Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
The Global War on Terrorism Service Medal is a military award of the United States Armed Forces, created through Executive Order 13289 on 12 March 2003, by President George W. Bush; the medal recognizes those military service members who have supported operations to counter terrorism in the War on Terror from 11 September 2001, to a date yet to be determined. In September 2002, the U. S. Department of Defense sent a request to the U. S. Army Institute of Heraldry to provide a design for a Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. In January 2003, a design was completed, approved and made official in March 2003. According to the U. S. Department of Defense, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal will cease being awarded when Presidential Proclamation 7463, "Declaration of National Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks", delivered on 14 September 2001, is terminated by the U. S. government. The following are the seven established operations for the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal recognized by the Department of Defense: The Coast Guard awards the medal for different operations.
To receive the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, a military service member must have served on active duty during a designated anti-terrorism operation for a minimum 30 consecutive or 60 non-consecutive days. For those who were engaged in combat, killed, or wounded in the line of duty the time requirement is waived; the initial authorized operation for the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal was the so-called "Airport Security Operation" which occurred between 27 September 2001 and 31 May 2002. Additional operations, for which the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal is authorized, include the active military campaigns of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Noble Eagle, Operation Iraqi Freedom. Future operations are at the discretion of United States component commanders upon approval from the United States Department of Defense. In 2004, Defense Department and military service branches began publishing directives and orders, specifying that the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal would be awarded not only for direct participation in specific operations, but to any personnel who performed support duty of an anti-terrorism operation but did not directly participate.
The phrase "support" was further defined as any administrative, planning, technical, or readiness activity, which provides support to an operation of the Global War on Terrorism. As a result of this blanket term, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal became an eligible award for most personnel of the United States Armed Forces who performed service after 11 September 2001 through March 2004. With the orders granting the GWOT-SM for "support duty", the medal has become the same type of award as the National Defense Service Medal and graduates of training schools, ROTC, service academies are presented both awards at the same time; the primary difference between the NDSM and the GWOT-SM is that the NDSM is automatic as soon as a person joins the military whereas the GWOTSM may only be presented after thirty days of active duty in a unit. The regulations for Reservists and National Guardsmen are not as well defined for the GWOT-SM as they are for the NDSM, since the presentation of the NDSM to reservists and National Guardsmen was codified and clarified as far back as the Persian Gulf War.
The U. S. Army's regulations state that all soldiers "on active duty, including Reserve Component Soldiers mobilized, or Army National Guard Soldiers activated on or after 11 September 2001 to a date to be determined having served 30 consecutive days or 60 nonconsecutive days are authorized the GWOTSM." The GWOT-SM was awarded automatically to all service members on Active Duty between 11 September 2001 and 31 March 2004. While the award is no longer automatic, the termination "date to be determined" has not been set; the Battalion Commander is the approval authority for the GWOT-SM. Service members are still eligible for the medal provided they meet the criteria in AR 600-8-22. U. S. Army soldiers serving on active duty in a training status are not authorized award of the GWOT-SM for the active duty time they are in training; the criteria for the awards states that a Soldier has to serve on active duty in support of a designated GWOT operation for 30 consecutive days or 60 nonconsecutive days.
Army soldiers in a training status are not considered to be supporting these designated operations. Regulations for rating the GWOT-SM are the same in both the Navy, the Marine Corps, Military Sealift Command for those who serve on both active duty, reserve duty, support. 30 days of consecutive duty or 60 days of non-consecutive duty in support of approved organizations. Personnel who are still in their initial career training are not eligible. Eligibility begins. Civilian Mariners attached to Military Sealift Command's supply ships may be eligible for the Global War on Terrorism Civilian Service Medal. Air Force service members were first awarded the GWOT-SM for conducting airport security operations in the fall and winter of 2001, it was subsequently awarded for participation or support of Operations Noble Eagle, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom. Members must be assigned, attached or mobilized to a unit participating in or serving in support of these designated operations for t
General Dynamics
General Dynamics Corporation is an American aerospace and defense multinational corporation formed by mergers and divestitures. It is the world's fifth-largest defense contractor based on 2012 revenues; the company ranked No. 99 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. It is headquartered in Fairfax County, Virginia; the company has changed markedly in the post–Cold War era of defense consolidation. It has four main business segments: Marine Systems, Combat Systems, Information Systems Technology, Aerospace. General Dynamics' former Fort Worth Division manufactured the F-16 Fighting Falcon until 1993, one of the Western world's most-produced jet fighters. Production was sold to Lockheed Martin, but GD re-entered the airframe business in 1999 with its purchase of Gulfstream Aerospace. General Dynamics traces its ancestry to John Philip Holland's Holland Torpedo Boat Company; this company was responsible for developing the U. S. Navy's first modern submarines, built at Lewis Nixon's Crescent Shipyard in Elizabethport, New Jersey.
