Month: September 2020

When Hurricane Laura raked Port Arthur, Texas in late August, a group of seven shrimp boat laborers found shelter in a local pool hall.

And when the Category 4 hurricane knocked out electricity, a gas generator was turned on to power the building. But the ventilation inside was far from adequate. The seven people spent all night breathing the odorless gas from the generator, causing severe carbon monoxide poisoning.

Three people were pronounced dead at the scene when police arrived on the morning of Aug. 28, and one was taken to a hospital in Houston. Three others were eventually sent into the care of a joint medical team from the Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center and the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Department at the Brooke Army Medical Center on Fort Sam Houston, near San Antonio.

The hyperbaric chamber operated at that installation is one of the very few on the Gulf Coast that’s open for emergencies, and its medical teams maintain a 24/7-ready status for that purpose.

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A new Chinese air force propaganda video appears to use Hollywood movie clips in its depiction of an attack on a target resembling a United States Air Force base.

The 2-minute, 15-second video, titled “The God of War H-6K Goes on the Attack!” was released over the weekend by China’s People Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) on Weibo, a Twitter-like social media site. It highlights the force’s H-6K aircraft, twin-engine jet bombers nicknamed “Gods of War” by the Chinese military.
But eagle-eyed social media users pointed out that some of the explosive aerial footage used appears to be lifted from numerous Hollywood movies, including “The Hurt Locker,” “The Rock” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”
The video, which was seen millions of times before the post was taken down on Tuesday, has been mocked by many users for its apparent liberal use of American action movies sequences, with commentators pointing out that the PLAAF’s propaganda is not only fictitious, but likely stolen without credit.

CNN has reached out to China’s Foreign and Defense Ministries for comment.
The video begins with some slick scenes of the large bombers in what appears to be the early dawn at a desert airbase. They roar into the sky and seconds later release a missile that zooms down to strike a target.
Comparing a freeze frame of the missile strike to Google Earth images, the target appears markedly similar to the US’ Andersen Air Force Base on Guam.

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Army officials at Fort Bliss, Texas, are asking the El Paso community for assistance in an expanded search for a soldier who has been missing since late July.

The Army initially listed Pvt. Richard Halliday of the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command as Absent Without Leave, or AWOL, when he reportedly fled from his unit on July 24.

But new evidence uncovered by U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command special agents “suggests that Pvt. Halliday may have left Fort Bliss earlier than previously reported,” according to a statement from Lt. Col. Allie Payne, spokeswoman for the 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss.

“It remains uncertain of how or when Pvt. Halliday departed Fort Bliss,” she added.

Halliday was last seen on July 23 before 6 p.m.

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The U.S. Army has replaced the chaotic reception recruits entering basic training have long received from shouting drill sergeants with a training event designed to create a bond with their teammates and leaders.

Day one of Army Basic Combat Training has always been a rite of passage that involved menacing groups of drill sergeants descending on terrified recruits, yelling commands and ordering trainees to perform push-ups and other exercises with packed duffel bags strapped to their backs.

“Commonly referred to as the shark attack, this non-documented period of instruction was developed during our draft Army years,” Command Sgt. Maj. Robert Fortenberry, the CSM of the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, said in a video presentation at the recent 2020 Maneuver Warfighter Conference.

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