1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Dougherty County, Georgia
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Dougherty County is a county located in the southwestern portion of the U. S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 94,565, the county seat and sole incorporated city is Albany. Dougherty County is included in the Albany, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, the county was created by the Georgia General Assembly on December 15,1853, from a part of Baker County and was named after Charles Dougherty, a respected judge and lawyer from Athens, Georgia. In 1854 and 1856 small areas were added from Worth County, according to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 335 square miles, of which 329 square miles is land and 5.9 square miles is water. The majority of Dougherty County is located in the Lower Flint River sub-basin of the ACF River Basin, the northeastern corner of the county, northeast of Albany, is located in the Middle Flint River sub-basin of the same ACF River basin. A very small portion of Dougherty County, north of Albany, is located in the Kinchafoonee-Muckalee sub-basin of the larger ACF River Basin, the remaining western portion of the county is located in the Ichawaynochaway Creek sub-basin of the same ACF River Basin. The population density was 292 people per square mile, there were 39,656 housing units at an average density of 120 per square mile. 1. 34% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race, the largest European ancestry groups in Dougherty County are English, Irish, American, German and Scots-Irish. 26. 80% of all households were made up of individuals and 8. 90% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.13. In the county, the population was out with 27. 70% under the age of 18,12. 20% from 18 to 24,27. 60% from 25 to 44,20. 90% from 45 to 64. The median age was 32 years, for every 100 females there were 87.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.30 males, the median income for a household in the county was $30,934, and the median income for a family was $36,655. Males had an income of $30,742 versus $22,254 for females. The per capita income for the county was $16,645, about 19. 60% of families and 24. 80% of the population were below the poverty line, including 35. 30% of those under age 18 and 17. 20% of those age 65 or over. As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 94,565 people,36,508 households, the population density was 287.7 inhabitants per square mile. There were 40,801 housing units at a density of 124.1 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 67. 1% black or African American,29. 6% white,0. 8% Asian,0. 2% American Indian,0. 1% Pacific islander,1. 0% from other races, and 1. 2% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 2. 2% of the population, in terms of ancestry,6. 1% were English,6. 0% were American, and 5. 3% were Irish
3.
Albany, Georgia
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Albany is a city in the U. S. state of Georgia, and is the seat of Dougherty County. Located in southwest Georgia, it is the city of the Albany. The population was 77,434 at the 2010 U. S. Census, the area where Albany is located was formerly inhabited by the Creek Indians, who called it Thronateeska after their word for flint because of the mineral flint that was found near the river. The Creeks used this flintstone to make tools and weapons such as arrowheads, American settlement began with Nelson Tift, from Groton, Connecticut, who took land along the Flint River in October 1836 after Indian removal. The Creek were forced to relocate to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River, Tift named his new town Albany after the capital of New York, both were located at the navigable heads of rivers. Alexander Shotwell laid out the town in 1836 and it was incorporated as a city by an act of the General Assembly of Georgia on December 27,1838. Tift for decades was the citys leading entrepreneur, an ardent booster, he promoted education, business, and railroad construction. During the Civil War he provided naval supplies and helped build two ships and he opposed Radical Reconstruction inside the state and in Congress, and was scornful of the Yankee carpetbaggers who came in. John Fair concludes that Tift became more Southern than many natives and his pro-slavery attitudes before the war and his support for segregation afterward made him compatible with Georgias white elite. The area was developed by planters using slave labor for clearing land, by 1840, Dougherty Countys majority population was black, composed overwhelmingly of slaves. The market center for cotton plantations, Albany was in a location for shipping cotton to markets by steamboats on the river. In 1858, Tift hired Horace King, a slave and bridge builder. Kings bridge toll house still stands, already important as a shipping port, Albany later became an important railroad hub in southwestern Georgia. Seven lines were constructed to the town, an exhibit on trains is located at the Thronateeska Heritage Center in the former railroad station. While integral to the life of the town, the Flint River has flooded regularly. There was extensive property damage in 1841 and 1925, some late twentieth-century floods were extreme. In 1994, a flood was caused by rainfall from Tropical Storm Alberto, it killed 14 people. The state supported a $150 million renovation of the Albany State University campus to repair storm damage, New housing was built on the south side of town to replace what had been destroyed
4.
United States Marine Corps
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The U. S. Marine Corps is one of the four armed service branches in the U. S. Department of Defense and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military officer in the U. S. Armed Forces, is a Marine Corps general, the Marine Corps has been a component of the U. S. Department of the Navy since 30 June 1834, working closely with naval forces for training, transportation, and logistics. The USMC operates posts on land and aboard sea-going amphibious warfare ships around the world, two battalions of Continental Marines were formed on 10 November 1775 in Philadelphia as a service branch of infantry troops capable of fighting for independence both at sea and on shore. The role of the Corps has since grown and evolved, expanding to aerial warfare and earning popular titles such as, Americas third air force, and, second land army. By the mid-20th century, the U. S. Marine Corps had become a major theorist of and its ability to rapidly respond on short notice to expeditionary crises gives it a strong role in the implementation and execution of American foreign policy. As of 2016, the USMC has around 182,000 active duty members and it is the smallest of the U. S. The USMC serves as an expeditionary force-in-readiness and this last clause, while seemingly redundant given the Presidents position as Commander-in-chief, is a codification of the expeditionary responsibilities of the Marine Corps. It derives from similar language in the Congressional acts For the Better Organization of the Marine Corps of 1834, in 1951, the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee called the clause one of the most important statutory – and traditional – functions of the Marine Corps. In addition to its duties, the Marine Corps conducts Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure operations, as well as missions in direct support of the White House. The Marine Band, dubbed the Presidents Own by Thomas Jefferson, Marines from Ceremonial Companies A & B, quartered in Marine Barracks, Washington, D. C. The Executive Flight Detachment also provides transport to Cabinet members. The relationship between the Department of State and the U. S. Marine Corps is nearly as old as the corps itself, for over 200 years, Marines have served at the request of various Secretaries of State. After World War II, an alert, disciplined force was needed to protect American embassies, consulates, in 1947, a proposal was made that the Department of War furnish Marine Corps personnel for Foreign Service guard duty under the provisions of the Foreign Service Act of 1946. A formal Memorandum of Agreement was signed between the Department of State and the Secretary of the Navy on December 15,1948, during the first year of the MSG program,36 detachments were deployed worldwide. Continental Marines manned raiding parties, both at sea and ashore, the Advanced Base Doctrine of the early 20th century codified their combat duties ashore, outlining the use of Marines in the seizure of bases and other duties on land to support naval campaigns. Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, Marine detachments served aboard Navy cruisers, battleships, Marine detachments served in their traditional duties as a ships landing force, manning the ships weapons and providing shipboard security. Marines would develop tactics and techniques of amphibious assault on defended coastlines in time for use in World War II, during World War II, Marines continued to serve on capital ships
5.
Ground support equipment
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Ground Support Equipment is the support equipment found at an airport, usually on the ramp, the servicing area by the terminal. This equipment is used to service the aircraft between flights, as the name suggests, ground support equipment is there to support the operations of aircraft whilst on the ground. The role this equipment plays generally involves ground power operations, aircraft mobility, many airlines subcontract ground handling to an airport or a handling agent, or even to another airline. Ground handling addresses the many requirements of a passenger aircraft between the time it arrives at a terminal gate and the time it departs for its next flight. Speed, efficiency, and accuracy are important in ground handling services in order to minimize the turnaround time, small airlines sometimes subcontract maintenance to a much larger and reputable carrier, as it is a short-term cheaper alternative to setting up an independent maintenance base. Some airlines may enter into a Maintenance and Ground Support Agreement with each other, most ground services are not directly related to the actual flying of the aircraft, and instead involve other service tasks. Cabin services ensure passenger comfort and safety and they include such tasks as cleaning the passenger cabin and replenishment of on-board consumables or washable items such as soap, pillows, tissues, blankets, and magazines. Security checks are made to make sure no threats have been left on the aircraft. Airport GSE comprises a range of vehicles and equipment necessary to service aircraft during passenger and cargo loading and unloading, maintenance. The wide range of associated with aircraft ground operations lead to an equally wide-ranging fleet of GSE. Airlines employ specially designed GSE to support all these operations, Dollies for loose baggage are used for the transportation of loose baggages, oversized bags, mail bags, loose cargo carton boxes, etc. between the aircraft and the terminal or sorting facility. Dollies for loose baggage are fitted with a system which blocks the wheels from moving when the connecting rod is not attached to a tug. Most dollies for loose baggage are completely enclosed except for the sides which use plastic curtains to protect items from weather, in the US, these dollies are called Baggage Cart, but in Europe Baggage Cart means passenger baggage trolleys. Since ULD/pallet rest on ball bearings, these dollies are equipped with hinge/locks to secure the position of the ULD/pallet on them during tugging transportation, also, the ULD/pallets have stringent dimensional standard following the aircraft cargo bay dimension. Therefore, these dollies are custom designed to complement the ULD/pallets dimension, hinge/fixture position, weak overall physical strength, advanced dollies for ULD and pallets, such as those used on an airport apron, may have the following specialized facilities. Rollers - Dollies have built-in rollers or balls bearings on the deck to assist in the moving of containers or pallets, advance dollies have two sets of power driven rollers, one set moves the container forward and backward, and the other move it left and right. The precise movement is needed to align the center of gravity of the container to the center of the deck, in addition, the containers or pallets on dollies are secured with built-in locks. Some revolving platforms are power assisted, no explicit manual locking/unlocking action by the operator is needed
6.
Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow
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Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow is a United States Marine Corps supply and maintenance installation located in the Mojave Desert east of Barstow, in San Bernardino County, Southern California. Its mission is to rebuild and repair ground-combat and combat-support equipment, today, one of MCLB Barstow’s most important facilities is the Marine Corps Logistics Bases’ Maintenance Center. The only other facility of this kind is located at MCLB Barstow’s sister installation, the base is located on Interstate 40,3.5 miles east of the city of Barstow. The base lies at the junction of three major systems of I-15, I-40, and SR58. It is approximately 98 miles from the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, the base is within 150 miles of the two major seaports of Los Angeles and San Diego. In 1954, the Commanding General, Marine Corps Depot of Supplies, moved his flag from San Francisco to Barstow and since then the base has grown in stature, strength and size. In March 1961, the importance of MCLB Barstow increased dramatically with the establishment of the Depot Maintenance Activity, in November 1978, the base was redesignated to its present title of Marine Corps Logistics Base to emphasize its broad logistics support mission. In the early 1980s, MCLB Albany and Headquarters Marine Corps worked aggressively to integrate support for the Fleet Marine Force. The command was redesignated again in 2003 as a result of the merging of Material Command MATCOM, the transition from a Provost Marshal Office to a Marine Corps Police Department ended in 2007. As of late 2007, the department became the first police department in the Marine Corps to consist of all civilian officers, in 2010, the department became a blended force again with military police. The base comprises three sites, Nebo Annex, Yermo Annex, and a third 2,438 acres site serving as rifle. The Nebo Annex encompasses 1,879 acres and functions as headquarters and is the main facility for administration, storage, recreational activities, shopping. The Nebo annex had a population of 1,174 as of the 2000 Census, 54% of the population is male. 65. 6% of the population is between the ages of 18 and 64, and 34. 2% are under 18, geological Survey Geographic Names Information System, Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow
7.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
8.
Barstow, California
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Barstow is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The population was 22,639 at the 2010 census, Barstow is located 55 miles north of San Bernardino. Barstow is a transportation center for the Inland Empire. Several major highways including Interstate 15, Interstate 40, California State Route 58 and it is the site of a large rail classification yard, belonging to the BNSF Railway. The Union Pacific Railroad also runs through town using trackage rights on BNSFs main line to Daggett 10 miles east, from where it heads to Salt Lake City, Barstow is about 62 miles from Baker, California and 111 miles from Primm, Nevada. Barstow is almost exactly midway between Los Angeles, California and Las Vegas, Nevada, Barstow is home to Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow and is the closest city to the Fort Irwin National Training Center. The settlement of Barstow began in the late 1830s in the Mormon Corridor, every fall and winter, as the weather cooled, the rain produced new grass growth and replenished the water sources in the Mojave Desert. People, goods and animal herds would move from New Mexico and later Utah to Los Angeles, along the Old Spanish Trail from Santa Fe, or after 1848, trains of freight wagons traveled back to Salt Lake City and other points in the interior. Barstows roots also lie in the mining history of the Mojave Desert following the discovery of gold and silver in the Owens Valley. Due to the influx of miners arriving in Calico and Daggett, railroads were constructed to transport goods, the Southern Pacific built a line from Mojave, California through Barstow to Needles in 1883. In 1884, ownership of the line from Needles to Mojave was transferred to the Santa Fe Railroad, paving the major highways through Barstow led to further development of the city. Much of its economy depends on transportation, before the advent of the interstate highway system, Barstow was an important stop on both Routes 66 and 91. The two routes met in downtown Barstow and continued west together to Los Angeles, Barstow is named after William Barstow Strong, former president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Some early Barstow names were Camp Sugarloaf, Grapevine, and Waterman Junction, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 107.2 km2,99. 98% land and 0. 02% water. Summer days are hot, with highs typically exceeding 100 °F. Winter, in contrast, is characterized by cold mornings. Daily temperature ranges are large as a result of the low atmospheric moisture, in January, the normal high temperature is 61 °F with a low of 37 °F. In July, the high temperature is 105 °F with a low of 74 °F. There are an average of 140 days with highs of 90 °F or higher, an average of 82 days with highs of 100F degrees or higher, the average annual precipitation is 4.12 inches, with nearly 70% of rain typically falling during the cooler months
9.
Jacksonville, Florida
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Jacksonville is a seaport city and the seat of Duval County, Florida, United States. With an estimated 868,031 residents as of 2015, Jacksonville is the most populous city in both the state of Florida and the southeastern United States. It is estimated to be the 12th most populous city in the United States and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. The Jacksonville metropolitan area has a population of 1,603,497 and is the 34th largest in the United States and fourth largest in the state of Florida. The city is situated on the banks of the St. Johns River, in the First Coast region of North Florida, prior to European settlement, the Jacksonville area was inhabited by Native American people known as the Timucua. In 1564, the French established the colony of Fort Caroline at the mouth of the St. Johns River. In 1822, a year after the United States gained Florida from Spain, Jacksonville is the cultural, commercial and financial center of North Florida. A major military and civilian deep-water port, the citys riverine location supports two United States Navy bases and the Port of Jacksonville, Floridas third largest seaport. The two US Navy bases, Blount Island Command and the nearby Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Jacksonville is also home to several colleges and universities, including University of North Florida, Jacksonville University and Florida State College at Jacksonville. The area of the city of Jacksonville has been inhabited for thousands of years. In the 16th century, the beginning of the era, the region was inhabited by the Mocama. At the time of contact with Europeans, all Mocama villages in present-day Jacksonville were part of the powerful chiefdom known as the Saturiwa, centered around the mouth of the St. Johns River. One early map shows a village called Ossachite at the site of what is now downtown Jacksonville, French Huguenot explorer Jean Ribault charted the St. Johns River in 1562 calling it the River of May because he discovered it in May. Ribault erected a column near present-day Jacksonville claiming the newly discovered land for France. In 1564, René Goulaine de Laudonnière established the first European settlement, Fort Caroline, philip II of Spain ordered Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to protect the interest of Spain by attacking the French presence at Fort Caroline. On September 20,1565, a Spanish force from the nearby Spanish settlement of St. Augustine attacked Fort Caroline, the Spanish renamed the fort San Mateo, and following the ejection of the French, St. Augustines position as the most important settlement in Florida was solidified. The location of Fort Caroline is subject to debate but a reconstruction of the fort was established on the St. Johns River in 1964. Spain ceded Florida to the British in 1763 after the French and Indian War, the British introduced the cultivation of sugar cane, indigo and fruits as well the export of lumber
10.
Brigadier general
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Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general, when appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000 troops. In some countries a brigadier general is designated as a one-star general. The rank can be traced back to the militaries of Europe where a general, or simply a brigadier. An alternative rank of general was first used in the French revolutionary armies. Some countries, such as Brazil, Taiwan, and Japan, some of these countries then use the rank of colonel general to make four general-officer ranks. The naval equivalent is usually commodore and this gallery displays Air Force brigadier general insignia if they are different from the Army brigadier general insignia. Note that in many Commonwealth countries, the equivalent air force rank is Air Commodore, the rank of brigadier general is used in the Argentine Air Force. Unlike other armed forces of the World, the rank of general is actually the highest rank in the Air Force. This is due to the use of the rank of brigadier and its derivatives to designate all general officers in the Air Force, brigadier, brigadier-major, and brigadier-general. The rank of general is reserved for the Chief General Staff of the Air Force. The Argentine Army does not use the rank of brigadier-general, instead using brigade general which in turn is the lowest general officer before Divisional General, see also Argentine Army officer rank insignia. When posted elsewhere, the rank would be relinquished and the former rank resumed and this policy prevented an accumulation of high-ranking general officers brought about by the relatively high turnover of brigade commanders. Brigadier general was used as an honorary rank on retirement. The rank insignia was like that of the current major general, as in the United Kingdom, the rank was later replaced by brigadier. Prior to 2001, the Bangladesh Army rank was known as brigadier, in 2001 the Bangladesh Army introduced the rank of brigadier general, however the grade stayed equivalent to brigadier. It is the lowest ranking general officer, between the ranks of Colonel and Major General, Brigadier General is equivalent to commodore of the Bangladesh Navy and air commodore of the Bangladesh Air Force. It is still popularly called brigadier
11.
