BOGOTA, Colombia — The family of a Colombian man has filed the first formal challenge to U.S. military strikes on alleged drug-carrying boats, arguing in a petition to the premier human rights watchdog in the Americas that his death was an extrajudicial killing.

The petition from the family of Alejandro Carranza says the military bombed his fishing boat on Sept. 15, when he was sailing off Colombia’s Caribbean coast, in violation of human rights conventions. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights received the complaint Tuesday, and while the Trump administration has said it supports the commission’s work, the U.S. does not recognize the jurisdiction of an international court associated with the commission. Therefore, any recommendations that could result from the family’s petition would not be binding.

The family’s attorney, Daniel Kovalik, said Carranza’s four children and spouse want to be compensated as their loved one was their primary breadwinner. He explained that the family chose the commission because of the obstacles that a federal case would face, but the possibility has not been ruled out either.

“The U.S. does not subject itself to accountability, so we’re using the avenues we have before us,” Kovalik said Wednesday. “We believe that a decision in our favor, combined with public pressure, can get us that compensation and also can end the killings in the Caribbean.”

The strikes that led to the complaint

The U.S. military has killed more than 80 people since early September, when it began striking vessels that the Trump administration has said were carrying drugs toward the U.S. The strikes began off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast and later expanded to the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The U.S. also has built up its largest military presence in the region in generations, which many see as part of a strategy to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to resign.

The Trump administration has not provided any details of the people killed in the strikes, but it has insisted that its intelligence confirmed that members of foreign terrorist organizations were operating the targeted vessels.

The U.S. military’s Sept. 15 strike killed three people. Asked at the time what proof the U.S. has that the vessel was carrying drugs, President Donald Trump told reporters that big bags of cocaine and fentanyl were spattered all over the ocean. However, images of what Trump described were not released by the military or the White House.

Kovalik denied that Carranza’s boat was carrying drugs and said he did not know if other people were on the vessel. Kovalik, who is also representing President Gustavo Petro in the U.S. after the Trump administration imposed sanctions on him, said he met the Carranzas at their home in northern Colombia.

Petro, the leftist leader of a traditional U.S. ally, has called the boat attacks “murders,” questioning the disproportionate use of force.

Family says its received threats after allegations

The petition cites as evidence of Carranza’s killing stories from The New York Times and The Washington Post regarding the family’s allegations and statements by U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. It also says the family has received threats since Carranza’s death.

“The victims do not have adequate and effective resources in Colombia to obtain reparations ... moreover, even if such resources existed, the victims could not exercise them safely, given that they have been threatened by right-wing paramilitaries simply for denouncing Mr. Carranza’s murder,” according to the petition, which was first reported by The Guardian.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the complaint.

The attacks have increasingly come under scrutiny after the Washington Post reported that Hegseth issued a verbal order to “kill everybody” on the first boat targeted by the military and an admiral approved a follow-on strike said to have killed two survivors of the initial hit. Hegseth has said the admiral “made the right call” and he “had complete authority to do” so.

Trump on Tuesday said the U.S. would start doing strikes on land soon, though he didn’t specify where and said attacks might occur in countries besides Venezuela, suggesting Colombia.

“You know, the land is much easier, much easier. And we know the routes they take,” Trump said to reporters. “We know everything about them. We know where they live. We know where the bad ones live. And we’re going to start that very soon, too.”

Later, when asked to elaborate, Trump said he was speaking about countries that are manufacturing and selling fentanyl or cocaine. The president said he heard that Colombia is manufacturing cocaine and selling it to the U.S. Colombia is the world’s top cocaine producer.

“Anybody that’s doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack,” Trump said. He added a few moments later, “Not just Venezuela.”

Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela.

In the wake of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the mass removal from the West Coast of “all persons deemed a threat to national security.”

The policy, Executive Order 9066, was incited by widespread anti-Japanese American discrimination and set the stage for mass eviction, evacuation and incarceration of 120,000 first-generation Japanese immigrants, known as Issei, and Nisei, who were U.S. citizens by birthright.

They were penned into camps across desolate regions in California, Arizona, Wyoming and Colorado, among other states.

To add to the degradation, Americans of Japanese descent were initially denied the opportunity to serve their country. That changed, however, in 1944, as the United States — pulled into a world war — needed increasing manpower.

