1st 15 of 50 best US military pictures of the year

By Barbara Tasch and Jeremy Bender

All photos taken by US Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps service members.

IMAGES:
Thunderbirds fly over Niagara Falls Senior Airman Jason Couillard/US Air Force
Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), conduct a high-altitude low-opening (HALO) jump during category 3 sustainment training in Louisburg, North Carolina, on June 2.
Marines assigned to Force Reconnaissance Platoon, Maritime Raid Force, 26th
Flickr/Marines

A sunset is seen through the nose of a B-25 Mitchell during a military tattoo held at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington on September 16. The “warbird flight” consisted of two B-25 Mitchells, two P-40 Warhawks, and a P-51 Mustang.
US Air Force/Airman 1st Class Ryan J. Sonnier
An F-35B joint strike fighter jet conducts aerial maneuvers during aerial refueling training over the Atlantic Ocean on August 13.
US Marine Corps
An MV-22B Osprey assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 365 takes off from the flight deck of the amphibious transport dock ship USS New York on January 5.
Flickr/Official U.S. Navy Page
A US Marine attached to Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment — “The Lava Dogs” — fires a Javelin at a simulated enemy tank during Lava Viper aboard Pohakuloa Training Area in Hawaii on May 29.
Flickr/Marines
US Army soldiers, assigned to the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, hover over a landing zone in UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters during air assault training at Jalalabad Airfield in eastern Afghanistan on September 16.
US Army/Capt. Charles Emmons
The guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook transits the Black Sea, as it conducts naval operations in the US 6th Fleet area of responsibility in support of US national security interests in Europe on January 7.
Flickr/Official US Navy Page
An F-15E Strike Eagle sits on the flight line at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey on November 12.
Flickr/US Air Force
A UH-N1 Iroquois circles trees during a search-and-rescue training mission near Garrison, North Dakota, on July 20.
Flickr/US Air Force
Three/Marine Expeditionary Unit Integration Training (PMINT) off the coast of San Diego on March 4.
Marines with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit Maritime Raid Force depart the USS Essex (LHD 2) on a combat rubber-raiding craft during Amphibious Squadron US Marine Corps
The Thunderbirds fly over Niagara Falls on July 16.
Senior Airman Jason Couillard/US Air Force
Landing Craft Utility 1631, assigned to Naval Beach Unit 7, lowers its ramp inside the well deck of the amphibious transport dock ship USS Green Bay on April 1.
Flickr/Official US Navy Page
The US Air Force Thunderbirds perform during the rehearsal day before the 2015 Joint Base Andrews Air Show at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on September 18.
Flickr/US Air Force
USS Mitscher and the French tall ship replica the Hermione approach Chesapeake Bay on June 2.
Flickr/Official US Navy Page
A Marine sucks the blood from the head of a python in a jungle-survival course during Malaysia-US Amphibious Exercise 2015.
US Marine Corps
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