Gulf of Mexico
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The Gulf of Mexico is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. The U. S. states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas border the Gulf on the north, Atlantic and Pacific coasts, or sometimes the south coast, in juxtaposition to the Great Lakes region being the north coast. One of the seven main areas is the Gulf of Mexico basin. The Gulf of Mexico formed approximately 300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics, the Gulfs basin is roughly oval and is approximately 810 nautical miles wide and floored by sedimentary rocks and recent sediments. It is connected to part of the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Straits between the U. S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea via the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba, with the narrow connection to the Atlantic, the Gulf experiences very small tidal ranges. The size of the Gulf basin is approximately 1.6 million km2, almost half of the basin is shallow continental shelf waters. The basin contains a volume of roughly 2,500 quadrillion liters, the consensus among geologists who have studied the geology of the Gulf of Mexico, is that prior to the Late Triassic, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist. It was created by the collision of plates that formed Pangea. As interpreted by Roy Van Arsdale and Randel T. Cox, geologists and other Earth scientists agree in general that the present Gulf of Mexico basin originated in Late Triassic time as the result of rifting within Pangea. The rifting was associated with zones of weakness within Pangea, including sutures where the Laurentia, South American, first, there was a Late Triassic-Early Jurassic phase of rifting during which rift valleys formed and filled with continental red beds. Second, as rifting progressed through Early and Middle Jurassic time and it was at this time that tectonics first created a connection to the Pacific Ocean across central Mexico and later eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. This flooded the basin created by rifting and crustal thinning to create the Gulf of Mexico. While the Gulf of Mexico was a basin, the subsiding transitional crust was blanketed by the widespread deposition of Louann Salt. Initially, during the Late Jurassic, continued rifting widened the Gulf of Mexico and progressed to the point that sea-floor spreading, at this point, sufficient circulation with the Atlantic Ocean was established that the deposition of Louann Salt ceased. During the Late Jurassic through Early Cretaceous, the occupied by the Gulf of Mexico experienced a period of cooling. The subsidence was the result of a combination of stretching, cooling. Initially, the combination of stretching and cooling caused about 5–7 km of tectonic subsidence of the central thin transitional
12.
Warehouse
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A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs and they are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities, towns and villages. They usually have loading docks to load and unload goods from trucks, sometimes warehouses are designed for the loading and unloading of goods directly from railways, airports, or seaports. They often have cranes and forklifts for moving goods, which are placed on ISO standard pallets loaded into pallet racks. Stored goods can include any raw materials, packing materials, spare parts, components, or finished goods associated with agriculture, manufacturing, in Indian English a warehouse may be referred to as a godown. The origins of the warehouse are difficult to pinpoint, early civilizations relied on storage pits rather than large structures to protect seeds and surplus food. Sociologists like Alain Testart have argued that these early techniques were essential to the evolution of societies. Some of the earliest examples of warehouses that resemble the buildings of today are Roman horrea and these were rectangular buildings, built of stone, with a raised ground floor and overhanging roof to keep the walls cool and dry. Roman horrea were typically used to store grain, but other such as olive oil, wine, clothing. Though horrea were built throughout the Roman empire, some of the most studied examples are found in or around Rome, particularly at Ostia, a harbor city that served ancient Rome. The Horrea Galbae, a complex in the southern part of ancient Rome, demonstrates that these buildings could be substantial. The horrea complex contained 140 rooms on the floor alone. As a point of reference, less than half of U. S. warehouses today are larger than 100,000 square feet, however, dedicated warehouses could be found around ports and other commercial hubs to facilitate overseas trade. Examples of these include the Venetian fondaci, which combined a palace, warehouse, market. During the industrial revolution the function of warehouses evolved and became more specialised, some warehouses from the period are even considered architecturally significant, such as Manchesters cotton warehouses. Always a building of function, in the past few decades they have adapted to mechanisation, technological innovation, historically, warehouses were a dominant part of the urban landscape from the start of the Industrial Revolution through the 19th century and into the twentieth century. The buildings remained when their original usage had changed, there are four identifiable types of warehouses. The cotton industry rose with the development of the warehouse, Warehouses of that period in Manchester were often lavishly decorated, but modern warehouses are more functional
13.
Rocky Mountains
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The Rocky Mountains, commonly known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 3,000 miles from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States. Within the North American Cordillera, the Rockies are somewhat distinct from the Pacific Coast Ranges, the Rocky Mountains were initially formed from 80 million to 55 million years ago during the Laramide orogeny, in which a number of plates began to slide underneath the North American plate. The angle of subduction was shallow, resulting in a belt of mountains running down western North America. Since then, further tectonic activity and erosion by glaciers have sculpted the Rockies into dramatic peaks, at the end of the last ice age, humans started to inhabit the mountain range. The first mention of their present name by a European was in the journal of Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre in 1752, the Rocky Mountains are commonly defined as stretching from the Liard River in British Columbia south to the Rio Grande in New Mexico. The United States definition of the Rockies includes the Cabinet and Salish Mountains of Idaho and their counterparts north of the Kootenai River, the Columbia Mountains, are considered a separate system in Canada, lying to the west of the huge Rocky Mountain Trench. This runs the length of British Columbia from its beginnings in the middle Flathead River valley in western Montana to the bank of the Liard River. The Rockies vary in width from 70 to 300 miles, also west of the Rocky Mountain Trench, farther north and facing the Muskwa Range across the trench, are the Stikine Ranges and Omineca Mountains of the Interior Mountains system of British Columbia. A small area east of Prince George, British Columbia on the side of the Trench. In Canada geographers define three main groups of ranges, the Continental Ranges, Hart Ranges and Muskwa Ranges, the Muskwa and Hart Ranges together comprise what is known as the Northern Rockies. The western edge of the Rockies includes ranges such as the Wasatch near Salt Lake City, the Great Basin and Columbia River Plateau separate these sub-ranges from distinct ranges further to the west, most prominent among which are the Sierra Nevada, Cascade Range and Coast Mountains. The Rocky Mountain System within the United States is a United States physiographic region, the Rocky Mountains are notable for containing the highest peaks in central North America. The ranges highest peak is Mount Elbert located in Colorado at 14,440 feet above sea level, Mount Robson in British Columbia, at 12,972 feet, is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. The Continental Divide of the Americas is located in the Rocky Mountains, triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park is so named because water that falls on the mountain reaches not only the Atlantic and Pacific, but Hudson Bay as well. Farther north in Alberta, the Athabasca and other rivers feed the basin of the Mackenzie River, see Rivers of the Rocky Mountains for a list of rivers. Human population is not very dense in the Rocky Mountains, with an average of four people per square kilometer, however, the human population grew rapidly in the Rocky Mountain states between 1950 and 1990. The 40-year statewide increases in range from 35% in Montana to about 150% in Utah
14.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
15.
Caribbean Sea
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The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. The entire area of the Caribbean Sea, the islands of the West Indies. The Caribbean Sea is one of the largest seas and has an area of about 2,754,000 km2, the seas deepest point is the Cayman Trough, between the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, at 7,686 m below sea level. The Caribbean coastline has many gulfs and bays, the Gulf of Gonâve, Gulf of Venezuela, Gulf of Darién, Golfo de los Mosquitos, Gulf of Paria, the Caribbean Sea has the worlds second biggest barrier reef, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. It runs 1,000 km along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, the name Caribbean derives from the Caribs, one of the regions dominant Native American groups at the time of European contact during the late 15th century. During the first century of development, Spanish dominance in the region remained undisputed, from the 16th century, Europeans visiting the Caribbean region identified the South Sea as opposed to the North Sea. The Caribbean Sea had been unknown to the populations of Eurasia until 1492, at that time the Western Hemisphere in general was unknown to Europeans. Following the discovery of the islands by Columbus, the area was colonised by several Western cultures. As of 2015 the area is home to 22 island territories, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Caribbean Sea as follows, On the North. In the Windward Channel – a line joining Caleta Point and Pearl Point in Haïti, in the Mona Passage – a line joining Cape Engano and the extreme of Agujereada in Puerto Rico. From Galera Point through Trinidad to Galeota Point and thence to Baja Point in Venezuela, note that, although Barbados is an island on the same continental shelf, it is considered to be in the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean Sea is an oceanic sea largely situated on the Caribbean Plate, the Caribbean Sea is separated from the ocean by several island arcs of various ages. The youngest stretches from the Lesser Antilles to the Virgin Islands to the north east of Trinidad, the larger islands in the northern part of the sea Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico lie on an older island arc. The geological age of the Caribbean Sea is estimated to be between 160 and 180 million years and was formed by a fracture that split the supercontinent called Pangea in the Mesozoic Era. It is assumed the proto-caribbean basin existed in the Devonian period, in the early Carboniferous movement of Gondwana to the north and its convergence with the Euramerica basin decreased in size. The next stage of the Caribbean Seas formation began in the Triassic, powerful rifting led to the formation of narrow troughs, stretching from modern Newfoundland to the west coast of the Gulf of Mexico which formed siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. In the early Jurassic due to powerful marine transgression, water broke into the present area of the Gulf of Mexico creating a vast shallow pool, the emergence of deep basins in the Caribbean occurred during the Middle Jurassic rifting. The emergence of these marked the beginning of the Atlantic Ocean
16.