Despite the betrayal by their own country, nearly 33,000 Japanese Americans served in the armed forces, making up the 442nd Regimental Combat Team — a formation that, to this day, remains the most decorated Army combat unit.

The 442nd’s story, including that of Medal of Honor recipient and eventual Hawaii state Senator Daniel Inouye, is known. Less so, however, is the tale of a few hundred Nisei who defied the order to report for military duty.

Dozens were jailed for their actions but ultimately freed either by court order or presidential pardon.

A small group of resistors, led by Frank Emi and Kiyoshi Okamoto at Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, argued that they could not, and would not, serve until the status of their citizenship had been clarified, according to the National Archives.

At first, Emi, like many others, accepted internment.

“Shikata ga nai” — or “it cannot be helped” — was a phrase often bandied about the camp.

However, after several years of scorching summer heat, dust storms and bitter winters, all while under armed guard, the arrival of draft orders in 1944 sent men like Emi and Okamoto to the brink.

“We could either tuck our tails between our legs like a beaten dog or stand up like free men, [imbued] with American ideals, and fight for justice,” Emi told the Los Angeles Times in 1993.

In response, the men began the Fair Play Committee to support the constitutional rights of interned Nisei. The group, made up of several hundred men, refused to serve as soldiers while their families were imprisoned in horse stables and tar paper barracks.

Early questionnaires sent by the U.S. government in 1943 had already drawn the ire of men like Emi, who resented such questions as: “Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?” and “Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack…?”

According to the Los Angeles Times, Emi’s response to both questions was the same.

“Under the present conditions and circumstances, I am unable to answer this question,” he stated.

Emi and his brother, Art, urged other interned Nisei to answer similarly, but were often derided as “no-no boys,” with many fearing this open rebellion would further damage the reputation of Japanese Americans.

Still, some 300 men across 10 camps refused induction — with one in nine Heart Mountain men shunning the order.

“We were very angry and frustrated at the injustice of what the government did to us. For a person raised in the American tradition — not the Japanese tradition of bowing to authority — we felt we had to speak out,” Emi told the Times.

And speak out they did.

“I believe this draft law was not intended for me,” Okamoto wrote in a draft letter. “I was evacuated without due process of law; I am concentrated without due process of law; I was deported from my home state without due process of law; I am detained within barbed wire fences by force of military threat without due process of law; I exist within this militarily guarded enclosure as a Citizen without a Country without due process of law; the whole transaction effecting me is based upon unconstitutional interpretations without due process of law.”

Emi and Okamoto quoted the Constitution and Abraham Lincoln in subsequent bulletins posted around the camp.

The third bulletin, dated March 1, 1944, opened with the words of the Bill of Rights:

“No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor private property be taken for public use without just compensation.” —Article V of the U.S. Bill of Rights.

“Neither slavery nor involuntary solitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” —Article XIII of the U.S. Bill of Rights.

National Archives

The men then ended the bulletin by stating their protest was an act of just civil disobedience due to the denial of their inalienable rights as U.S. citizens:

Thus, the members of the FPC unanimously decided at their last open meeting that until we are restored all our rights, all discriminatory features of the Selective Service abolished, and measures are taken to remedy the past injustices thru Judicial pronouncement or Congressional act, we feel that the present program of drafting us from this concentration camp is unjust, unconstitutional, and against all principles of civilized usage. Therefore, WE MEMBERS OF THE FAIR PLAY COMMITTEE HEREBY REFUSE TO GO TO THE PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OR TO THE INDUCTION IF OR WHEN WE ARE CALLED IN ORDER TO CONTEST THE ISSUE.

National Archives

At the time, only one journalist, James Omura, from the Denver-based outlet Rocky Shimpo, reported on the protests and subsequent arrests.

On June 12, 1944, 63 resisters from Heart Mountain were tried for draft evasion. Twenty-two more would later resist.

At the mass trial, all of the men were convicted and sentenced to three years in federal prison. They were also denied a hearing before the Supreme Court.

In 1945, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the convictions of seven FPC leaders, according to the National Archives. The court ruled their jury improperly ignored civil disobedience as a defense.

Omura, himself a Japanese American, was indicted for conspiracy to counsel draft evasion. He was eventually acquitted under First Amendment rights of the press.

Some of the remaining men were released in 1946, with the rest set free during the Christmas season of 1947, when President Harry Truman signed Proclamation 2762, pardoning 1,523 individuals convicted of violating the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940.