The revolutionary submarine boat Holland VI was built there, its keel being laid down in 1896. Crescent's superintendent and naval architect Arthur Leopold Busch supervised the construction of this submarine, launched on 17 May 1897, it was purchased by the navy and renamed USS Holland. The Holland was commissioned on 12 October 1900 and became the United States Navy's first submarine known as SS-1; the Navy placed an order for more submarines, which were developed in rapid succession and were assembled at two different locations on both coasts. These submarines were known as the A-Class or Adder Class and became America's first fleet of underwater craft at the beginning of the 20th century. Holland grew short on funds due to the lengthy and expensive process of introducing the world's first practical submarines, he had to part with his company and sell his interest to financier Isaac Leopold Rice, who renamed the firm the Electric Boat Company on 7 February 1899. Holland lost control of the company and found himself earning a salary of $90 a week as chief engineer, while the company that he founded was selling submarines for $300,000 each.
Holland resigned from the company effective April 1904, Rice became Electric Boat's first president, remaining there from that time until 1915 when he stepped down just prior to his death on 2 November 1915. Electric Boat gained a reputation for unscrupulous arms dealing in 1904–05 when it sold submarines to Japan's Imperial Japanese Navy and Russia's Imperial Russian Navy, who were at war with one another. Holland submarines were sold to the British Royal Navy through the English armaments company Vickers, to the Dutch to serve in the Royal Netherlands Navy. Electric Boat was cash-flush but lacking in work following World War II, with its workforce shrinking from 13,000 to 4,000 by 1946. President and chief executive officer John Jay Hopkins started looking for companies that would fit into Electric Boat's market in hopes of diversifying. Canadair was owned by the Canadian government and was suffering from the same post-war malaise as Electric Boat, it was up for sale, Hopkins bought the company for $10 million in 1946.
The factory alone was worth more than $22 million, according to the Canadian government's calculations, excluding the value of the remaining contracts for planes or spare parts. However, Canadair's production line and inventory systems were in disorder when Electric Boat purchased the company. Hopkins hired Canadian-born mass-production specialist H. Oliver West to take over the president's role and return Canadair to profitability. Shortly after the takeover, Canadair began delivering its new Canadair North Star and was able to deliver aircraft to Trans-Canada Airlines, Canadian Pacific Airlines, British Overseas Airways Corporation well in advance of their contracted delivery times. Defense spending increased with the onset of the Cold War, Canadair went on to win many Canadian military contracts for the Royal Canadian Air Force and became a major aerospace company; these included Canadair T-33 trainer, the Canadair Argus long-range maritime reconnaissance and transport aircraft, the Canadair F-86 Sabre.
Between 1950 and 1958, 1,815 Sabres were built. Canadair produced 200 CF-104 Starfighter supersonic fighter aircraft, a license-built version of the Lockheed F-104. In 1976, General Dynamics sold Canadair to the Canadian Government for $38 million, the company was acquired by Bombardier Inc. in 1986. Aircraft production became important at Canadair, Hopkins argued that the name "Electric Boat" was no longer appropriate—so Electric Boat was reorganized as General Dynamics on 24 April 1952. General Dynamics purchased Convair from the Atlas Group in March 1953; the sale was approved by government oversight with the provision that GD would continue to operate out of Air Force Plant 4 in Fort Worth, Texas. This factory was set up in order to spread out strategic aircraft production and rented to Convair during the war to produce B-24 Liberator bombers. Over time, the Fort Worth plant became Convair's major production center. General Dynamics purchased Liquid Carbonic Corporation in September 1957 and controlled it as a wholly owned subsidiary until being forced by a Federal antitrust ruling to spin it off to shareholders in January 1969.