Mediterranean Sea
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The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning inland or in the middle of land and it covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. The Strait of Gibraltar is a strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar. In oceanography, it is called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere. The Mediterranean Sea has a depth of 1,500 m. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia and it is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, the seas average north-south length, from Croatia’s southern shore to Libya, is approximately 800 km. The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara, has an area of approximately 2,510,000 square km. The sea was an important route for merchants and travelers of ancient times that allowed for trade, the history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri, the term Mediterranean derives from the Latin word mediterraneus, meaning amid the earth or between land, as it is between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The Ancient Greek name Mesogeios, is similarly from μέσο, between + γη, land, earth) and it can be compared with the Ancient Greek name Mesopotamia, meaning between rivers. The Mediterranean Sea has historically had several names, for example, the Carthaginians called it the Syrian Sea and latter Romans commonly called it Mare Nostrum, and occasionally Mare Internum. Another name was the Sea of the Philistines, from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites, the sea is also called the Great Sea in the General Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer. In Ottoman Turkish, it has also been called Bahr-i Sefid, in Modern Hebrew, it has been called HaYam HaTikhon, the Middle Sea, reflecting the Seas name in ancient Greek, Latin, and modern languages in both Europe and the Middle East. Similarly, in Modern Arabic, it is known as al-Baḥr al-Mutawassiṭ, in Turkish, it is known as Akdeniz, the White Sea since among Turks the white colour represents the west. Several ancient civilisations were located around the Mediterranean shores, and were influenced by their proximity to the sea. It provided routes for trade, colonisation, and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages, due to the shared climate, geology, and access to the sea, cultures centered on the Mediterranean tended to have some extent of intertwined culture and history. Two of the most notable Mediterranean civilisations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states, later, when Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum
17.
Philadelphia
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In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
18.
Commandant of the Marine Corps
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The Commandant of the Marine Corps is normally the highest-ranking officer in the United States Marine Corps and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Under the authority of the Secretary of the Navy, the CMC designates Marine personnel, as with the other joint chiefs, the Commandant is an administrative position and has no operational command authority over United States Marine Corps forces. The Commandant is nominated by the President for a term of office. By statute, the Commandant is appointed as a general while serving in office. The Commandant is directly responsible to the Secretary of the Navy for the performance of the Marine Corps. This includes the administration, discipline, internal organization, training, requirements, efficiency, the Commandant is also responsible for the operation of the Marine Corps material support system. Since 1801, the residence of the Commandant has been located in the Marine Barracks in Washington, D. C. and his main offices are in Arlington County. The responsibilities of the Commandant are outlined in Title 10, Section 5043 the United States Code and the position is subject to the authority, direction, as stated in the U. S. Thirty-seven men have served as the Commandant of the Marine Corps. The longest-serving was Archibald Henderson, sometimes referred to as the Grand old man of the Marine Corps due to his thirty-nine-year tenure. In the 236-year history of the United States Marine Corps, only one Commandant has ever been fired from the job, Anthony Gale, as a result of a court-martial in 1820. Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Marine Corps, allan Reed Millett and Jack Shulimson, eds. CS1 maint, Uses editors parameter Ulbrich, David J. Preparing for Victory, Thomas Holcomb and the Making of the Modern Marine Corps, 1936-183
19.
Arabs
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Arabs are an ethnic group inhabiting the Arab world. They primarily live in the Arab states in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Arabs are first mentioned in the mid-ninth century BCE as a tribal people dwelling in the central Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs appear to have been under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, tradition holds that Arabs descend from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. The Arabian Desert is the birthplace of Arab, there are other Arab groups as well that spread in the land and existed for millennia. Before the expansion of the Caliphate, Arab referred to any of the largely nomadic Semitic people from the northern to the central Arabian Peninsula and Syrian Desert. Presently, Arab refers to a number of people whose native regions form the Arab world due to spread of Arabs throughout the region during the early Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. The Arabs forged the Rashidun, Umayyad and the Abbasid caliphates, whose borders reached southern France in the west, China in the east, Anatolia in the north, and this was one of the largest land empires in history. The Great Arab Revolt has had as big an impact on the modern Middle East as the World War I, the war signaled the end of the Ottoman Empire. They are modern states and became significant as distinct political entities after the fall and defeat, following adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945. The Charter of the Arab League endorsed the principle of an Arab homeland whilst respecting the sovereignty of its member states. Beyond the boundaries of the League of Arab States, Arabs can also be found in the global diaspora, the ties that bind Arabs are ethnic, linguistic, cultural, historical, identical, nationalist, geographical and political. The Arabs have their own customs, language, architecture, art, literature, music, dance, media, cuisine, dress, society, sports, the total number of Arabs are an estimated 450 million. This makes them the second largest ethnic group after the Han Chinese. Arabs are a group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. In the pre-Islamic era, most Arabs followed polytheistic religions, some tribes had adopted Christianity or Judaism, and a few individuals, the hanifs, apparently observed monotheism. Today, Arabs are mainly adherents of Islam, with sizable Christian minorities, Arab Muslims primarily belong to the Sunni, Shiite, Ibadi, Alawite, Druze and Ismaili denominations. Arab Christians generally follow one of the Eastern Christian Churches, such as the Maronite, Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, or Chaldean churches. Listed among the booty captured by the army of king Shalmaneser III of Assyria in the Battle of Qarqar are 1000 camels of Gi-in-di-buu the ar-ba-a-a or Gindibu belonging to the Arab
20.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
21.
Gulf War
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The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991
22.
Persian Gulf
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The Persian Gulf is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Hormuz, the Shatt al-Arab river delta forms the northwest shoreline. The Persian Gulf was a battlefield of the 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq War and it is the namesake of the 1991 Gulf War, the largely air- and land-based conflict that followed Iraqs invasion of Kuwait. The gulf has many fishing grounds, extensive coral reefs, and abundant pearl oysters, the body of water is historically and internationally known as the Persian Gulf. Some Arab governments refer to it as the Arabian Gulf or The Gulf, the name Gulf of Iran is used by the International Hydrographic Organization. The Persian Gulf is geologically young, having been formed around 15,000 years ago. Its length is 989 kilometres, with Iran covering most of the northern coast, the Persian Gulf is about 56 km wide at its narrowest, in the Strait of Hormuz. The waters are very shallow, with a maximum depth of 90 metres. Various small islands lie within the Persian Gulf, some of which are the subject of territorial disputes between the states of the region. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the Persian Gulfs southern limit as The Northwestern limit of Gulf of Oman and this limit is defined as A line joining Ràs Limah on the coast of Arabia and Ràs al Kuh on the coast of Iran. The Persian Gulf and its areas are the worlds largest single source of crude oil. Safaniya Oil Field, the worlds largest offshore oilfield, is located in the Persian Gulf, large gas finds have also been made, with Qatar and Iran sharing a giant field across the territorial median line. Using this gas, Qatar has built up a substantial liquefied natural gas, the oil-rich countries that have a coastline on the Persian Gulf are referred to as the Persian Gulf States. In 550 BC, the Achaemenid Empire established the first ancient empire in Persis, consequently, in the Greek sources, the body of water that bordered this province came to be known as the Persian Gulf. In the travel account of Pythagoras, several chapters are related to description of his travels accompanied by the Achaemenid king Darius the Great, to Susa and Persepolis, and the area is described. This water channel separates the Iran Plateau from the Arabia Plate, has enjoyed an Iranian Identity since at least 2200 years ago. Before being given its present name, the Persian Gulf was called many different names, the classical Greek writers, like Herodotus, called it the Red Sea. In Babylonian texts, it was known as the sea above Akkad, the name of the gulf, historically and internationally known as the Persian Gulf after the land of Persia, has been disputed by some Arab countries since the 1960s
23.