The resistance, however, divided Japanese Americans, with many, especially Nisei World War II veterans, calling it shameful or traitorous.

“I always thought those guys were a bunch of chickens,” veteran George Yoshinaga said in a 1993 interview, adding that if all of the Japanese Americans had refused, most Americans would have called them “disloyal.”

Emi and the other resistors, though, remained steadfast in their beliefs, according to fellow prisoner Yosh Kuromiya.

“[Emi] was quite adamant about it to the very end,” Kuromiya told the Los Angeles Times in 2010. “It was a matter of principle.”

The Pentagon’s watchdog found that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put U.S. personnel and their mission at risk when he used the Signal messaging app to convey sensitive information about a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen, two people familiar with the findings said Wednesday.

Hegseth, however, has the ability to declassify material and the report did not find he did so improperly, according to one of the people familiar with the report’s findings who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the information. CNN first reported the initial findings.

The review by the Pentagon inspector general’s office was delivered to lawmakers, who were able to review the report in a classified facility at the Capitol. A partially redacted version of the report was expected to be released publicly later this week.

The findings ramp up the pressure on the former Fox News Channel host after lawmakers had called for the independent inquiry into his use of the commercially available app. Lawmakers also just opened investigations into a news report that a follow-up strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean Ocean in September killed survivors after Hegseth issued a verbal order to “kill everybody."

Hegseth defended the strike as emerging in the “fog of war,” saying he didn’t see any survivors but also “didn’t stick around” for the rest of the mission and that the admiral in charge “made the right call” in ordering the second strike. He also did not admit fault following the revelations that he discussed sensitive military plans on Signal, asserting that the information was unclassified.

Journalist was added to a chat where sensitive plans were shared

In at least two separate Signal chats, Hegseth provided the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop — before the men and women carrying out those attacks on behalf of the United States were airborne.

Hegseth’s use of the app came to light when a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, was inadvertently added to a Signal text chain by then-national security adviser Mike Waltz. It included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and others, brought together to discuss March 15 military operations against the Iran-backed Houthis.

Hegseth had created another Signal chat with 13 people that included his wife and brother where he shared similar details of the same strike, The Associated Press reported.

Signal is encrypted but is not authorized for carrying classified information and is not part of the Defense Department’s secure communications network.

Hegseth has said none of the information shared in the chats was classified. Multiple current and former military officials told the AP there was no way details with that specificity, especially before a strike took place, would have been OK to share on an unsecured device.

Lawmakers had called for inspector general to investigate

The revelations sparked intense scrutiny, with Democratic lawmakers and a small number of Republicans saying Hegseth posting the information to the Signal chats before the military jets had reached their targets potentially put those pilots’ lives at risk. They said lower-ranking members of the military would have been fired for such a lapse.

The inspector general opened its investigation into Hegseth at the request of the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, and the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

Some veterans and military families also raised concerns, citing the strict security protocols they must follow to protect sensitive information.

It all ties back to the campaign against Yemen’s Houthis

The Houthi rebels had started launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in late 2023 in what their leadership had described as an effort to end Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Their campaign greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The U.S.-led campaign against the Houthis in 2024 turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy had faced since World War II.

A ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war had begun in January before falling apart in March. The U.S. then launched a broad assault against the Houthis that ended weeks later when Trump said they pledged to stop attacking ships. The latest Gaza ceasefire began in October.

Following the disclosure of Hegseth’s Signal chat that included the Atlantic’s editor, the magazine released the entire thread in late March. Hegseth had posted multiple details about an impending strike, using military language and laying out when a “strike window” starts, where a “target terrorist” was located, the time elements around the attack and when various weapons and aircraft would be used in the strike. He mentioned that the U.S. was “currently clean” on operational security.

Hegseth told Fox News Channel in April that what he shared over Signal was “informal, unclassified coordinations, for media coordinations and other things.”

During a congressional hearing in June, Hegseth was pressed multiple times by lawmakers over whether he shared classified information and if he should face accountability if he did.

Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat and Marine veteran, asked Hegseth whether he would hold himself accountable if the inspector general found that he placed classified information on Signal.

Hegseth would not directly say, only noting that he serves “at the pleasure of the president.”

Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

Charles Shay, a decorated Native American veteran who was a 19-year-old U.S. Army medic when he landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day and helped save lives, died on Wednesday. He was 101.

