The Pentagon Channel presents Recon: Game Changer. Viewers get an inside look into the latest technology in Army Aviation, including the Apache Block III and manned-unmanned teaming. To see the entire program in action, watch this video.
Video provided by The Pentagon Channel
It’s a lot of the past mixed with much of the present. But then again, that’s what a museum is all about. What’s interesting about this one, however, is the fact that it’s all about tracking the health and wellness of our troops throughout the centuries.
From Civil War memorabilia to innovations of modern day, the newly reopened National Museum of Health and Medicine shows off an impressive collection of 25 million artifacts. The museum’s mission is to preserve and collect specimens of morbid anatomy and medical technology. These tools and artifacts will help researchers to understand the care of the soldier by tracking the history of medicine.
There might be no better way to track the progression of medicinal practices than through the history of the military soldier. From illness to injury, service members experience just about all of it, and researchers are learning new and innovative ways to treat medical issues by using our history as a guide.
Plus they have the bullet that killed Abraham Lincoln.
Video provided by The Pentagon Channel
Technology is becoming more and more integrated into all aspects of our lives. It should come as no surprise that new technological advancements might change the way the military forces of the future look, act and even operate. The Virtual Soldier program uses computer simulations to design future combat systems for the war fighter.
Video provided by The Pentagon Channel
Liz Lopez is a social media intern at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs.
If you browse the listing of TEDx events happening around the world, you can see that each event usually includes a theme that unites the broad range of speakers and their stories. TEDxMidAtlantic asked its speakers and audience, “What If?” TEDxNASA presented its “Space to Create.” TEDxUSC wanted people to imagine “Ideas Empowered.” And so the time came for our team to stop and ask ourselves, “What do we want TEDxPentagon to say?”
The original theme was going to be “The Intersection of People and Technology – A New Kind of Military,” a conference aimed at a generation that grew up with cell phones, computers, and the Internet. When the TEDxPentagon team sat down to brainstorm tag lines for our event, we reviewed our speakers and their speeches to see if it still aligned with our original idea. Some of them indeed fit.
TSgt Stuart Wilson will be sharing his experiences of working in cyber and network security for the Air Force. LTG Benjamin Freakley of Army Accessions Command had a thought-provoking title for his talk, “Technology without people is just (very cool) stuff.” COL Geoffrey Ling from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Program (DARPA), with his extensive background in prosthetics research, is presenting how technology makes the impossible probable.
Technology is obviously a large aspect of our military. But we realized that some talks had nothing to do with technology and gadgets. MSgt Julia Watson will be talking about her time on the Marines’ Female Engagement Program in Iraq, and developing a similar program for Afghanistan. EOD technician LT John Pucillo will be telling us why, after losing his left leg to an IED, he reenlisted back into the Navy. And Sarah Hertig will be sharing her experiences as a military spouse, the unspoken heroes of the military community.
Liz Lopez is a social media intern at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs.
“Have you seen this TED video?” is a friendship-forming question that’s been tossed around among college students, public intellectuals, humanitarians, and tech enthusiasts for the past few years.
TED — short for Technology, Entertainment, and Design — is a conference series that showcases dynamic speakers and their topics through short (less than 18 minutes) and fascinating speeches, such as climate change, music theory, and economic development. By advocating a distinctive speaking style and focusing on broad, futuristic ideas, TED has established a lecture series that doesn’t fail to leave their viewers thinking.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxPentagon, where x=independently organized TED event. At our TEDxPentagon event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.
The Department of Defense is continuing their public outreach efforts by hosting TEDxPentagon: “The Human Stories” next Friday November 19, from 10 AM – 3 PM EST. Speakers from all over the world will be coming to the Navy Memorial to talk about their experiences with the military, including MSgt. Julia Watson, prior member of the Marine’s Female Engagement Team, Lt. John Pucillo, EOD technician from the Navy (think The Hurt Locker), Dr. Regina Dugan, Director of DARPA, and Gen. William E. Ward, combatant commander for AFRICOM.
By Petty Officer 2nd Class Elliott Fabrizio
The Pentagon held its Technology Expo on Tuesday with more than 40 companies displaying the latest in defense hardware and software.
For this week’s Tech Tuesday, I navigated my way through an ocean of business cards and free pens to highlight a few of the expo’s more interesting exhibits.
Just to get this out of the way, all of the booths were thrilling (especially the caterer’s booth with the chicken wings). These three represent the ones I personally thought were the most interesting and that in no way reflects an official ranking system or a lack of quality in any other exhibit. No angry letters please.
MC2 Fabrizio holds the mobile barricade's removable side panels with Brook Thomas from Patriot 3 Inc., Ballistics Division. (Photo: Patrick Raffaele)
Patriot 3, a tactical ops company, recently began marketing their new X-treme Protection Series XPS shield line to police agencies and the military, and it definitely has that elite special forces look. The XPS-G2 is a rolling bunker meaning it can provide an ideal source of cover for clearing a building or working a security checkpoint.
It’s made up of six panels, each able to withstand high-powered rifle rounds. The four side panels can be removed and used as individual bullet-proof shields. Fully assembled, it forms a three-person-wide wall on wheels. The side panels can fold like wings, enabling the unit to move through all commercial doorways. It’s topped off with three ballistic viewing ports and a small gun port in the center, so there’s no reason to leave the safety of this mobile barricade.
“You can actually do offenses with this, as opposed to just being in a defensive position. You’ve got a rolling bunker you can move forward as you advance,” said Brook Thomas, Patriot 3 Inc., Ballistics Division.
Phil Strub escorting then-Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, at the "Iwo Jima" memorial, where Clint Eastwood was directing a scene for the movie "Flags of Our Fathers."
Phil Strub is the Director of Entertainment Media at the Department of Defense.
When people see what looks like an actual modern American combat vehicle or aircraft in a movie like “Transformers” or a TV show like “24,” chances are they don’t wonder “Did they get that from the U.S. military?” But for my two-person Defense Department (DoD) office in the Pentagon, and the small Military Service staffs based in Los Angeles, working with Hollywood filmmakers is a full-time job.
Entertainment media producers have wanted access to U.S. military equipment and real estate — including ships — since the dawn of American cinema. The first movie to get an “Oscar” in the then-new “Best Picture” category was the 1927 silent film “Wings.” “Wings” was a big hit commercially and critically because the support the studio got from the Army Air Corps allowed it to portray World War I training and combat far more realistically than it could ever have done on its own. And the Army got a great opportunity to showcase itself to millions of Americans.
Things haven’t changed much since then. Despite the sophistication of special effects, computer generated graphics, and other technologies, filmmakers still very much want U.S. military production support — even though it comes with strings attached. For example, along with their “wish lists” for military support, filmmakers must also send us the scripts. These ultimately have to present a reasonably realistic portrayal of the military — though obviously what is reasonably realistic varies widely depending on the production. It’s one thing for “Black Hawk Down,” and quite another for “Iron Man 2.” If filmmakers are willing to negotiate with us to resolve our script concerns, usually we’ll reach an agreement. If not, filmmakers are free to press on without military assistance, and they often do.
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