Southernmost Flyer Feb. 5, 2016

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2016

Eye on the Fleet

ARABIAN GULF

VOL. 27 NO. 5

WWW.CNIC.NAVY.MIL/KEYWEST NAVAL AIR STATION KEY WEST, FLORIDA

Base’s endangered rabbit focus of PBS series ‘Rare’ By Jolene Scholl Southernmost Flyer

(Jan. 25, 2016) EOD2 Matthew Krom enters the Arabian Gulf to locate a training mine during a quarterly Squadron Exercise. Squadex is a mine countermeasures exercise designed to assess the abilities of Navy explosive ordnance disposal units and reaffirm their proficiency with the units’ latest equipment.

U.S. Navy photo by MC2 Torrey Lee

inside: TESTING Goosehawk onboard . . . . . . 3 GET READY Military Saves Week . . . . . . 3 PART OF OUR JOB Conservators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 TOP OF PAGE ONE: An MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter, assigned to the ‘Nightdippers’ of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 5, prepares to transfer cargo from aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) to USNS Medgar Evers (T-AKE 13) during a vertical replenishment.

W

hile most visitors are drawn to Naval Air Station Key West’s Boca Chica Field to watch the jets take to the skies, National

Geographic photographer Joel Sartore has his eyes on the ground. Sartore has traveled the world searching for rare animals and one of those - the Lower Keys Marsh Rabbit - makes it’s home in the marsh grass just a hop

and a jump away from the runways where jet fighters launch and land. Sartore was at Boca Chica Field this week to photograph the marsh rabbit, and a film crew was there as well to capture him as he continues his work

to preserve the images of endangered species. For two decades Sartore has taken studio portraits of the world’s rarest animals, with more than 5,000 species already included in his “Photo Ark.” The film project “RARE:

One Man’s Mission to Save the World, One Species at a Time,” is a three-part natural history series that will tell the stories of nine rare species from around the world. see RARE page 7

SC-CS starts with active shooter drill By MC3 Cody Babin Southernmost Flyer

T

he anti-terrorism force protection exercise Solid CurtainCitadel Shield 2016 (SC-CS 16) kicked off Monday and the first event of the exercise was the active shooter drill, conducted on Naval Air Station Key West’s Sigsbee Park Tuesday. “This training is an annual exercise that we start preparing for months in advance,” said NAS Key West standing Installation Mission Readiness Officer Maj. Dave Melton. “This event in particular involved several walkthroughs and U.S. Navy photo by MC3 Cody Babin briefs.” Members of Naval Air Station Key West’s Security Department assess victim injuries during training exercise Operation Solid The active shooter drill Curtain-Citadel Shield on NAS Key West’s Sigsbee Park Feb. 2. Operation Solid Curtain-Citadel Shield is an annual worldwide see DRIll page 2 force protection training exercise that began Feb. 1 and continues through Feb. 12.