Shay died at his home in Bretteville-L’Orgueilleuse in France’s Normandy region, his longtime friend and carer Marie-Pascale Legrand said.

Shay, of the Penobscot tribe and from Indian Island in the U.S. state of Maine, was awarded the Silver Star for repeatedly plunging into the sea and carrying critically wounded soldiers to relative safety, saving them from drowning. He also received France’s highest award, the Legion of Honor, in 2007.

Shay had been living in France since 2018, not far from the shores of Normandy where nearly 160,000 troops from Britain, the U.S., Canada and other nations landed on D-Day on June 6, 1944. The Battle of Normandy hastened Germany’s defeat, which came less than a year later.

“He passed away peacefully surrounded by his loved ones,” Legrand told The Associated Press.

The Charles Shay Memorial group, which honors the memory of about 500 Native Americans who landed on the Normandy beaches, said in a statement posted on Facebook that “our hearts are deeply saddened as we share that our beloved Charles Norman Shay … has returned home to the Creator and the Spirit World.”

“He was an incredibly loving father, grandfather, father-in-law, and uncle, a hero to many, and an overall amazing human being,” the statement said. “Charles leaves a legacy of love, service, courage, spirit, duty and family that continues to shine brightly.”

Ready to give his life

On D-Day, 4,414 Allied troops lost their lives, 2,501 of them Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded. On the German side, several thousand were killed or wounded.

Shay survived.

“I guess I was prepared to give my life if I had to. Fortunately, I did not have to,” Shay said in a 2024 interview with The Associated Press.

“I had been given a job, and the way I looked at it, it was up to me to complete my job,” he recalled. “I did not have time to worry about my situation of being there and perhaps losing my life. There was no time for this.”

On that night, exhausted, he eventually fell asleep in a grove above the beach.

“When I woke up in the morning. It was like I was sleeping in a graveyard because there were dead Americans and Germans surrounding me,” he recalled. “I stayed there for not very long and I continued on my way.”

Shay then pursued his mission in Normandy for several weeks, rescuing those wounded, before heading with American troops to eastern France and Germany, where he was taken prisoner in March 1945 and liberated a few weeks later.

Spreading a message of peace

After World War II, Shay reenlisted in the military because the situation of Native Americans in his home state of Maine was too precarious due to poverty and discrimination.

Maine would not allow individuals living on Native American reservations to vote until 1954.

Shay continued to witness history — returning to combat as a medic during the Korean War, participating in U.S. nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands and later working at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria.

For over 60 years, he did not talk about his WWII experience.

But he began attending D-Day commemorations in 2007 and in recent years, he has seized many occasions to give his powerful testimony and spread a message of peace.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021, Shay’s lone presence marked commemoration ceremonies as travel restrictions prevented other veterans or families of fallen soldiers from the U.S., Britain and other allied countries from making the trip to France

Sadness at seeing war back in Europe

For years, Shay used to perform a sage-burning ceremony, in homage to those who died, on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach, where the monument bearing his name now stands.

On June 6, 2022, he handed over the remembrance task to another Native American, Julia Kelly, a Gulf War veteran from the Crow tribe. That was just over three months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in what was to become the worst war on the continent since 1945

Shay then expressed his sadness at seeing war back on the continent.

“Ukraine is a very sad situation. I feel sorry for the people there and I don’t know why this war had to come,” he said. “In 1944, I landed on these beaches and we thought we’d bring peace to the world. But it’s not possible.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs last month scrapped a $77 million leftover green energy program from the Biden administration that would have put solar-powered charging stations for electric vehicles at VA medical centers and other facilities.

In a Nov. 19 release, the VA made clear its opposition to federal funding for green energy programs in general and charging stations in particular, although the Trump administration in August was forced under court order to release up to $5 billion approved by Congress for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, or NEVI, program to build a nationwide network of charging stations along major highways.

“In Joe Biden’s VA, the department was distracted by woke social-justice programs and green-energy boondoggles, but those days are long gone,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a VA release. “VA exists to serve veterans, and we’re making sure all of our resources go toward that noble purpose.”

The VA has yet to decide how all of the $77 million will be redirected, but Collins said that three projects have already been targeted, beginning with $10 million for upgrading VA’s Friendship House residence in Oklahoma City; $21.3 million for the MRI ward at the Providence, Rhode Island VA Medical Center; and $13.8 million to upgrade the radiation oncology unit at the G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VAMC in Jackson, Mississippi.

