p, .ExternalClass Participants last week at Angel Thunder 2013, the world’s largest personnel recovery exercise, trained in an urban operations scenario at Playas, N.M. Exercise planners said the April 17 drill involved the detonation of at least four simultaneous improvised explosive devices: one in a marketplace, one by the roadside, another by a host-nation location, and one near a UN convoy. Joint coalition forces were tasked to assess the situation and effectively evacuate the casualties. The day’s drill, along with the other scenarios that took place at the exercise, are designed to prepare combat search and rescue teams for the worst-case situations they might face, said exercise officials, much like last week’s bombing at the Boston Marathon. The scenarios also sketch out how victims might respond. “We script out certain things that happen. I don’t know necessarily how you’re going to react, so I make a best guess estimate of how I think you’re going to react,” said Brian Kasman, Angel Thunder’s survival, evasion, resistance, and escape manager. Angel Thunder took place in the southwestern United States from April 7 to April 20. (See also our previous coverage: Angel Thunder and Creative Flow and Irregular Warfare Practice at Angel Thunder.)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.