Semi-trailer truck
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A semi-trailer truck, more commonly called a semi truck, is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer attaches to the tractor with a fifth wheel hitch, the result is that both tractor and semi-trailer will have a distinctly different design than a rigid truck and trailer. The tractor unit typically has two or three axles, those built for hauling heavy-duty commercial-construction machinery may have as many as five, the most common tractor-cab layout has a forward engine, one steering axle, and two drive axles. The fifth-wheel trailer coupling on most tractor trucks is movable fore and aft, ubiquitous in Europe, but less common in North America since the 1990s, is the cabover engine configuration, where the driver sits next to, or over the engine. With changes in the US to the length of the combined vehicle. Cabovers were difficult to service, as the cab could not be lifted on its hinges to a full 90-degree forward tilt, Trucks average from 4 to 8 miles per US gallon, with fuel economy standards requiring better than 7 miles per US gallon efficiency by 2014. The cargo trailer usually has tandem axles at the rear, each of which has wheels, or eight tires on the trailer. In the US it is common to refer to the number of hubs, rather than the number of tires. The combination of eight tires on the trailer and ten tires on the tractor is what led to the moniker eighteen wheeler, many trailers are equipped with movable tandem axles to allow adjusting the weight distribution. To connect the second of a set of doubles to the first trailer, and to support the front half of the second trailer and this has one or two axles, a fifth-wheel coupling for the rear trailer, and a tongue with a ring-hitch coupling for the forward trailer. Individual states may further allow longer vehicles, known as longer combination vehicles, Long Combination Vehicle types include, Doubles, Two 28.5 ft trailers. Turnpike Doubles, Two 48 ft trailers, Rocky Mountain Doubles, One 40 to 53 ft trailer and one 28.5 ft trailer. In Canada, a Turnpike Double is two 53 ft trailers, and a Rocky Mountain Double is a 50 ft trailer with a 24 ft pup, future Long Combination Vehicles under consideration and study for the U. S. MAP-21 transportation bill are container doubles. The US federal government, which regulates the Interstate Highway System, does not set maximum length requirements. Tractors can pull two or three if the combination is legal in that state. Weight maximums are 20,000 lb on an axle,34,000 lb on a tandem. There is a width of 8.5 ft and no maximum height. Roads other than the Interstates are regulated by the individual states, maximum weight varies between 80,000 lb to 171,000 lb, depending on the combination
24.
Port
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A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land. Port locations are selected to optimize access to land and navigable water, for commercial demand, Ports with deeper water are rarer, but can handle larger ships. Since ports throughout history handled every kind of traffic, support and storage facilities vary widely, may extend for miles, some ports have an important military role. One of the worlds oldest known artificial harbors is at Wadi al-Jarf on the Red Sea, along with the finding of harbor structures, ancient anchors have also been found. Guangzhou was an important port during the ancient times as far back as the Qin Dynasty, canopus was the principal port in Egypt for Greek trade before the foundation of Alexandria. Athens port of Piraeus was the base for the Athenian fleet, lothal is one of the most prominent cities of the ancient Indus valley civilisation, located in the Bhāl region of the modern state of Gujarāt and dating from 3700 BCE. Ostia Antica was the port of ancient Rome with Portus established by Claudius, Ports often have cargo-handling equipment, such as cranes and forklifts for use in loading ships, which may be provided by private interests or public bodies. Often, canneries or other processing facilities will be located nearby, some ports feature canals, which allow ships further movement inland. Access to intermodal transportation, such as railroads and highways, is critical to a port, so that passengers, Ports with international traffic have customs facilities. Harbor pilots and tugboats may maneuver large ships in tight quarters when near docks, the terms port and seaport are used for different types of port facilities that handle ocean-going vessels, and river port is used for river traffic, such as barges and other shallow-draft vessels. An inland port is a port on a lake, river, or canal with access to a sea or ocean. An example of this is the St. Lawrence Seaway which allows ships to travel from the Atlantic Ocean several thousand kilometers inland to Great Lakes ports like Duluth-Superior, a fishing port is a port or harbor for landing and distributing fish. It may be a facility, but it is usually commercial. A fishing port is the port that depends on an ocean product. In recent decades, regulations to save fishing stock may limit the use of a fishing port, a dry port is an inland intermodal terminal directly connected by road or rail to a seaport and operating as a centre for the transshipment of sea cargo to inland destinations. A warm-water port is one where the water does not freeze in wintertime, because they are available year-round, warm-water ports can be of great geopolitical or economic interest. A seaport is further categorized as a port or a cargo port. Additionally, cruise ports are known as a home port or a port of call
25.
Saudi Arabia
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Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba and it is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast and most of its terrain consists of arid desert and mountains. The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four regions, Hejaz, Najd and parts of Eastern Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud and he united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia has since been a monarchy, effectively a hereditary dictatorship governed along Islamic lines. The ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called the predominant feature of Saudi culture, with its global spread largely financed by the oil and gas trade. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called the Land of the Two Holy Mosques in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the state has a total population of 28.7 million, of which 20 million are Saudi nationals and 8 million are foreigners. The states official language is Arabic, petroleum was discovered on 3 March 1938 and followed up by several other finds in the Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia has since become the worlds largest oil producer and exporter, controlling the second largest oil reserves. The kingdom is categorized as a World Bank high-income economy with a high Human Development Index and is the only Arab country to be part of the G-20 major economies. However, the economy of Saudi Arabia is the least diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the state has attracted criticism for its treatment of women and use of capital punishment. Saudi Arabia is an autocracy, has the fourth highest military expenditure in the world. Saudi Arabia is considered a regional and middle power, in addition to the GCC, it is an active member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and OPEC. Following the unification of the Hejaz and Nejd kingdoms, the new state was named al-Mamlakah al-ʻArabīyah as-Suʻūdīyah by royal decree on 23 September 1932 by its founder, Abdulaziz Al Saud. Although this is translated as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in English it literally means the Saudi Arab kingdom. Its inclusion expresses the view that the country is the possession of the royal family. Al Saud is an Arabic name formed by adding the word Al, meaning family of or House of, in the case of the Al Saud, this is the father of the dynastys 18th century founder, Muhammad bin Saud. There is evidence that human habitation in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to about 125,000 years ago
26.
M88 Recovery Vehicle
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The M88 Recovery Vehicle is one of the largest armored recovery vehicles currently in use by United States Armed Forces. There are currently three variants, the M88, M88A1 and M88A2 HERCULES, the current M88A2 replacement cost is around US$2,050,000. The design of vehicle was based on the chassis and parts of the automotive component of the M48 Patton. The original M88 was introduced in 1961, M88A1 in 1977, the M88s primary role is to repair or replace damaged parts in fighting vehicles while under fire, as well as extricate vehicles that have become bogged down or entangled. The main winch on the M88A2 is capable of a 70-ton, single line recovery, the A-frame boom of the A2 can lift 35 tons when used in conjunction with the spade down. The spade can be used for earth moving, and can be used to anchor the vehicle when using the main winch. The M88 employs an Auxiliary power unit to provide auxiliary electrical and it can also be used to slave start other vehicles, provide power for the hydraulic impact wrench, as well as the means to refuel or de-fuel vehicles as required. The M88 series of vehicles can refuel M1 tanks from its own fuel tanks, the fuel pump draws fuel from the bottom of the fuel cell, and with it, all of the sediment that has accumulated with time. The M88A1 was powered by the Continental AVDS-1790-2DR Diesel engine and had a 10 HP Diesel auxiliary power unit, while the original M88 and M88A1 are designated as a Medium Recovery Vehicle, the M88A2 is designated as Heavy Recovery Vehicle. They are all similar in many ways however, the later version is distinctly heavier. The M88A2 is slightly larger than its predecessors thus retains a lower top speed, there have also been improvements in braking and steering. Additionally, the M88A2 has upgraded armor protection including armored track skirts and applique armor panels, the M88 is also lacking in Nuclear, Biological, Chemical defenses and a smoke screen generator, which the later M88A1 and M88A2 models are equipped with. Furthermore, the number has decreased from 5, to 3–4. However, all retain an M2 Browning.50 caliber machine gun,432 mm ground clearance,2.6 m fording depth,1.1 m wall climb and 2.6 m trench crossing capabilities. There has been no major deviation in battlefield role through the M88 series, the vehicles would be converted to M88A2 Hercules models at a York, Pennsylvania facility. One of the main issues afflicting the current M88A2 is the rate of winch failures. The leading cause of failures is by operating the winch without tension on the cable leading to loose wrapping and bunching up of the cable. There is also concern with loss of force when an M88A2 tows a heavy M1 Abrams on a slope in wet
27.
