Hurricane Helene

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U.S. Army Sgt. Isaac Bradshaw, a combat medic with C Company, 230th Brigade Support Battalion, North Carolina Army National Guard, wraps his arms around an older couple and uses his body to block them from debris and strong winds produced by the rotor wash of a landing CH-47 Chinook helicopter in Burnsville, North Carolina, Oct. 10, 2024. The Chinook crew responded in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, bringing generators, fuel, and other supplies to the remote area that was isolated when floodwaters washed away the main road in and out of the area.

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New York Army National Guard Sgt. Tyler Linendoll, an infantryman assigned to Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, cuts downed tree branches with a chainsaw following Hurricane Milton in Palmetto, Florida, Oct. 11, 2024. Soldiers from the 27th IBCT worked with members of the Florida Army National Guard to provide relief to communities impacted by the hurricane.

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Air Force Gen. Steven Nordhaus, chief, National Guard Bureau, meets with Florida National Guard leaders and Guardsmen mobilized in Tampa, Florida, to help communities affected by Hurricane Milton Oct. 16, 2024.

North Carolina Guard Clears Roads after Tropical Storm Helene
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North Carolina National Guardsmen with the 113th Sustainment Brigade and the 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team conduct bridge-building operations in Nebo, N.C., Oct. 9, 2024, to connect roads for residents following Tropical Storm Helene.

Florida National Guard Responds to Storms in and out of State
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Florida Army National Guard Soldiers prepare for a flight during Hurricane Helene support missions at Army Aviation Support Facility 1 in Florida Sept. 29, 2024. Members of the 1-111th General Support Aviation Battalion provided aerial capabilities for an Emergency Management Assistance Compact.

Florida National Guard Assists Tornado Victims
October 13, 2024 — FORT PIERCE, Fla. - The Florida National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, quickly... MORE

U.S. Soldiers assigned to Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, deliver water, meals and non-perishable goods to senior citizens in the Spanish Lake community in Port St. Lucie, Florida, Oct. 11, 2024. The state of Florida established point of distribution centers throughout Florida and deployed staging areas to ensure supplies were available to those in need.

Virginia Guard Aids Hurricane Response in Florida, Virginia
October 10, 2024 — RICHMOND, Va. – The Virginia National Guard is helping Florida respond to Hurricane Milton while it... MORE

Virginia National Guard Soldiers assigned to the Cedar Bluff-based 1033rd Engineer Company, 276th Engineer Battalion, 329th Regional Support Group, assist with food and water distribution Oct. 5-6, 2024, in Damascus, Virginia. Approximately 20 1033rd Soldiers with tactical trucks capable of high-mobility transportation are staged in Abingdon to support the response to Hurricane Helene.

New York National Guard Troops Assist with Hurricane Response
October 10, 2024 — SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The New York National Guard dispatched 65 Soldiers and Airmen to Florida Oct. 9 to... MORE

Soldiers from the New York Army National Guard’s 27th Infantry Brigade Combat team board a C-17 Globemaster III from the New York Air National Guard’s 105th Airlift Wing as they head to Camp Blanding Joint Training Center near Jacksonville, Florida, to support the Florida National Guard response to Hurricane Milton’s landfall.

National Guard Helps Hurricane Milton, Helene Victims
October 9, 2024 — ARLINGTON, Va. - Over 11,000 National Guard Soldiers and Airmen were conducting Hurricane Milton and... MORE

Tennessee Guardsmen Support Hurricane Recovery
October 9, 2024 — NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nearly 600 Tennessee National Guardsmen, with more than 150 vehicles and... MORE

U.S. Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Ryan Schulze, 118th Wing pavements and construction equipment craftsman, cuts a fallen tree with a chainsaw during Hurricane Helene relief efforts in Elizabethton, Tennessee, Oct. 5, 2024. Airmen continue to commute to the town and surrounding areas daily to help clear debris and help local residents in need due to flooding from Hurricane Helene.

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Video by Cpl. Aven Santiago

Fire Phobia Training at JMRC (No Graphics)

117th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment (Hawaii)

Oct. 30, 2018 | 1:46

Video PKG by Cpl Aven Santiago, 117th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.

There was a lot of fire and smoke in the air this past week as Soldiers from the 1-89th Cavalry Regiment, took part in fire phobia and riot control Training. The exercises train the Soldiers to react to crowd and riots

“Basically, whenever rioters come out and they start getting aggressive they’ll basically put a cocktail together that will explode and come into a fire ball right contact. We’re going to be doing a lot of that today. We’re going to learn at a personal level learn how to extinguish it and get back to a point where we can get back and get right back to the riot control,” said Spc. Jordan Kuhn, 1-89th Cavalry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division.

Leading the lessons for the Soldiers were members of the Portuguese Military Police. The Portuguese Soldiers taught their tactics, techniques, and procedures to the 1-89 Soldiers and Soldiers from the Italian Army. Some of the exercises included dealing with violent crowds and tearing down road blocks.

"This cooperation has been going on for some years now. Basically the Portuguese were one of the only countries that had specific TTPs for the reaction against molotov cocktails. Hence we came to teach the fire phobia. There’s always the question of the language barrier. For us it makes the training a little bit more difficult but from what I saw, it went very well," said Cpt. Miguel Almeida, Portuguese Military Police.

The training is all part of exercise KFOR 25. KFOR is a mission rehearsal exercise designed to be as realistic as possible to prepare units to deploy to Kosovo. All the training took place at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center as some of the Soldiers get ready to deploy to Kosovo in support of peace keeping operations.

"It’s very realistic in the fact that we know hoot extinguish it and they’re giving us a lot of great training at the personal level, the squad level, the team level and also at the platoon level as well," said Kuhn.

Reporting from Hohenfels, Germany, I’m Army Corporal, Aven Santiago.