“To our knowledge, this is the first time, at least at Navy Medicine commands, to have a fire engine pump hundreds of gallons of water to a DECON team to use in helping decontaminate patients.”-Terry Lerma, Naval Hospital Bremerton emergency manager
Preparations for the overdue Cascadia Event continues, this time striking the U.S. Navy’s hospital on Bremerton, Washington.
During the second week of July 2021, Naval Hospital Bremerton conducted Operation Black Wind (in conjunction with Citadel Rumble) to assess how to respond to a catastrophic natural disaster.
U.S. Navy photo by Douglas H Stutz, 15JUL2021.
Operation Black Wind’s scenario is set immediately after ‘a sudden and significant seismic event’ that lasted for at least one minute. It also involved military personnel becoming sick due to a haz-mat truck overturning as a result of the quake. The scenario of massive amounts of hazardous materials being released and affecting the local population has only recently been added to the U.S. Department of Defense/FEMA’s disaster response training.
Citadel Rumble is a yearly large scale U.S. Navy ‘all hazard exercise’ held across the West Coast of the United States: “This exercise readies our personnel for response and recovery before, during and after a natural disaster or other all-hazard events. Installations in our West Coast regions face risk of damaging earthquakes and wildfire encroachment, so this training is vital to expedite recovery and maintain mission readiness should such events occur.”– Mark Sinder, Director of Operations for Commander, Navy Installations Command
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:
Tennessee National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Timothy Cordeiro.
C-12 Huron pilots with Tennessee Army National Guard’s Detachment 6, A Company, 2nd Battalion, 641st Aviation Regiment, held a deployment ceremony on 12JUN2021. They will be spending nine months in Africa, after deployment training on Fort Bliss, Texas.
Then, on 22JUN2021, five militiamen with the Tennessee Army National Guard’s 1957th Contingency Contracting Team said official good-byes during a ceremony in Nashville.
The mission of the five from Tennessee will be to spend U.S. taxes on foreign supplied logistical services, like food and lodging, in the operational area known as Horn of Africa: “Contracts are often given to local workers which really helps drive the economy in the area.”-Captain Eric Bolin, Tennessee National Guard’s United States Property & Fiscal Office
On 10JUN2021, New York Army National Guard’s 501st Ordnance Battalion, 53rd Troop Command, held a deployment ceremony at the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Glenville.
New York Army National Guard photo by Sergeant Sebastian Rothwyn.
The 23 personnel of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) support headquarters company are, apparently, deploying to Kuwait. Chief Warrant Officer 2 Daniel Ambia admitted that their pre-deployment training was conducted ‘virtually’ due to the pandemic-panic-attack, but was confident enough to say “…I think we’ll be okay. Everybody is pretty good at what they do.”
“I study solar flares and I spent my career modeling them. We generally think of flares in terms of their size or their brightness, but we often ignore the part about their duration.”-Jeff Reep, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
On 15JUN2021, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory published a story concerning the expected increase in duration of solar flares, and the possibility that entire U.S. Navy (USN) fleets could be affected.
In a recent scenario a USN fleet was hit by a solar flare, destroying its electrical infrastructure and causing havoc to its electronic communications. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is working on a way to allow fleet commanders to conduct real-time forecasting of such solar flares, and to determine how long they will last. (Forecasting the Remaining Duration of an Ongoing Solar Flare)
21JUN2021, Indian Ocean. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer Third Class Jason Tarleton.
Towards the end of February 2021, the U.S. Department of Defense’s American Forces Network (AFN) warned that this year’s solar activity will interfere with television signals.
Specifically; the solar phenomena known as Sun Fade, Sun Transit or Sun Outage, is expected to target signals from AFN’s Riverside, California, broadcast center at various times this year.
Misawa, Japan, AFN center. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sergeant Candace Williams.
AFN officials said, so far this year their satellite TV broadcasts to Europe were targeted from February to March, and Japan and Korea were targeted in March. They advise there is nothing you can do to fix the reception on your expensive high-definition television, except wait until the solar phenomenon ends.
