Crews from several military units will land six aircraft on M-32 near Alpena on Thursday, Aug. 5, according to a news release from the Michigan Department of Military and Veteran Affairs (DMVA). The highway will be closed for the exercise from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. from east of Herron Road to west of King Settlement Road; traffic will be detoured on M-65, Werth Road, US-23 and Ripley Street.One wonders just why this ability and its demonstration was suddenly deemed necessary?
"This is believed to be the first time in history that modern Air Force aircraft have intentionally landed on a civilian roadway on U.S. soil," U.S. Air Force Col. James Rossi, Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center commander, said in a statement. "Our efforts are focused on our ability to train the warfighter in any environment across the continuum so our nation can compete, deter, and win today and tomorrow."
The exercise is part of the annual Northern Strike war-readiness training event happening through Aug. 14 at the National All Domain Warfighting Center (NADWC), which encompasses the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center and Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center.
Units participating in the highway landing are the Michigan Air National Guard's 127th Wing from Selfridge Air National Guard Base, the Air Force's 355th Wing from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona and the Air Force Special Operations Command from Duke Field in Florida. They will land four A-10 aircraft and two C-146 aircraft on M-32 near the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center.
The exercise is meant to "demonstrate how active duty and reserve-component units can integrate to project combat airpower in austere environments," according to the release.
The A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft is specifically designed to operate in this kind of location and the ability has already been demonstrated, the release said. In June 2018, A-10s from the Michigan Air National Guard conducted highway landings in Estonia as part of the multinational exercise Saber Strike.
So the only novelty here is that it landed on a US, civilian highway?
Civilians should not gather near the closed roadway and should avoid the landing zones.
Northern Strike is an annual training exercise hosted by the Michigan National Guard since 2012. This year, there are about 5,100 participants from three U.S. Army components, U.S. Air Force active duty and guard, U.S. Marine and U.S. Navy components, plus units from the United Kingdom, Latvia and Liberia.
The yearly training exercise simulates "a realistic wartime environment" and focuses on expeditionary skills, command and control, sustainment and joint-integrated fires, according to the DMVA. The program includes exercises that require units from different military branches, and even different countries, to work together in complex, time-sensitive scenarios.
"The international community must take an unequivocal stance in support of the political settlement for the crisis in Afghanistan and also condemn violence and its consequences."He expressed Iran's readiness to help and facilitate intra-Afghan talks to promote peace in the war-ravaged country, saying the ongoing issues would only be solved through negotiations among warring sides.
"It's time for us to resist. They can't arrest all of us. They can't keep all of your kids home from school. They can't keep every government building closed - although I've got a long list of ones they might keep closed or might ought to keep closed. We don't have to accept the mandates, lockdowns, and harmful policies of the petty tyrants and bureaucrats. We can simply say no, not again."Paul said that Americans should not accept "anti-science" positions that may be championed by the Biden administration, promising that if President Joe Biden tries to shut down federal agencies, he will "stop every bill coming through the Senate with an amendment to cut their funding if they don't come to work in person."
"Nancy Pelosi — you will not arrest or stop me or anyone on my staff from doing our jobs. We have either had COVID, had the vaccine, or been offered the vaccine. We will make our own health choices. We will not show you a passport, we will not wear a mask, we will not be forced into random screenings and testings so you can continue your drunk-with-power rein over the Capitol."
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Suspected Taliban fighters killed an Afghan radio station manager in Kabul and kidnapped a journalist in southern Helmand province, local government officials said on Monday, reporting the latest in a long line of attacks targeting media workers.Warning to Biden: Don't interfere in Afghan affairs!
Gunmen shot Toofan Omar, the station manager of Paktia Ghag radio and an officer for NAI, a rights group supporting independent media in Afghanistan, in a targeted killing in the capital on Sunday.
"Omari was killed by unidentified gunmen...he was a liberal man...we are being targeted for working independently," said Mujeeb Khelwatgar, the head of NAI. Officials in Kabul suspected Taliban fighters had carried out the attack.
Last month the NAI report at least 30 journalists and media workers have been killed, wounded or abducted by militant groups in Afghanistan this year.
In southern Helmand province, officials said Taliban fighters had seized a local journalist, Nematullah Hemat, from his home in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, on Sunday.
"There is just absolutely no clue where the Taliban have taken Hemat...we are really in a state of panic, said Razwan Miakhel, head of private TV channel, Gharghasht TV where Hemat was employed.
A Taliban spokesperson told Reuters that he had no information on either the killing in Kabul or the abducted journalist in Helmand.
A coalition of Afghan news organisations have written to US President Joe Biden and leaders in the House of Representatives, urging them to grant special immigration visas to Afghan journalists and support staff.
This comes after the Biden administration launched airstrikes on Taliban fighters in northern Afghanistan on Saturday, as the Islamists have continued their offensive, capturing new areas amid the rapid withdrawal of US forces.
The Taliban has issued a message to the United States: "We are warning against the US interference in Afghanistan", the spokesperson for the Taliban Political Office said, stressing that no intra-Afghan ceasefire had been reached. He also accused the Afghan government of escalating the tensions in the country by launching operations in several provinces.
On Saturday, US B-52 Stratofortress bombers struck Taliban forces in Sheberghan, Jawzjan Province, causing casualties and inflicting significant damage on the terrorists, Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Fawad Aman confirmed on Twitter.
On Saturday, the movement announced they'd captured the southwestern province of Nimruz — including its capital Zaranj, making it the first provincial centre the Islamists have seized since 2016, and the northern province of Jawzjan.
Former US Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker suggested on Sunday that "a prolonged civil war is a more likely outcome".
Meanwhile, Afghan aides, like interpreters and security forces, who helped US troops during the long war, along with their families, have became "target number one" for the Taliban fighters, who consider them traitors to Islam and the country. Washington has vowed to pull out thousands of Afghan citizens who have collaborated with American forces, but so far, its has evacuated less than 1 percent of them.
Comment: With one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, Israel has (unwittingly?) served as one of Big Pharma's test labs, not only for the jab itself, but for testing the imposition of social restrictions. It's not going well. The IDF may yet find itself short-staffed. What a pity . . . . .