse to provide animal and human medical services to Turtle Mountain Reservation, North Dakota, 09MAY2021:
U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sergeant Karen J. Tomasik.
05MAY2021, IRT Arctic Care Kodiak Island 2021 was conducted to provide medical, dental, optometry, and veterinary care across communities on the island of Kodiak, Alaska.
U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sergeant Frans Labranche.
On 04MAY2021, military active duty, Reserve and National Guard medical personnel took over Lakeside High School, in Arkansas, apparently the first for the Delta Wellness Mission 2021 IRT.
08JUL2021. Nevada Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sergeant Paula Macomber.
In Northern California there is a complex of fires that have been ongoing, and difficult to combat, known as Beckwourth. It’s so frustrating that the California and Nevada Air National Guards are now involved in that combat.
Nevada Air National Guard C-130, MAFFS 9 out of Reno, near Frenchman Lake 09JUL2021. Nevada ANG photo by Senior Master Sergeant Paula Macomber.
A single C-130 MAFFS from the California ANG, and two C-130 MAFFS from Nevada ANG, began bombing runs in the Frenchman Lake area, on 09JUL2021.
Nevada ANG photo by Senior Master Sergeant Paula Macomber.
California National Guard video report by Master Sergeant David Loeffler, MAFFS joins the fight:
08 July 2021 (14:30-UTC-07 Tango 06) 17 Tir 1400/28 Dhu l-Qa’da 1442/29 Yi-Wei 4719
Children on Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, get a lesson on how to eat crickets during a survival course. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman First Class Jessica Weissman.
When I first moved to Southeastern Idaho (25 years ago), I experienced one of the cyclical swarming of grasshoppers in the region. When grasshoppers swarm and eat everything in site they are called Locust.
U.S. Forest Service personnel instruct Marine Corps & Navy personnel how to survive by eating bugs like crickets. U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Matthew F. Jackson.
Not only was my garden in my yard being inundated with plant eating grasshoppers, but while hiking in the Scout Mountain area I observed tens of thousands of grasshoppers cannibalizing each other. In an open field the ground was undulating, upon closer inspection it was a carpet of grasshoppers doing battle, biting each other’s heads off and then eating the loser (and I they were bleeding red blood)!
U.S. military personnel taking a survival course on Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, get a boxed lunch of crickets. USAF photo by Airman First Class Gustavo Castillo.
U.S. Army soldier chows-down on roasted crickets during survival training on Camp Friendship, in Thailand. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sergeant David N. Beckstrom.
Five years old girl from Guatemala found wandering alone along the Tijuana River channel, 07JUN2021.
FLORIDA:
U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Third Class Ryan Estrada.
23JUN2021, U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) captured 11 illegals from Cuba, in their home made corrugated boat.
USCG photo by Chief Petty Officer Charly Tautfest.
14JUN2021, USCG off-loads more than 7-thousand-5-hundred pounds of cocaine at Port Everglades, in Fort Lauderdale.
USCG photo by Petty Officer Second Class Ashley Johnson.
The USCG, and local Florida police, captured 16 illegals from Cuba, 09JUN2021.
USCG photo by Petty Officer Second Class Ashley Johnson.
05JUN2021, USCG captures 21 Haitians and one Colombian. 20 of the illegals from Haiti were sent back home on 10JUN2021.
USCG photo.
USCG chases a boat filled with a dozen illegals from Cuba, 03JUN2021. USCG reports they captured so many Cubans that week that on 08JUN2021 they sent home 82 of them.
U.S. Air Force photo by Airman First Class Thomas Sjoberg.
On 19MAY2021, packages of cocaine began washing up on the beach of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The illegal drug was found by the Station’s wildlife manager while conducting a sea turtle nesting survey.
USAF photo by Airman First Class Thomas Sjoberg.
The origin of the nearly 30 kilograms of cocaine is still being investigated.
On 25JUN2021, the USCG/Caribbean Border Interagency Group sent back home 38 illegals from Dominican Republic. They built themselves a homemade boat, but were captured on 24JUN2021.
“….plan, organize, equip, train, exercise for responding to and recovering from a catastrophic incident resulting in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage or disruption severely affecting the population, infrastructure, environment, economy, morale and/or government functions.”-Major General Bret D. Daugherty, Washington National Guard
Since a massive tsunami would render all the sea ports useless, on 05JUN 2016 they practiced using a Heavy Ground Mobility System (HGMS) truck to deploy a temporary modular roadway. This is known as a Joint Logistics Over the Shore (JLOTS) operation. Washington Army National Guard photo by Sergeant Michael Tietjen.
Video of Modular Roadway deployment:
Video of JLOTS operation:
Video report explaining why JLOTS would be needed after a Cascadia Event, Washington Army National Guard’s 331st Transportation Company boasts that it is the only U.S. unit with this specific Combined Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (CJLOTS) configuration:
Navy Region North West (NRNW) Operations Center, in Washington state, will serve as a command & control after a CSZ event. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist First Class Jeffry Willadsen, 08JUN2016.
Cascadia Rising 2016 was directed from Naval Base Kitsap, Washington, in coordination with FEMA. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer Third Class Jessica Maue.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as well as Oregon and Washington National Guards, conducted a training event called Cascadia Rising. They are preparing for a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, resulting from an overdue jolt along the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) off the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States.