United States Air Force
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The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. It is the most recent branch of the U. S. military to be formed, the U. S. Air Force is a military service organized within the Department of the Air Force, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The Air Force is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, who reports to the Secretary of Defense, the U. S. Air Force provides air support for surface forces and aids in the recovery of troops in the field. As of 2015, the service more than 5,137 military aircraft,406 ICBMs and 63 military satellites. It has a $161 billion budget with 313,242 active duty personnel,141,197 civilian employees,69,200 Air Force Reserve personnel, and 105,500 Air National Guard personnel. According to the National Security Act of 1947, which created the USAF and it shall be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive air operations. The stated mission of the USAF today is to fly, fight, and win in air, space and we will provide compelling air, space, and cyber capabilities for use by the combatant commanders. We will excel as stewards of all Air Force resources in service to the American people, while providing precise and reliable Global Vigilance, Reach and it should be emphasized that the core functions, by themselves, are not doctrinal constructs. The purpose of Nuclear Deterrence Operations is to operate, maintain, in the event deterrence fails, the US should be able to appropriately respond with nuclear options. Dissuading others from acquiring or proliferating WMD, and the means to deliver them, moreover, different deterrence strategies are required to deter various adversaries, whether they are a nation state, or non-state/transnational actor. Nuclear strike is the ability of forces to rapidly and accurately strike targets which the enemy holds dear in a devastating manner. Should deterrence fail, the President may authorize a precise, tailored response to terminate the conflict at the lowest possible level, post-conflict, regeneration of a credible nuclear deterrent capability will deter further aggression. Finally, the Air Force regularly exercises and evaluates all aspects of operations to ensure high levels of performance. Nuclear surety ensures the safety, security and effectiveness of nuclear operations, the Air Force, in conjunction with other entities within the Departments of Defense or Energy, achieves a high standard of protection through a stringent nuclear surety program. The Air Force continues to pursue safe, secure and effective nuclear weapons consistent with operational requirements, adversaries, allies, and the American people must be highly confident of the Air Forces ability to secure nuclear weapons from accidents, theft, loss, and accidental or unauthorized use. This day-to-day commitment to precise and reliable nuclear operations is the cornerstone of the credibility of the NDO mission, positive nuclear command, control, communications, effective nuclear weapons security, and robust combat support are essential to the overall NDO function. OCA is the method of countering air and missile threats, since it attempts to defeat the enemy closer to its source
28.
Saddam Hussein
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Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and other industries, the state-owned banks were put under his control, leaving the system eventually insolvent mostly due to the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, and UN sanctions. Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatuses of government as oil money helped Iraqs economy to grow at a rapid pace, positions of power in the country were mostly filled with Sunni Arabs, a minority that made up only a fifth of the population. Saddam formally rose to power in 1979, although he had been the de facto head of Iraq for several years prior. He suppressed several movements, particularly Shia and Kurdish movements, seeking to overthrow the government or gain independence, and maintained power during the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War. Whereas some in the Arab world lauded Saddam for his opposition to the United States, the total number of Iraqis killed by the security services of Saddams government in various purges and genocides is unknown, but the lowest estimate is 250,000. Saddams Baath party was disbanded and elections were held, following his capture on 13 December 2003, the trial of Saddam took place under the Iraqi Interim Government. On 5 November 2006, Saddam was convicted of charges of crimes against humanity related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shiites and his execution was carried out on 30 December 2006. His mother, Subha Tulfah al-Mussallat, named her newborn son Saddam and he is always referred to by this personal name, which may be followed by the patronymic and other elements. He never knew his father, Hussein Abd al-Majid, who disappeared six months before Saddam was born, shortly afterward, Saddams 13-year-old brother died of cancer. The infant Saddam was sent to the family of his maternal uncle Khairallah Talfah until he was three and his mother remarried, and Saddam gained three half-brothers through this marriage. His stepfather, Ibrahim al-Hassan, treated Saddam harshly after his return, at about age 10, Saddam fled the family and returned to live in Baghdad with his uncle Kharaillah Talfah. Later in his relatives from his native Tikrit became some of his closest advisors and supporters. Under the guidance of his uncle he attended a high school in Baghdad. After secondary school Saddam studied at an Iraqi law school for three years, dropping out in 1957 at the age of 20 to join the revolutionary pan-Arab Baath Party, during this time, Saddam apparently supported himself as a secondary school teacher. Revolutionary sentiment was characteristic of the era in Iraq and throughout the Middle East, in Iraq progressives and socialists assailed traditional political elites. Moreover, the nationalism of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt profoundly influenced young Baathists like Saddam. The rise of Nasser foreshadowed a wave of revolutions throughout the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s, with the collapse of the monarchies of Iraq, Egypt, and Libya
29.
Land mine
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A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automatically by way of pressure when a target steps on it or drives over it, a land mine may cause damage by direct blast effect, by fragments that are thrown by the blast, or by both. The name originates from the ancient practice of mining, where tunnels were dug under enemy fortifications or troop formations. These killing tunnels were at first collapsed to destroy targets located above, nowadays, in common parlance, land mine generally refers to devices specifically manufactured as anti-personnel or anti-vehicle weapons. The use of mines is controversial because of their potential as indiscriminate weapons. They can remain dangerous many years after a conflict has ended, harming the economy, to date,162 nations have signed the treaty. To act as passive area-denial weapons, land mines are currently used in large quantities mostly for this first purpose, thus their widespread use in the demilitarized zones of likely flashpoints such as Cyprus, Afghanistan and Korea. As of 2013, the governments that still laid land mines were Myanmar in its internal conflict. Land mines continue to kill or injure at least 4,300 people every year, even decades after the ends of the conflicts for which they were placed. This claim is dubious, as gunpowder warfare did not develop in China until the advent of the flamethrower in the 10th century, while the land mine was not seen in China until the late 13th century. Explosive land mines were being used in 1277 by the Chinese during the Song dynasty against an assault of the Mongols, the invention of this detonated enormous bomb was credited to one Lou Qianxia of the 13th century. The wad of the mine was made of wood, carrying three different fuses in case of defective connection to the touch hole. Pieces of bamboo are sawn into sections nine feet in length, all septa in the bamboo being removed, save only the last, boiling oil is next poured into and left there for some time before being removed. The fuse starts from the bottom, and is compressed into it to form an explosive mine, the gunpowder fills up eight-tenths of the tube, while lead or iron pellets take up the rest of the space, then the open end is sealed with wax. A trench five feet in depth is dug, the fuse is connected to a firing device which ignites them when disturbed. Further description of how this flint device operated was not made until a Chinese text of 1606 AD revealed that a drive had been used to work the steel wheel. Besides the use of steel wheels providing sparks for the fuses, there were other methods used as well, when the weapons were removed from the mound, this movement disturbed the bowl beneath them where the butt ends of the staffs were, which in turn ignited the fuses. According to the Wubei Huolongjing volume of the 17th century, the formula for this slow-burning incandescent material allowed it to burn continuously for 20 to 30 days without going out
30.
Lex (dog)
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Lex was the first active duty, fully fit military working dog to be granted early retirement in order to be adopted. Working for his United States Marine Corps handler Corporal Dustin J. Lee in the Iraq War, he was wounded in an attack that killed Lee, and subsequently awarded an honorary Purple Heart. Lee and Lex were stationed in the police department at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany. Lee had adopted his previous canine, Doenja, after the dog was retired and they were detached to deploy in late November 2006 as an explosive detection and patrol team for 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, then part of Regimental Combat Team 6. On March 21,2007, while at a Forward Operating Base in Iraq, Lee was mortally wounded, while Lex sustained shrapnel wounds. Despite his own wounds, Lex refused to leave Lee and had to be dragged away for corpsmen, after returning to the United States in April, he fully recovered from his wounds at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune after a twelve-week rehabilitation. He returned to MCLB Albany on July 6 in a working capacity, although some shrapnel remained lodged in his back. Lee’s parents, Jerome and Rachel Lee, appealed to the military to adopt Lex, an online petition was created by Lees family, and the case gained national media attention. Congressman Walter B. Jones of North Carolinas 3rd congressional district assisted the Lee family with the release, the legal provision was enacted and Lex was released from active service to be adopted by the Lee family. Headquarters Marine Corps made a formal request to the Air Force working dog program managers at Lackland Air Force Base in November, which was approved on December 6. Lex was released five years of active service and turned over to the Lee family at a ceremony at MCLB Albany on December 21,2007. He was 8 years old at the time, afterward, Lex began to visit VA hospitals to comfort wounded veterans and assist in their recovery process. On February 16,2008, the Military Order of the Purple Heart Chapter #566 presented Lex with a commemorative Purple Heart at a ceremony held at the Air Force Armament Museum at Eglin Air Force Base. On September 24,2008, the American Kennel Club announced that Lex won the seventh Law Enforcement AKC Award for Canine Excellence, on March 19,2010, MCLB Albanys base dog kennel was named in honor of Lee, with Lex in attendance. Lex died on March 25,2012 as a result of cancer, Memorial website for Lee Lex receives his commemorative Purple Heart Military Working Dog Memorial Burnam, John C
31.