The move to scrap the charging stations brought the VA more in line with President Donald Trump’s long-held claims that green energy programs are a wasteful concessions to climate change alarmists. He has consistently maintained that clean energy sources, such as solar and wind, cost more and don’t work as well as fossil fuel options.

Shortly after taking office last January, Trump issued an executive order — “Unleashing American Energy” — rejecting what he called former President Joe Biden’s “preposterous” emphasis on electric vehicles and calling for the elimination of regulations favoring electric vehicles over gas-powered trucks and cars.

Despite Trump’s stance, all branches of the military maintain long-standing clean energy programs, including the Army’s plan to field a fleet of non-tactical, all-electric vehicles by 2035 and efforts to put solar-powered charging stations on bases.

In a February 2023 release by the Fort Hood Army base in Texas, Kristina Manning, then-Real Property Planning Division chief at the Fort Hood Directorate of Public Works, noted, “Like many things, Fort Hood is on the cutting edge for the Army on the fielding of EV and charging stations.

“Providing charging stations for personal use supports our People First stance and contributes to the quality of life for our soldiers and families by having charging options available for EV owners,” Manning said. “These charging stations are free because they are solar and do not use any electricity from the grid.”

In the ongoing battle over climate change initiatives, Trump used the world stage in September to double down on his views that environmentalists have it all wrong.

“This climate change. It’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion,” Trump said in an address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong. They were made by stupid people that have cost their countries fortunes and given those same countries no chance for success. If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.”

But at a White House Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump insisted that he was not opposed to electric vehicles, but rather “insane” mandates for the public to buy them.

“I like electric cars, I like all cars,” Trump said, adding that the public should have the option to buy gas-powered vehicles.

Still, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in August begrudgingly said that federal funding would resume for the NEVI program initiated by the Biden administration.

“If Congress is requiring the federal government to support charging stations, let’s cut the waste and do it right,” Duffy said in a release.

Duffy claimed that the Biden administration failed to deliver EV chargers as promised, but “Our revised NEVI guidance slashes red tape and makes it easier for states to efficiently build out this infrastructure.”

“While I don’t agree with subsidizing green energy, we will respect Congress’ will and make sure this program uses federal resources efficiently,” he said.

Citing a nationwide shortage of pennies, some stores have started rounding purchases up — or down — to the nearest nickel.

Other stores, including military shops, acknowledge that at some point they’re going to run out of pennies and have made plans to address it. For now, military customers may want to empty those piggy banks before heading out to pay cash for holiday shopping.

Beginning Jan. 1 — or sooner if penny supplies run out — cashiers at Army and Air Force Exchange Service stores will round cash purchases up or down to the nearest nickel or dime, according to AAFES spokeswoman Julie Mitchell.

Navy Exchanges will also begin rounding up or down when their registers are out of pennies, according to Navy Exchange Service Command spokeswoman Kristine Sturkie.

The moves come on the heels of penny production being stopped after 232 years. The United States Mint struck its final penny on Nov. 12.

In February, President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. Mint to stop producing pennies, citing cost savings. Over the past decade, the cost of producing each 1-cent coin has risen from 1.42 cents to 3.69 cents, according to the U.S. Mint. Fewer people are using cash for purchases, and some have advocated for the retirement of the 1-cent coin for years.

With that change, banks are no longer able to order the coin, and merchants in multiple regions of the country have run out, according to the Associated Press.

The penny is still legal tender, meanwhile, and there are an estimated 300 billion of them in circulation, far exceeding the amount needed for commerce, according to the U.S. Mint.

Here’s what to expect:

This change will not impact overseas military exchanges, where cashiers have already been rounding up or down for cash purchases for years. AAFES stores overseas have been rounding since 1980.

AAFES: If the last digit of the purchase is 3, 4, 6 or 7, the purchase will be rounded to the nearest nickel. If the last digit of the total purchase ends in 1, 2, 8 or 9, the total purchase will be rounded to the nearest dime, according to AAFES’ Mitchell.

Navy Exchanges: If the change due ends in 1, 2, 6 or 7, it will be rounded down to the nearest 5 cents. If the change ends in 3, 4, 8 or 9, it will be rounded up.