Liquid Carbonic was bought that same month by the Houston Natural Gas Company. Convair worked as an independent division under the General Dynamics umbrella. Over the next decade, the company introduced the F-106 Delta Dart Interceptor, the B-58 Hustler, the Convair 880 and 990 airliners. Convair introduced the Atlas missile
Navy Unit Commendation
The Navy Unit Commendation is a United States Navy unit award, established by order of the Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal on 18 December 1944. Navy and U. S. Marine Corps commands may recommend any Navy or Marine Corps unit for the NUC that has distinguished itself by outstanding heroism in action against the enemy, but not sufficient to justify the award of the Presidential Unit Citation. A unit must have performed service of a character comparable to that which would merit the award of a Silver Star Medal for heroism, or a Legion of Merit for non-combat meritorious service to an individual. Normal performance of duty or participation in a large number of combat missions does not, in itself, justify the award. An award will not be made to a unit for actions of one or more of its component parts, unless the unit performed uniformly as a team, in a manner justifying collective recognition. U. S. Army, U. S. Air Force, U. S Coast Guard units are eligible to be awarded the NUC as long as they are directly attached or assigned to U.
S. Navy or Marine Corps units during the time period or event for which the award is given. U. S. Army members of units awarded the NUC, wear the Navy Unit Commendation ribbon on the right side of the uniform jacket rather than left side along with any other unit award emblems which are authorized for wear; the NUC may be conferred upon the armed forces of friendly foreign nations serving with the U. S. Armed Forces, provided such units meet the standards established for Marine Corps units. Additional awards of the Navy Unit Commendation are denoted by 3⁄16 inch bronze stars. Military awards of the United States Armed Forces Military awards of the United States Department of the Navy
Kittery, Maine
Kittery is a town in York County, United States. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, part of the Isles of Shoals; the town is a tourist destination known for its many outlet stores. Kittery is Maine metropolitan statistical area; the town's population was 9,490 at the 2010 census. Kittery may be the namesake of William Billings' 1783 anthem "Kittery", printed in the Shenandoah Harmony and Missouri Harmony shape note tunebooks, but because the song was published after the incorporation of the town, this is debated. English settlement around the natural harbor of the Piscataqua River estuary began about 1623. By 1632 it was protected by Fort Mary on today's New Hampshire side of the river. Kittery was incorporated in 1647, staking a claim as the "oldest incorporated town in Maine." It was named after the birthplace of a founder, Alexander Shapleigh, from his manor of Kittery Court at Kingswear in Devon, England.
Shapleigh arrived in 1635 aboard the ship Benediction, which he co-owned with another prominent settler, Captain Francis Champernowne, a cousin of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, lord proprietor of Maine. Together with the Pepperrell family, they established fisheries offshore at the Isles of Shoals, where fish were caught and exported back to Europe. Other pioneers were hunters and workers of the region's abundant timber; the settlement at the mouth of the Piscataqua River was protected by Fort McClary. Thomas Spencer, immigrant from Gloucestershire, England, is a notable settler of Kittery with his wife Patience Chadbourne, their story is included in "The Maine Spencers: a history and genealogy, with mention of many associated families." Kittery extended from the Atlantic Ocean inland up the Salmon Falls River, including the present-day towns of Eliot, South Berwick and North Berwick. Located opposite Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the town developed into a center for trade and shipbuilding. After the death of Gorges, Maine in 1652 became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Francis Small was a pioneer resident of Kittery, operated a trading post near the confluence of the Ossipee River and Saco River. Here major Indian trails converged—the Sokokis Trail, the Ossipee Trail, the Pequawket Trail -- a location conducive towards lucrative fur trade with Indians, but with risks of living isolated in the wilderness. Small became the largest property owner in the history of Maine, became known as "the great landowner". In 1663, John Josselyn would write: "Towns there are, are not many in this province. Kittery, situated not far from Passacataway, is the most populous." In 1705, during Queen Anne's War tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy raided the town killing six citizens and taking five prisoners. During the Revolution, the first vessels of the U. S. Navy were constructed on Badger's Island, including the 1777 USS Ranger commanded by John Paul Jones; the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the nation's first federal navy yard, was established in 1800 on Fernald's Island. It connects to the mainland by two bridges.
