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Chad
@chadgarland
Sep 22, 2021 • 6 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
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A U.S. Army EOD team member handles an exploded 107mm rocket for documentation after it was intercepted by a U.S. C-RAM in a failed attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Aug. 30. After interception, the rocket tumbled nearly 100 yds onto the airfield. (U.S. Air Force) Image
A team of airfield operators, maintainers and air transportation specialists pose with an American flag at Hamid Karzai International Airport during last month's evacuation. (Undated U.S. Air Force photo via 621st Contingency Response Wing) Image
A crew of air traffic controllers pose for a photo at Hamid Karzai International Airport last month. Lacking a traditional control tower, they positioned themselves on the ramp to coordinate air traffic. (Undated U.S. Air Force photo) Image
A suspected vehicle-borne improvised explosive device is moved by forklift to a vacant area at Hamid Karzai International Airport during the evacuation last month. (Undated U.S. Air Force photo) ImageImage
Purportedly the "final Boeing CH-47 Chinook" being loaded by U.S. airmen onto a C-17 Globemaster III in preparation of evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport last month. (Undated U.S. Air Force photo) Image
The last airmen assigned to the 621st Contingency Response Wing rally to a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III to leave Hamid Karzai International Airport last month. (Undated U.S. Air Force photo) Image

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More from @chadgarland

Chad
Feb 26, 2024
As a kid, Eldridge Johnson Jr. just wanted to be a pilot.

When he was drafted, the closest he could get was helicopter mechanic. 

It was the 1960s; racial divisions were deep and Black men like him faced barriers, even in the Army.

But he was determined. He'd fly. 

And on Thursday, over 50 years later, the Army awarded him a Distinguished Flying Cross, the service said in a release last week.  🧵👇Eldridge Johnson Jr., a retired Air Force colonel and Army warrant officer 2, gives remarks Feb. 22, 2024, during the Distinguished Flying Cross Award ceremony in Hangar One of Sabre Airfield on Fort Campbell, Ky. Johnson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his extraordinary achievement in aerial flight while assigned to Charlie Troop, 2nd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment in the Republic of South Vietnam, Sept. 12, 1971. (Jayden Woods/U.S. Army)
Image
Johnson set his heart on flying when he was 14, growing up in Chicago, after riding in a light airplane at a state park's open house, he told @SmithsonianMag in 2021.

He took flight lessons & soloed at 16, but couldn't afford flight hours for a license.

Drafted at 18, he'd heard about the Army's helicopters, but was told he'd have to settle for fixing them.
He arrived in Vietnam in June 1969, a door gunner & eventually a crew chief on Hueys, Bell 47s & OH-6 Cayuses.

But he knew he had what it took to sit up front.

"The pilots were all white except one," he told @SmithsonianMag. "I said, 'Okay, I'm going to do that one of these days. These guys are not the sharpest knives in the drawer."
Read 25 tweets
Chad
Dec 29, 2023
Pfc. Morgan Mathews was looking for her recruiter.

It was a big moment. The end of a long march. The culmination of Marine Corps boot camp.

She was going to get her Eagle, Globe, and Anchor.

He should've been there.

After all, he was her husband. 🧵👇
Pfc. Morgan Mathews reaffirms her oath of enlistment during an Eagle, Globe, and Anchor ceremony Dec. 9, 2023, at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C. (William Horsley/U.S. Marine Corps)
Image
When she didn’t see him, she made peace with it, said a Marine Corps statement.

They have a 2-year-old daughter. She assumed he was busy taking care of her.

But she saw other recruits' family members there.

And that got her more upset that he wasn't. Pfc. Morgan Mathews reaffirms her oath of enlistment during an Eagle, Globe, and Anchor ceremony Dec. 9, 2023, at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C. (William Horsley/U.S. Marine Corps)
Receiving the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor is one of the most significant moments for a U.S. Marine.

It’s the moment they really become Marines.

After 54 hours with little food or sleep on the Crucible.
The capper to 3 months of arduous training. A recruit with November Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, receives her Eagle, Globe, and Anchor emblem from a drill instructor Dec. 9, 2023, aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C. (Jacqueline Kliewer/U.S. Marine Corps)
Read 16 tweets
Chad
Dec 28, 2023
Tsuneo Yamagishi walks anxiously onto a U.S. post in Japan.

It’s 1947. He’s 18, seeking work. And hungry.

But he knows little English: “Thank you,” “O.K.”

And 2 years earlier, he’d fought the Americans at war.