These rounding policies only apply to cash transactions and don’t affect credit, debit or gift card purchases. Those customers still pay the exact price.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at a White House Cabinet meeting Tuesday he was unaware a September U.S. military strike against an alleged drug-carrying vessel in the Caribbean left survivors, who were killed in a subsequent strike.

The statement came several days after a Washington Post story said Hegseth had reportedly ordered Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley and the SEAL Team 6 he oversaw to kill everybody aboard the vessel and leave no survivors. The report said that an initial strike against the vessel on Sept. 2 left two survivors clinging to their vessel’s wreckage, but that a second strike ordered afterward killed them.

Former JAGs and senior lawmakers have said such actions would constitute war crimes, if the report is true.

“I did not personally see survivors,” Hegseth said. “The thing was on fire, it was exploded, in fire, in smoke, you can’t see anything, you got digital — this is called the fog of war. This is what you in the press don’t understand. You sit in your air-conditioned offices or up on Capitol Hill and you nitpick and you plant fake stories.”

During a Sept. 3 Fox News interview, Hegseth said he had watched the Sept. 2 strike live. It was the first strike against alleged drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that the Trump administration has said are part of counternarcotics efforts.

But speaking to reporters at the White House Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Hegseth said he had watched the first strike live and then left for his next meeting.

It was only a couple of hours later, Hegseth said, that he learned Bradley had made “the correct decision” to sink the boat and eliminate the threat.

Since The Washington Post broke its story, the White House and defense secretary have repeatedly used language placing the onus of responsibility for the follow-up strike on Bradley.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that Bradley had ordered the second strike and had acted “within his authority and the law” when he did so.

“Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since,” Hegseth wrote on X.

The New York Times published a conflicting report that said Hegseth ordered a strike but not the killing of survivors.

Specifically, the New York Times report said five officials the newspaper spoke with said Hegseth did not detail what should happen in the event of survivors and that the order he gave was not in response to any surveillance footage depicting survivors.

President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that he did not know about the second strike, but would not have wanted one.

When asked again during the Cabinet meeting about the second strike, Trump said neither he nor Hegseth knew about the second strike.

“As far as the attack is concerned, I didn’t, you know, I still haven’t gotten a lot of information because I rely on Pete,” Trump told reporters.

“They had a strike, I hear the gentleman that was in charge of that is extraordinary, extraordinary person — I’ll let Pete speak about him — but Pete was satisfied. Pete didn’t know about a second attack having to do with two people,” he said.

The U.S. Marine Corps activated three new companies last month as part of the service’s Force Design 2030 recalibration toward agile logistics across the contested island chains of the Indo-Pacific.

Combat Logistics Battalion 4 officially stood up its Headquarters, Alpha and General Service companies during a Nov. 14 ceremony aboard Camp Schwab, Japan, the Marine Corps announced. A fourth combat logistics company, Bravo, is expected to be added in the near future.

The activation of the new formations is geared toward the Marine Corps commandant’s emphasis on building out mobile logistics capable of quickly equipping units across the Indo-Pacific, CLB-4 commanding officer Lt. Col Nathan Green said in a service release.

“This is about outpacing our adversaries in a rapidly evolving operating environment,” Green said, adding that the nature of the theater often warrants quickly adapting.

“If we have to change again, we’ll change again,” Green said.

Commandant Gen. Eric Smith published an update to Force Design 2030 in early October, highlighting the service’s push to make faster decisions and alter course when needed.

“We are modernizing at a time when the character of war is shifting rapidly,” Smith wrote in a preface to the 24-page document. “Adversaries are fielding advanced weapons and employing new methods designed to erode our warfighting advantages. Drones, long-range precision fires, cyber effects and electronic warfare are now daily features of conflict. The lessons drawn from contemporary battlefields underscore what Marines have long understood: combat is unforgiving, and victory belongs to the side that adapts faster, fights harder and endures longer.”

CLB-4 training exercises and joint operations will further impact how the new companies evolve for future fights, Green noted, adding that keeping the Japan-based 4th Marine Regiment and naval expeditionary elements well-equipped in the Indo-Pacific theater will anchor those moves.

As part of the original Force Design 2030, the 4th Marine Regiment was slated to be converted to a Marine littoral regiment based out of Guam.

The most recent program update unveiled by the commandant backtracked on that, however, with the document stating that the regiment “will be retained in III [Marine Expeditionary Force] as a reinforced Marine Infantry Regiment, preserving its core mission while preparing to respond to potential crisis and conflict.”