The facility rebuilt the USS Constitution, built the Civil War USS Kearsarge. Seavey's Island became site of the now defunct Portsmouth Naval Prison. Kittery has some fine early architecture, including the Sir William Pepperrell House, built in 1733, the Lady Pepperrell House, built in 1760; the John Bray House, built in 1662, is believed to be the oldest surviving house in Maine. Located at the John Paul Jones State Historic Site on U. S. 1 is the Maine Sailors' and Soldiers' Memorial by Bashka Paeff. Further northeast up the road, the town has developed factory outlet shopping popular with tourists. Kittery Point is home to Seapoint Beach and Fort Foster Park a harbor defense. In 1905, The Treaty of Portsmouth formally ending the Russo-Japanese war, was signed at the shipyard. In 1996, the movie Thinner, based on the 1984 Stephen King novel, was filmed in Kittery; the Saturday morning cartoon DinoSquad is based in Kittery/Kittery Point. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 75.30 square miles, of which, 17.78 square miles of it is land and 57.52 square miles is water.
Situated beside the Gulf of Maine and Atlantic Ocean, Kittery is drained by Spruce Creek, Chauncey Creek and the Piscataqua River. The town is crossed by Interstate 95, U. S. Route 1, Maine State Route 101, Maine State Route 103, Maine State Route 236. See Kittery and Kittery Point, Maine for village demographics As of the census of 2010, there were 9,490 people, 4,302 households, 2,488 families residing in the town; the population density was 533.7 inhabitants per square mile. There were 4,942 housing units at an average density of 278.0 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 97.1% White, 0.01% African American, 0.1% Native American, 1.1% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.5% from other races, 1.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.6% of the population. There were 4,302 households of which 23.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.3% were married couples living together, 7.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.6% had a male householder with no wife present, 42.2% were non-families.
32.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.6% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.17 and the average family size was 2.77. The m
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, is a United States Navy shipyard covering 179 acres on Puget Sound at Bremerton, Washington in uninterrupted use since its establishment in 1891. It is bordered on the south by Sinclair Inlet, on the west by the Bremerton Annex of Naval Base Kitsap, on the north and east by the city of Bremerton, Washington, it is the Pacific Northwest's largest naval shore facility and one of Washington state's largest industrial installations. PSNS & IMF provides the Navy with maintenance and technical and logistics support. Puget Sound Naval Shipyard was established in 1891 as a Naval Station and was designated Navy Yard Puget Sound in 1901. During World War I, the Navy Yard constructed ships, including 25 subchasers, seven submarines, two minesweepers, seven seagoing tugs, two ammunition ships, as well as 1,700 small boats. During World War II, the shipyard's primary effort was the repair of battle damage to ships of the U.
S. fleet and those of its allies. Following World War II, Navy Yard Puget Sound was designated Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, it engaged in an extensive program of modernizing carriers, including converting conventional flight decks to angle decks. During the Korean War, the shipyard was engaged in the activation of ships. In the late 1950s, it entered an era of new construction with the building of a new class of guided missile frigates. In 1965, USS Sculpin became the first nuclear-powered submarine to be maintained at PSNS; the shipyard was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992. The historic district includes 22 contributing buildings and 42 contributing structures, as well as 49 non-contributing buildings and objects; the most visible feature of the shipyard is its huge green hammerhead crane, built in 1933. The PSNS hammerhead crane is 80 feet wide with a lifting capacity of 250 tons; the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard contains five historic districts: Officers' Row Historic District. These five units are a comprehensive representation of the historic features of the naval shipyard.
In 1990 the Navy authorized the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program to recycle nuclear-powered ships at PSNS. 25% of the shipyard's workload involves inactivation, reactor compartment disposal, recycling of ships. It has pioneered an environmentally safe method of recycling nuclear-powered ships; this process places the U. S. Navy in the role of being the world's only organization to design, build and recycle nuclear-powered ships. On 15 May 2003 PSNS and IMF were consolidated into what is now known as PSNS & IMF. PSNS is the only U. S. facility certified to recycle nuclear ships. During all this period Puget Sound Naval Shipyard has scrapped more than 125 submarines and some cruisers; the shipyard contains a portion of the United States Navy reserve fleet, a large collection of inactive U. S. Navy vessels, including the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk. Kitty Hawk is mothballed, meaning that she is stored in case she is needed by the Navy in the future. Gorst Creek Ravine near Port Orchard, Washington was a hazardous waste dump for the Navy's shipyard waste between 1969 and 1970, when the site was not permitted by local authorities to take waste.
