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Groton Daily Independent
Tuesday, March 13, 2018 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 242 ~ 36 of 46
became more widespread and more commanders became convinced of their value.
The bene ts range from training to assistance on the battle eld. Troops often wear the cameras during drills as a way to hone skills, identify shortcomings and work through various exercise scenarios. Once
deployed, forces use them on missions, capturing lm of enemy operations or gathering intelligence. The video is generally stored on the camera, not live-streamed back to observers or commanders. It can be useful after a mission to review details, analyze enemy tactics, or to prove or rebut charges of abuse or civilian casualties. For example, U.S. forces have tried to use video to capture dangerous incidents involving Iranian or Russian aircraft or ships, hoping to document what happened in case complaints are challenged. Combat camera photographs or video footage from training or military missions also are often released to the public or posted on Defense Department websites and social media accounts, after being declas-
si ed and cleared.
“The value is after the fact, when you’re analyzing it,” Meredith said. “Is there something that you missed,
a person over here you may want to go back and talk to? It’s the after action report where it becomes useful.”
Rules on helmet camera use have lagged, however. Instead of having their own guidelines, such devices so far have been lumped in with other more general restrictions on photography and videotaping. These largely prohibit pornography or any unauthorized imagery of casualties, detainees, classi ed or sensitive equipment or locations, or intelligence gathering.
But those rules were designed to address unrelated problems. After video surfaced of several Marines urinating on the bodies of enemy ghters in Afghanistan, U.S. Central Command in 2013 beefed up the photography and video regulations for troops deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas in the Middle East.
They stipulated troops can use videos for of cial purposes when collecting evidence or intelligence or on other missions that would be aided by recordings, if approved by an of cer who is a lieutenant colonel or higher. In the Navy, that would be a commander or higher.
In the Niger mission, the team of American and Nigerien forces traveled to the last known location of a senior militant and sought to collect any remaining evidence. A helmet camera could be used appropriately in that type of mission.
Latest nor’easter starts to slam storm-battered Northeast
BOSTON (AP) — The third major nor’easter in two weeks started to slam the storm-battered Northeast Tuesday morning with blizzard conditions expected in some areas.
The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for much of the Massachusetts coast, a winter storm warning for most of New England and a winter weather advisory for portions of New York, Penn- sylvania and New Jersey.
“Three nor’easters in less than 2 weeks isn’t easy on anyone — and we are extremely grateful for the hard work of our rst responders, utility and road crews, and municipal of cials who have been working nonstop to clean up after these powerful storms,” Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker wrote on Twitter Monday night.
The storm is expected to last through most of the day Tuesday, disrupting road and air travel.
The ight-tracking site FlightAware already is reporting more than 1,300 canceled ights within, into or out of the U.S. on Tuesday. Amtrak suspended service from Boston to New York’s Penn Station until 11 a.m. While the rst two storms of the month brought coastal ooding and hundreds of thousands of power
outages, this one is expected to be different.
“This one’s main impact is going to be snow,” said Kim Buttrick, a meteorologist with the National Weather
Service of ce in Taunton, Massachusetts.
More power outages are possible, but they are not expected to be as widespread as last week. Only
minor coastal ooding is predicted.
The blizzard warning means sustained winds of greater than 35 mph (56 kph), along with visibility of
less than a quarter mile for prolonged periods, according to the weather service. Wind gusts as high as