A Marine Corps spokesman, Lt. Col. Eric Flanagan, told Marine Corps Times that this shift was driven by threat assessments.

“This decision to retain 4th Marine Regiment is informed by recent wargames and analysis which address the growing threat posed by competitors in the Indo-Pacific and, together with other forces in the region, postures the Marine Corps to decisively respond to regional threats, provide integrated deterrence alongside allies and partners, and address emergent crises,” Flanagan said.

“Our current priorities are focused on ensuring that our existing infantry regiments and purpose-built MLRs are equipped and trained to meet the demands of the evolving security environment.”

A man accused of shooting two National Guard troops near the White House pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to murder and assault charges during his first appearance before a judge via video from a hospital bed.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who was also shot, faces charges stemming from the Nov. 26 shooting that killed Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and wounded Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24. His attorney entered a not guilty plea on his behalf during a brief court hearing in Washington, D.C.

Beckstrom and Wolfe were deployed with the West Virginia National Guard for President Donald Trump’s law-enforcement surge in the nation’s capital, which has flooded the city with federal agents and troops since August.

Communities honor West Virginia National Guard members shot in DC

Authorities were investigating a possible motive for what they described as an ambush-style attack.

A prosecutor, Ariel Dean, described the shooting as a “shocking crime” and said it appears that Lakanwal “traversed the city to some extent” before approaching the troops and shooting them.

The magistrate judge ordered him detained, citing the “sheer terror that resulted” from Lakanwal’s actions.

The rare shooting of National Guard members on American soil came amid court fights and a broader public policy debate about the Trump administration’s use of the military to combat what officials cast as an out-of-control crime problem.

Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration program that resettled Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal from the country, officials said. Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration, but his asylum was approved under the Trump administration, #AfghanEvac said in a statement.

Trump called the shooting a “terrorist attack” and criticized the Biden administration for enabling Afghans who worked with U.S. forces during the Afghanistan War to enter the U.S. The president has said he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and expel millions of immigrants from the country.

A group of former military lawyers issued a memo Saturday condemning Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for allegedly ordering a special operations commander and military personnel to kill everybody aboard an alleged drug-carrying vessel on Sept. 2.

The memo from the Former JAGs Working Group came after The Washington Post reported Friday that Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, who led Joint Special Operations Command at the time, ordered SEAL Team 6 to fire a second strike after the initial strike left two individuals clinging to the wreckage, in compliance with Hegseth’s directive.

It was the first strike in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility as part of what the Pentagon has called counternarcotics efforts.

The survivors were killed as a result of the follow-up strike.

“The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both,” the memo reads.

The group was created in February after Hegseth fired Army JAG Lt. Gen. Joseph B. Berger III and Air Force JAG Lt. Gen. Charles Plummer for not being “well-suited” to provide recommendations when lawful orders were given.

The Former JAGS Working Group argues in its memo that these actions eroded the military’s legal framework to prevent war crimes like the Sept. 2 strike they consider unlawful from happening.

If the U.S. military is engaged in a “non-international armed conflict,” as the Trump administration has stated, orders to “kill everybody” that result in the killing of survivors is illegal under international law, the memo states.

A list of US military strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels

Conversely, if the U.S. is not in an armed conflict, orders to kill the survivors of a U.S. military strike would open up everyone from Hegseth to the “individuals who pulled the trigger to prosecution under U.S. law for murder,” according to the memo.

The group of former JAGs asked Congress to investigate the use of lethal force against individuals who could not fight back as a result of their injuries or as a result of their vessel being incapacitated.

“Since orders to kill survivors of an attack at sea are ‘patently illegal,’ anyone who issues or follows such orders can and should be prosecuted for war crimes, murder, or both,” the memo read.

The survivors should have been treated as prisoners of war after finding themselves defenseless, the former JAGs argue.

The coalition of lawyers cite a section of the Geneva Conventions to support their contention that Hegseth’s orders and those who followed them are punishable by law.

During a non-international armed conflict, those who are out of the fight because of wounds or other circumstances cannot be targeted through acts of violence or murder, according to Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.

These sorts of war crimes are punishable by U.S. and international courts, the memo says.

It is also strictly forbidden, according to the 1907 Hague Convention, to “declare that no quarter will be given” or that no mercy will be offered to a defeated adversary.

Hegseth, according to The Washington Post, gave a verbal directive to leave no survivors.

