More than 1,300 National Guardsmen in South Carolina continue to fight historic flooding from last weekend’s hurricane, which brought heavy rains and dam breaks, completing more than 2,500 aerial rescues and 25 total missions. Air National Guard Col. Rich Neely, the chief of current operations for the National Guard Bureau, said Guardsmen have conducted six high-wheeled vehicle rescue operations, personnel and critical commodity transportation, and aerial evacuations, according to a Defense Department release. Twenty-two Guardsmen and four UH-60 Black Hawks have worked with local agencies on air rescues following Hurricane Joaquin. “The flooding in South Carolina and across the East Coast is truly a historic event,” Neely said in an Oct. 6 release. Guard units in other states, including New York, Virginia, and Maryland also are helping clean up from the storm, with more Guardsmen in North Carolina on Active Duty.
A new fast-track approval process for software on Defense Department networks will use AI tools to radically shorten a process that currently takes months or years, Acting Pentagon Chief Information Officer Katie Arrington said April 23.