On December 13 two members of the Iowa National Guard attached to the 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment – Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard along with their interpreter Ayad Mansoor Sakat, were killed in an ambush by a lone gunman that occurred in the city of Palmyra. The attack also wounded three other U.S. soldiers and two members of Syria’s security forces. While ISIS has not taken responsibility for the attack US officials said that they were probably responsible. Syrian officials described the gunman as a member of the Syrian security forces who is suspected of sympathizing with the Islamic State, which would make the attack what is known in the military as a “blue on green.” A blue on green is when members of a foreign nation American forces are supporting turn on American forces. This happened several times during the US involvement in Afghanistan.On December 17, President Trump along with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine attended the dignified transfer of the fallen American service members’ remains at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and there Trump finalized his order to the Pentagon leadership to exact payback for the attack.On December 19, Secretary Hegseth posted this tweet: Earlier today, U.S. forces commenced OPERATION HAWKEYE STRIKE in Syria to eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites in direct response to the attack on U.S. forces that occurred on December 13th in Palmyra, Syria. This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people.As we said directly following the savage attack, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you.Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.In this episode, Mooch analyzes the details of Operation Hawkeye Strike.Get PUNK’S FORCE, the fourth novel in the Punk Series that was just released, here: https://www.usni.org/press/books/punk… (use the code PUNK40 at checkout for 40% off!) or here: https://www.amazon.com/Punks-Force-No…Buy one or all three of the rest of the PUNK series, Ward’s popular novels about life a Tomcat squadron, in KINDLE format here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09R1MX8SYAnd as an audiobook here:
