On Patrol

The folks at Gibbs Technologies showed off their Phibian—an all-terrain vehicle that can drive right into a body of water and continue its work there—before the American Society of Naval Engineers conference Tuesday in Virginia.

Gibbs Technologies Chairman Neil Jenkins told London’s The Daily Mail that the vehicle would be especially useful to first responders.

“Natural disasters in recent memory, such as the earthquake and tsunamis in Japan, Thailand, Sri Lanka and elsewhere in Asia—as well as the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans—illustrate the need for amphibians as capable, versatile and efficient as Phibian,” Jenkins said.

Read more in There’s no escape from the Phibian, which can switch from highways to waterways at the touch of a button.

In other news around the military:

• Sergeant Ben Tomlinson—a Marine who was shot in the back in Afghanistan and now uses a wheelchair—was worried people would forget about him when he returned home to Jacksonville, Alabama. He couldn’t have been more wrong. The Associated Press chronicled how Jacksonville’s reaction to Tomlinson’s homecoming is being held up as an example of how to help veterans who return home injured.

• The U.S. and Japan say they are still pushing forward on plans to move a contingent of U.S. forces to Guam, despite the unresolved relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Japan. Stars and Stripes has the story.