07JUN2016, U.S. Coast Guard tested their Deployable Contingency Communications System near Ellensburg, Washington. U.S. Coast Guard District 13 photo.
07JUN2016, Oregon Air National Guard practiced emergency supply operations using TACPs and C-130s. Oregon Air National Guard photo by Technical Sergeant Emily Thompson.
Mass casualty training on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, 08JUN2016. Washington Army National Guard photo by Sergeant Michael Tietjen.
Washington Air National Guard joined with Pierce County Corrections to prevent any breakouts at the Pierce County Jail, 08JUN2016. Washington Air National Guard photo by Technical Sergeant Paul Rider.
While Washington’s Air National Guard tried to prevent a jail break, Washington’s Army National Guard help prisoners ‘escape’ the Hoquiam Jail due to approaching tsunami, 09JUN2016. Washington National Guard photo by Captain Colette Muller.
The first Cascadia Rising event was in 2016, and was considered to be the largest ever disaster response training in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Cascadia Rising 2016 revealed to authorities that everybody, and every local government operation, needed to be self-supplied for a minimum of two weeks to survive such a catastrophe: “The Cascadia Rising 2016 exercise highlighted a number of critical areas that we, the emergency management community, should improve before this fault ruptures, which will impact large portions of our residents and infrastructure. …..The exercise highlighted a number of infrastructure interdependencies our residents have come to rely on, such as electricity, communications, fuel, water and our roads. Most of these sectors would be heavily disrupted after a CSZ event and plans are being developed and exercised that focus on the efficient recovery of these essential services.”-Sharon Loper, FEMA Region 10
Kentucky and Oregon National Guard conducted mass casualty training at Camp Rilea. Oregon Air National Guard photo by Technical Sergeant John Hughel.
It is also expected that the CSZ event will create toxic environments. Oregon Air National Guard photo by Technical Sergeant John Hughel.
To show you how seriously the DoD and FEMA are taking the overdue CSZ jolt, Cascadia Rising 2016 involved almost 20-thousand personnel from the U.S. Air Force Reserve, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, Kentucky National Guard, Oregon and Washington National Guards, Tribes, and civilian emergency response agencies.
Wearing contamination protective gear, Kentucky National Guard conducted rescues of people ‘swept’ into the forest. Kentucky National Guard photo by First Lieutenant Michael Reinersman.
Video interviews, by Staff Sergeant Amy Elker, concerning the nine Tribes in Oregon, in relation to the coming CSZ event:
Wearing contamination protective gear, Kentucky National Guard approach a collapsed building on Camp Rilea, Oregon, 08JUN2016. Kentucky National Guard photo by First Lieutenant Michael Reinersman.
Searching trough collapsed buildings, 09JUN2016. Oregon Air National Guard photo by Technical Sergeant John Hughel.
U.S. Coast Guard Mobile Medical Ship during Cascadia Rising exercise at Naval Magazine Station Indian Island, Washington, 09JUN2016. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Third Class Andrea Anderson.
Cascadia Rising preparations also include crowd control. Oregon Air National Guard photo by Technical Sergeant John Hughel, 10JUN2016.
On 15JUN2016, personnel from the Japan Self Defense Forces toured Port Tacoma, Washington, and gave advice on how to respond to a tsunami. U.S. Army photo by Sergeant Eliverto V Larios.
“A secure and resilient nation with the capabilities required across the whole community to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the threats and hazards that pose the greatest risk.”–Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
During the first week of June, 2021, U.S. Army’s Northern Command (aka Army North) conducted a Rehearsal of Concept (RoC) major nation-wide disaster response discussion, at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas: “This RoC drill helps us synchronize our whole-of-government effort for an all-hazards response, whether it is a response to a natural disaster, pandemic, man-made hazard, terrorist attack or cyberattack. Having everyone here to synchronize and integrate is extremely important for us to be ready to fulfill our requirements as an integrated, interagency task force to meet the National Preparedness Goal.”-Lieutenant General Laura J. Richardson, Army North
U.S. Army photo by Specialist Jamil Birden.
The nation-wide RoC included the National Guard Bureau and U.S. Transportation Command. Hurricane scenarios focused on category 4 and 5 storms targeting Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Scenarios also discussed dealing with post-pandemic/CoViD-19 environment ‘challenges’: “These are unprecedented times.”-Damon Penn, FEMA
Recent FEMA Public Service Announcement (PSA) warning people about pandemic and natural disasters:
Panama City, Florida, October 2018. U.S. Army Corps of Engineer photo by Brennon Claus.
Back in 2018, category 5 Hurricane Michael severely damaged Building 544 on Naval Support Activity (NSA) Panama City, Florida. Building 544 is a research and development facility for Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC).
Damage assessment by Naval Facilities (NavFac) Engineering Command, October 2018. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer Third Class Devin Bowser.
Now, two and a half years later, the U.S. Navy (USN) announced it will spend $9.3-million to re-build Building 544. It is hoped the project will be completed by September 2022.
“…A PERFECT TERRIBLE STORM.”