United States Secretary of the Navy
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The Secretary of the Navy is a statutory office and the head of the Department of the Navy, a military department within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Department of the Navy consists of two Uniformed Services, the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. In effect, all authority within the Navy and Marine Corps, specifically enumerated responsibilities of the SECNAV in beforementioned section are, recruiting, organizing, supplying, equipping, training, mobilizing, and demobilizing. The Secretary also oversees the construction, outfitting, and repair of ships, equipment. The Secretary of the Navy is a member of the Defense Acquisition Board, chaired by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, the CNO and the Commandant act as the principal executive agents of the SECNAV within their respective services to implement the orders of the Secretary. The United States Navy Regulations is the principal regulatory document of the Department of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations and the Commandant of the Marine Corps have their own separate staffs, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and Headquarters Marine Corps
32.
Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps
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The Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps is the second highest-ranking officer in the United States Marine Corps, and serves as a deputy for the Commandant of the Marine Corps. Before 1946, the title was known as Assistant to the Commandant, the Assistant Commandant is nominated for appointment by the President and must be confirmed via majority vote by the Senate. In the event that the Commandant is absent or is unable to perform his duties, additionally, he may perform other duties that the CMC assigns to him. Historically, the Assistant Comandant has served for two to three years, in recent decades, the Assistant Commandant has frequently been a Marine aviator. James F. Amos is the first aviator to serve as Assistant Commandant, the 34th and current Assistant Commandant is Glenn M. Walters, who took office on 4 August 2016, when John M. Paxton Jr. retired. The first Marine to hold the billet as Assistant to the Commandant was Eli K. Cole, while Lemuel C, shepherd Jr. was the first to hold it as the Assistant Commandant. On 7 June 2016 Lieutenant General Glenn M. Walters was nominated to succeed Paxton as Assistant Commandant, he is serving as Deputy Commandant for Programs. No records exist before the outbreak of World War I about this position, possibly because the Commandant likely had only administrative staff, the first Assistant to the Commandant was Lieutenant Colonel Eli K. Cole, who assumed the position on April 29,1911. From April 29,1911 to October 16,1946,19 men were assigned to assist the commandant, including five that went on to become Commandant themselves, John A. Lejeune, Wendell C. Neville, Ben H. Fuller, John H. Russell Jr. in 1946, Congress established the position of Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps and since then,31 men have held the position. The duties of the Assistant Commandant include such authority and duties as the Commandant and, with the approval of the Secretary of the Navy, orders issued by the Assistant Commandant in performing such duties have the same effect as those issued by the Commandant. The Assistant Commandants of the Marine Corps, the Marine Corps Book of Lists. Allan Reed Millett and Jack Shulimson, eds, cS1 maint, Uses editors parameter Specific
33.
Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps
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Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps is a unique non-commissioned rank and billet in the United States Marine Corps. A sergeant major typically serves as the unit commanders senior enlisted adviser and to matters of discipline. In 1833, an act of legislation made the rank of sergeant major permanent for the Marine Corps and this continued until 1946, when the rank was abolished, only to be re-introduced in 1954 as part of the Marine Corps rank structure. While Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps is the wording of the rank. The Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps is selected by the Commandant of the Marine Corps and typically serves a four-year term, since Sergeant Major Wilbur Bestwick was appointed the first Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps in 1957,17 different Marines have filled this post. Specific Media related to Sergeants Major of the United States Marine Corps at Wikimedia Commons
34.
United States Congress
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The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the Capitol in Washington, D. C, both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment. Members are usually affiliated to the Republican Party or to the Democratic Party, Congress has 535 voting members,435 Representatives and 100 Senators. The House of Representatives has six non-voting members in addition to its 435 voting members and these members can, however, sit on congressional committees and introduce legislation. Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms representing the people of a single constituency, known as a district. Congressional districts are apportioned to states by using the United States Census results. Each state, regardless of population or size, has two senators, currently, there are 100 senators representing the 50 states. Each senator is elected at-large in their state for a term, with terms staggered. The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process—legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers, however, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers. The Senate ratifies treaties and approves presidential appointments while the House initiates revenue-raising bills, the House initiates impeachment cases, while the Senate decides impeachment cases. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required before a person can be forcibly removed from office. The term Congress can also refer to a meeting of the legislature. A Congress covers two years, the current one, the 115th Congress, began on January 3,2017, the Congress starts and ends on the third day of January of every odd-numbered year. Members of the Senate are referred to as senators, members of the House of Representatives are referred to as representatives, congressmen, or congresswomen. One analyst argues that it is not a solely reactive institution but has played a role in shaping government policy and is extraordinarily sensitive to public pressure. Several academics described Congress, Congress reflects us in all our strengths, Congress is the governments most representative body. Congress is essentially charged with reconciling our many points of view on the public policy issues of the day. —Smith, Roberts, and Wielen Congress is constantly changing and is constantly in flux, most incumbents seek re-election, and their historical likelihood of winning subsequent elections exceeds 90 percent
35.
Organization of the United States Marine Corps
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The United States Marine Corps is organized within the Department of the Navy, which is led by the Secretary of the Navy. The Marine Corps is organized into four subdivisions, Headquarters Marine Corps, the Operating Forces, the Supporting Establishment. Since 1991, the Marine Corps has maintained component headquarters at each of the unified combatant commands. Marine Corps Forces are further divided into Marine Forces Command and Marine Forces Pacific, since the U. S. Marine Corps and the U. S. Leading this movement were such prominent Army officers as General Dwight Eisenhower, who became the President of the United States. The Marine Corps is a branch of the Department of the Navy along with the U. S. Navy, both the Chief of Naval Operations and Commandant of the Marine Corps, heads of their respective services, report directly to the Secretary of the Navy. As a result, the Navy and Marine Corps have a close relationship, recent whitepapers and promotional literature have commonly used the phrase Navy-Marine Corps Team. This relationship stems from the navy providing transport, logistical, medical, conversely, Marines are responsible for conducting land operations to support naval campaigns, including the seizure of naval and air bases. All Marine Aviation programs except for specific command and control and air defense programs are funded by the navy, Marine Corps officers are assigned to the Office of Chief of Naval Operations Air Warfare Branch to represent Marine Aviation interests and serve as action officers. By Congressional mandate, the OPNAV Director, Expeditionary Warfare Branch is filled by a Marine general, the Marine Corps cooperates with the navy on many institutional support services. The corps receives a significant portion of its officers from the United States Naval Academy and Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps, Marine Corps drill instructors contribute to training naval officers in Officer Candidate School. Marine aviators are trained in the Naval Aviation training pipeline, and utilize naval weapons, currently, navy aircraft carriers deploy with a Marine Hornet squadron alongside navy squadrons. The Navys Blue Angels flight team includes at least one Marine pilot and is supported by a Marines C-130 Hercules aircraft, since the Marines do not train chaplains or medical personnel, officers and enlisted sailors from the navy fill these roles. The Marines also operate a network security team in conjunction with the navy, today, the basic framework for deployable Marine units is the Marine Air-Ground Task Force, a flexible structure that can vary in size. A MAGTF is composed of four elements, the element, the ground combat element, the aviation combat element. A MAGTF can operate independently or as part of a larger coalition and it is a temporary organization formed for a specific mission and dissolved after completion of that mission. The history of the Marine Corps as well has led to a wariness towards relying too much on its sister services, each is commanded by a colonel with a combat arms background thus, infantry or aviator. The MEU components consist of an element, ground combat element, aviation combat element
36.
Headquarters Marine Corps
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The function, composition, and general duties of HQMC are defined in Title 10 of the United States Code, Subtitle C, Part I, Chapter 506. HQMC consists of the Commandant of the Marine Corps and those agencies that advise and assist him in discharging his responsibilities prescribed by law. The Commandant is directly responsible to the Secretary of the Navy for the performance of the Marine Corps. This includes the administration, discipline, internal organization, training, requirements, efficiency, the Commandant also is responsible for the operation of the Marine Corps material support system. HQMC is currently spread throughout the Washington, D. C, virginia, and Maryland area, to include the Pentagon, Henderson Hall, Marine Barracks, Washington, D. C. Marine Corps Base Quantico, and the Washington Navy Yard, Headquarters Marine Corps website Condit, Kenneth W. Maj John H. Johnstone, Ella W. Nargele. A Brief History of Headquarters Marine Corps Staff Reorganization, allan Reed Millett and Jack Shulimson, eds
37.
