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Maryland Air National Guard C-130J making supply runs between Puerto Rico and Honduras got diverted last week to haul a joint medical force and supplies into Peru to aid earthquake recovery efforts. TSgt. Sonny Cohrs reports that the Air Guardsmen from the 135th Airlift Group at Martin State Airport, near Baltimore, picked up the supplies and some 30 airmen and soldiers, comprising medics, a mobile surgery team, and communications and security force specialists, at Soto Cano AB, Honduras, for transport to Peru. The medics began work on the morning of Aug. 17, after the massive Aug. 15 earthquake, seeing more than 200 patients in the first three hours, reports SrA. Shaun Emery.
The defense intelligence community has tried three times in the past decade to build a “common intelligence picture”—a single data stream providing the information that commanders need to make decisions about the battlefield. The first two attempts failed. But officials say things are different today.