After several collapses since 1997 the landfill could blow out Highway 3. The landfill is an "ongoing source of pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls and metals flowing downstream with the potential to affect groundwater wells, sport fisheries and the Suquamish Tribe's fish hatchery. In October 2014, the US EPA ordered the Navy to fix the problems. List of U. S. National Historic Landmark ships and shipyards Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility
National Geographic
National Geographic is the official magazine of the National Geographic Society. It has been published continuously since its first issue in 1888, nine months after the Society itself was founded, it contains articles about science, geography and world culture. The magazine is known for its thick square-bound glossy format with a yellow rectangular border and its extensive use of dramatic photographs. Controlling interest in the magazine has been held by The Walt Disney Company since 2019; the magazine is published monthly, additional map supplements are included with subscriptions. It is available through an interactive online edition. On occasion, special editions of the magazine are issued; as of 2015, the magazine was circulated worldwide in nearly 40 local-language editions and had a global circulation of 6.5 million per month according to data published by The Washington Post or 6.7 million according to National Geographic. This includes a US circulation of 3.5 million. The current Editor-in-Chief of the National Geographic Magazine is Susan Goldberg.
Goldberg is Editorial Director for National Geographic Partners, overseeing the print and digital expression of National Geographic’s editorial content across its media platforms. She is responsible for news, National Geographic Traveler magazine, National Geographic History magazine and all digital content with the exception of National Geographic Kids. Goldberg reports to CEO of National Geographic Partners; the first issue of National Geographic Magazine was published on September 22, 1888, nine months after the Society was founded. It was a scholarly journal sent to 165 charter members and nowadays it reaches the hands of 40 million people each month. Starting with its January 1905 publication of several full-page pictures of Tibet in 1900–1901, the magazine changed from being a text-oriented publication closer to a scientific journal to featuring extensive pictorial content, became well known for this style; the June 1985 cover portrait of the presumed to be 12-year-old Afghan girl Sharbat Gula, shot by photographer Steve McCurry, became one of the magazine's most recognizable images.
National Geographic Kids, the children's version of the magazine, was launched in 1975 under the name National Geographic World. From the 1970s through about 2010 the magazine was printed in Corinth, Mississippi, by private printers until that plant was closed. In the late 1990s, the magazine began publishing The Complete National Geographic, a digital compilation of all the past issues of the magazine, it was sued over copyright of the magazine as a collective work in Greenberg v. National Geographic and other cases, temporarily withdrew the availability of the compilation; the magazine prevailed in the dispute, in July 2009 it resumed publishing a compilation containing all issues through December 2008. The compilation was updated to make more recent issues available, the archive and digital edition of the magazine are available online to the magazine's subscribers. On September 9, 2015, the National Geographic Society announced a deal with 21st Century Fox that would move the magazine to a new partnership, National Geographic Partners, in which 21st Century Fox would hold a 73 percent controlling interest.
In December 2017, Disney announced that it would acquire 21st Century Fox, including the latter's interest in National Geographic Partners. The magazine had a single "editor" from 1888–1920. From 1920–1967, the chief editorship was held by the president of the National Geographic Society. Since 1967, the magazine has been overseen by its own "editor-in-chief"; the list of editors-in-chief includes three generations of the Grosvenor family between 1903 and 1980. John Hyde Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor John Oliver LaGorce Melville Bell Grosvenor Frederick Vosburgh Gilbert Melville Grosvenor Wilbur E. Garrett William Graves William L. Allen Chris Johns Susan Goldberg During the Cold War, the magazine committed itself to presenting a balanced view of the physical and human geography of nations beyond the Iron Curtain; the magazine printed articles on Berlin, de-occupied Austria, the Soviet Union, Communist China that deliberately downplayed politics to focus on culture. In its coverage of the Space Race, National Geographic focused on the scientific achievement while avoiding reference to the race's connection to nuclear arms buildup.
There were many articles in the 1930s, 40s and 50s about the individual states and their resources, along with supplement maps of each state. Many of these articles were written by longtime staff such as Frederick Simpich. There were articles about biology and science topics. In years, articles became outspoken on issues such as environmental issues, chemical pollution, global warming, endangered species. Series of articles were included focusing on the history and varied uses of specific products such as a single metal, food crop, o
United States