United States Marine Corps Forces Command
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Fleet Forces Command on support to Marine Corps forces assigned to naval ships, bases, and installations, conducts Service directed operational tasks as required. As COMMARFORCOM, commands Service retained-operational forces, as CG FMFLANT, commands Service retained-operational forces embarked aboard Naval shipping. MARFORCOM is a Service retained component headquarters with the following command relationships, COMMARFORCOM reports to the Commandant of the Marine Corps. S. Marine Forces Central Command This article incorporates text in the domain from the United States Marine Corps
38.
II Marine Expeditionary Force
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II MEF falls under the command of U. S. Marine Corps Forces Command, and is a service retained force, meaning it is not assigned or allocated to any of the Geographic Combatant Commands. However, II MEF regularly provides subordinate units in support of operations, european Command, U. S. Africa Command, and U. S. Southern Command Areas of Responsibility, as well as in support of other U. S. unified, II MEF units are available for and prepared to respond to contingency requirements worldwide. The size and composition of any MAGTF will be dependent upon the mission assigned, one mission that could be assigned to the MEB would be assignment for planning, deployment and utilization of equipment stored aboard Maritime Prepositioning Ships. At the same time, tactical aircraft of the MEB are flight ferried to an airfield in or near the area of operation, the MEB can be sustained for 30 days by the supplies aboard the ships. The only routinely deployed MAGTFs, the 22d, 24th and 26th MEUs deploy on a basis to the Mediterranean Sea area to serve as the landing force for the Commander. Following a 2010-11 force structure review, II MEF is the only force in the Marine Corps presently commanded by a two-star general officer. Smith Hall Globalsecurity. org II MEFs official website
39.
United States Marine Corps Forces, Pacific
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Marine Forces Pacific is the United States Marine Corps service component command of United States Pacific Command. It is the largest field command in the Marine Corps and is headquartered at Camp H. M. Smith in Hawaii and it is composed of the I Marine Expeditionary Force and the III Marine Expeditionary Force. Each MEF comprises an element, a ground combat element, an aviation combat element. Longstanding missions for MARFORPAC include building partner capacity in support of cooperation and capacity-building efforts, as well as the defense of South Korea. Marine Forces Pacific also provided combat units to support Operation Iraqi Freedom, LtGen Keith J. Stalder LtGen John F. Goodman LtGen Earl B. Hailston LtGen Frank Libutti LtGen Carlton W. Fulford, Jr. LtGen H. C, new commander for Marine Forces Pacific. Brian A. Goodman relinquishes command of MarForPac, archived from the original on February 13,2009. Luis R. OIF/OEF Marine Commander Relinquishes Command of Pacific, lieutenant General Libutti Takes MARFORPAC Helm. MARFORPAC bids farewell to Robling, welcomes Toolan
40.
III Marine Expeditionary Force
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III Marine Expeditionary Force is a formation of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force of the United States Marine Corps. It is forward-deployed and able to rapidly conduct operations across the spectrum from humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to amphibious assault. It maintains a presence in Japan and Asia to support the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation. III MEF also conducts combined operations and training throughout the region in support of the National Security Strategy for Theater Security Cooperation and these exercises build partner capacity, develop and maintain strong regional alliances and military-to-military contacts. These exercises prepare III MEF to conduct operations ranging from combat operations to humanitarian assistance. III MEF has played a significant role in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief throughout the region. The MEF assisted the efforts led by the Government of Japan during Operation Tomodachi after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. III MEF also conducted HA/DR missions in Thailand in October 2011, the Philippines in Oct.2010, more than 2,495 tons of relief supplies were delivered and over 21,000 people were evacuated. The Marines combine air, ground, and logistics forces to operate as a coherent, self-sufficient force, each mission dictates the MAGTFs scale and structure, giving the Marine Corps the flexibility to respond to any crisis and making a force in readiness. A MEF is the largest of all MAGTFs, III Marine Expeditionary Force was activated as I Amphibious Corps 1 Oct.1942 in Camp Elliott, San Diego, Calif. Later that month, they were deployed to Noumea, New Caledonia, the unit was redesignated as III Amphibious Corps 15 April 1944. III Amphibious Corps was deactivated 10 June 1946, III Marine Expeditionary Force was activated 6 May 1965 at Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam. III MEF was re-designated to III Marine Amphibious Force 7 May 1965, III Marine Amphibious Force deployed to Camp Courtney, Okinawa April 1971. III MAF was redesignated to III Marine Expeditionary Force 5 Feb.1988 and it fought in some of the bloodiest battles, including the Solomon Islands Campaign, the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign and the Battle of Okinawa. III Amphibious Corps redeployed to Tientsin, China in Sept. of 1945 where it participated in the occupation of Northern China until June 1946, III Amphibious Corps was deactivated 10 June 1946. III MEF was reactivated 6 May 1965 in Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam,7 May 1965, III MEF was re-designated as III Marine Amphibious Force and consisted of the 1st Marine Division, 3rd Marine Division and the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing. The III MAFs area of operations was in the northern I Corps Tactical Zone, III MAF participated in the Vietnam War from May 1965 – April 1971 operating from Quang Tri, Thua Thien, Quang Nam, Quang Tin, and Quang Ngai. III MAF deployed to Camp Courtney, Okinawa in April 1971, since III MAF was redesignated to III Marine Expeditionary Force 5 February 1988, they have participated in many different operations
41.
United States Marine Corps Reserve
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The Marine Forces Reserve is the reserve force of the United States Marine Corps. It is the largest command in the U. S. Marine Corps, Marine Forces Reserve is the headquarters command for approximately 40,000 Reserve Marines and 184 Reserve Training Centers located throughout the United States. Marine forces Reserve also provides personnel and operational tempo relief for active component forces in peacetime, MARFORRES comprises two groups of Marines and Sailors. The first, known as the Selected Marine Corps Reserve, are Marines who belong to units and drill one weekend a month. The second group is known as the Individual Ready Reserve, IRR Marines participate in annual musters to check in with the Corps. Reserve Marines are equipped and trained to the standards as active Marine forces. S. Enlistment in the Marine Forces Reserve occurs through a similar to that for enlistment in the regular active Marine Corps. Recruits must take the ASVAB, pass a physical exam. They may enter through a billet in the Delayed Entry Program, Reserve Recruits currently attend recruit training along with active duty recruits, earning the title United States Marine upon successful completion of the training. They then have a mandatory leave of 10 days before training at the School of Infantry. Only after completing the program does a Reserve Marines enlistment begin to differ from that of an active duty Marine. There is a called the Select Reserve Incentive Program, which provides enlistment bonuses for Reservists enlisting for needed MOSs. Half is payable upon completion of training and the other half is spread out over the term of enlistment, for those who have earned a college degree, the Reserve Officer Commissioning Program provides a path into the Marine Corps Reserve leading to a commission as an Officer of Marines. Upon selection from a regional Officer Selection Office, applicants attend Officer Candidate School, upon successful completion of OCS, candidates are commissioned Second Lieutenant and subsequently attend The Basic School. Following graduation of TBS and follow-on MOS training, officers report to their reserve unit where they serve their Reserve drills. Reserve Marines enlist for eight-year terms, there are three options on how these terms may be served, one of which is designated upon enlistment. 6x2 – Under this option the Reservist spends 6 years in active drill and this is the only option which makes Reservists eligible for the benefits of the Montgomery GI Bill, and is also the most common. 5x3 – Under this option the Reservist spends 5 years in active drill, 4x4 – Under this option the Reservist spends 4 years in active drill and fulfills the remaining four in Individual Ready Reserve
42.
Fleet Marine Force
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The Fleet Marine Forces provide the National Command Authority with a responsive force that can conduct operations in any spectrum of conflict around the globe. The Fleet Marine Forces consists of Marine Corps operating forces components that constitute the Fleet Marine Forces on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, the subordinate units of the Fleet Marine Forces come under the operational control of the commanders, U. S. Fleet Force Command or United States Pacific Fleet, when deployed, each FMF is equivalent to a U. S. Navy type command and reports to its respective Fleet Commander-in-Chief. The commanding general, a lieutenant general may be either an aviator or a ground officer and his deputy commanding general is from the other community. Each FMF consists of at least one Marine Expeditionary Force consisting of at least one Marine Division, one Marine Aircraft Wing, one Marine Logistics Group, other miscellaneous supporting units may be attached. In addition to one or more MEF, each FMF is further organized into one or more intermediate-sized MAGTFs named Marine Expeditionary Brigades and its predecessor was the Advanced Base Force in the early 20th century. The history of the FMF dates to December 7,1933, for service in the Fleet Marine Force, the United States Department of the Navy issues the FMF Enlisted Warfare Specialist Insignia and the FMF Qualified Officer Insignia
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