“That is what I worried about, whether they would hire me or not.”
A young Tsuneo Yamagishi. (Screenshot from a U.S. Army Garrison - Japan video by Ayako Watsuji)
Tsuneo Yamagishi, 95, recalls his years of working on U.S. posts in Japan during a visit to his home in Samagihara in early December 2023. (Screenshot from a U.S. Army Garrison - Japan video by Ayako Watsuji)
Yamagishi served with Japan’s Imperial Navy near the end of WWII.

But after the war, life was rough.

“There was no job… no food… nothing,” he said, quoted in a recent Army statement.

An older sister took him in. A younger one wrote to a friend near Camp Zama for help. An early and quickly drawn map was given to Soldiers to find their way to different facilities on the installation. (Reproduced in U.S. Army Japan publication "Camp Zama Through the Years...Occupation Years" https://www.usarj.army.mil/Portals/33/about/history/occupation_years_20151223.pdf)
It took about 10 days for a reply letter telling of many openings.

“I jumped at the chance to get a job,” Yamagishi said.

He rode the train to Sobudaimae Station. Walked the rest.

And—despite his fears—got hired at the gym.

So began a 52-year career on U.S. posts.
Sobudaimae Station after World War II. (Screenshot from a U.S. Army Garrison - Japan video by Ayako Watsuji)
An undated photo of two military police soldiers at the main gate of Camp Zama, Japan, after World War II. (Reproduced in U.S. Army Japan publication "Camp Zama Through the Years...Occupation Years" https://www.usarj.army.mil/Portals/33/about/history/occupation_years_20151223.pdf)
Read 14 tweets
Chad
Dec 20, 2023
She woke before dawn for rucks & runs on base in Africa.

Lifted daily. Did high-intensity training.

At the peak, she was doing 3 workouts a day.

But after 3 months of prep, Sgt. Liliana Munday was still nervous.

“I almost had an aneurysm, I was so scared,” she said.

🧵👇 Sgt. Liliana Munday of the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, South Carolina National Guard, Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa, practices grappling techniques Nov. 29, 2023, with another Soldier as a part of combative training during the French Desert Commando Course at the Centre Dentrainment Au Combat Djibouti. (Haden Tolbert/U.S. Army)
Since about 1974, French troops in Djibouti have taken on the grueling 5-day desert commando course.

U.S. troops have done the course in recent years.

This go-round, 40 U.S. troops signed up, a military statement said.

Munday was among them. Sgt. Liliana Munday, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa liaison officer, practices combative movements Nov. 29, 2023, during the French Desert Commando Course in Djibouti. (Haden Tolbert/U.S. Army)
Hosted by the French 5th Overseas Interarms Regiment at the Le Centre D'entraînement Au Combat de Djibouti, the course includes:

-night obstacle course.
-mountain confidence course.
-swimming course.
-combatives training.
-desert survival skills.

For Munday, it was daunting.
Image
Two U.S. Army medics with Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa ruck up an obstacle course Sept. 20, 2022, during the French Desert Commando Course in Arta, Djibouti. (Bryan Guthrie/U.S. Air Force)
Read 13 tweets
Chad
Sep 24, 2021
I’m not sure I should tweet this right now. I don’t know that I have the stamina to get through all the nuance. But anyway, let’s talk about this @PentagonPresSec claim that Stars and Stripes enjoys “complete editorial independence” and is so valuable for informing the troops.
Why is it then, Mr. @PentagonPresSec, that Stars & Stripes REPORTERS are the only persons IN THE WORLD who DoD specifically & summarily disqualifies from making FOIA requests? Screenshot from DOD’s annual FOIA report data in 2020 — being a S&S reporter specified as denial reason.
(Note I did not file those five requests for S&S or as an S&S reporter. I filed them two weeks after DMA had ordered S&S to plan to cease publication by Sept. 30, 2020 — I had reason to believe S&S wouldn’t exist by the time these requests would be fulfilled.)
Read 44 tweets
Chad
Sep 22, 2021
Pfc. Emily Zamudio was in the first platoon of women to complete Marine boot camp in San Diego. She's now the first entry-level female Marine to earn the 0311 MOS at SOI-West on Camp Pendleton, Calif., the service says. (Tessa D. Watts/U.S. Marine Corps)
dvidshub.net/news/405503/tr… Image
“Knowing that the infantry is a male-dominant MOS, I wanted to prove that I can do a man’s job,” Zamudio said. “Hopefully this opens the door for more females.”
Zamudio was also motivated by her mother's example of perseverance and tenacity while often working more than one job to provide for the family.
“My mom supported me as much as she could and she was always there,” she said.
Read 5 tweets

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