The Post also claimed that JSOC apparently said in briefing materials handed over to the White House that the follow-up strikes were conducted to sink the alleged drug-carrying vessel and prevent a navigational danger to other vessels, not to kill remaining survivors.

The same explanation was offered to lawmakers in two closed-door briefings, The Washington Post reported.

President Donald Trump said Sunday he had “great confidence” in Hegseth after he told Trump the report was false, according to The Washington Post.

But Trump said he would look into it.

“I wouldn’t have wanted that,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “Not a second strike. The first strike was very lethal. It was fine.”

But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that Bradley acted “within his authority and the law” when he ordered the follow-up strike that killed the survivors.

Hegseth published a lengthy rebuttal to the Post’s report on his X account, calling it “fake news.”

He said each strike’s intent was to halt the flow of drugs into the U.S. and that every alleged trafficker killed was affiliated with a designated terrorist organization. He blamed the Biden administration for allowing millions of cartel members and unvetted Afghans to bring drugs and violence into communities, according to his X post.

“Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command,” the post read.

As of Nov. 17, the Trump administration has disclosed 21 strikes, killing at least 82 people.

A class-action lawsuit brought by military service members against Southwest Airlines has resulted in a landmark settlement that will see the airline provide short-term military leave for workers starting next year.

Southwest has agreed to provide up to 10 days of short-term military leave and to pay $18.5 million in compensation to nearly 2,800 former and current employees who alleged that their rights as service members under the Uniformed Services and Reemployment Rights Act were being violated. The agreement requires court approval.

“This agreement with Southwest Airlines marks a major inflection point in terms of how employers think about paid military leave,” Michael Scimone, a partner at Outten and Golden and co-lead counsel for the class, said in a statement. “We hope it sends a powerful message to the rest of the airline industry that paid short-term military leave is in everyone’s best interest.”

The lead plaintiff, Jayson Huntsman, has been pursuing the case against Southwest since 2019. He stayed in the fight despite difficult moments because of the benefits that a victory would bring for other service members, he told Military Times in an interview.

“What kept me going was knowing that if we succeeded, thousands of my peers would benefit. There were definitely tough moments,” Huntsman said. “The case took years, and at times it was difficult to stay silent while hearing comments about the lawsuit, personal attacks for bringing the case, and remarks about service members in general. I kept my composure because I knew what was at stake. Having support from many of my peers kept my head above water.”

Short-term military leave would benefit Reserve and National Guard members struggling to financially stay afloat while serving, Huntsman said.

“The idea of ‘one weekend a month and two weeks a year’ hasn’t reflected Reserve or Guard time requirements for many years,” he said. “This settlement means service members won’t have to face as much financial stress when called to serve.”

He believes it will pave the way for other airlines to begin providing benefits to meet the needs of military service members.

“It’s the largest USERRA class settlement to date and includes a groundbreaking paid-leave policy,” Huntsman said. “Beyond airlines, I think this case will help civilian employers across the country understand that service members are often required to receive the same benefits as other employees.”

Not many service members realize to what extent USERRA offers them legal protections at work, Huntsman told Military Times. He hopes that, although the agreement is pending finalization from a court, the broader military community will become aware of what resources are available to them and get more familiar with their rights.

“No one should ever feel guilty about serving their country. For those facing challenges at work, there are resources available. Start with your military leadership,” he said. “Personally, I’m proud that this case will make life a little easier for those who come after us.

“This was never about recognition. It was about fairness, respect, and making sure every service member has one less thing to worry about when they put on the uniform.”

In the austere desert or island outpost of the future, the U.S. Marine Corps wants its aircraft to land on a functioning airfield 90 minutes after the required equipment is flown in via an MV-22 Osprey or CH-53 King Stallion.

That’s the vision behind the Expeditionary Precision Approach Landing Capability (EPALC) it’s looking to acquire. In a new request for information published Monday, Naval Air Systems Command is asking industry for details about available flight line navigation systems that would allow the Corps to land any of its aircraft, manned or unmanned, in all weather conditions.

According to the solicitation, the navigation system must fit inside an MV-22, CH-53, or C-130 transport and take a four-person team no more than 90 minutes to set up. It has to be able to provide precision approach guidance to aircraft during bad weather that limits visibility to half a mile, and have an operating range of 20 nautical miles. The gear has to be rugged, according to specifications, with “environmentally hardened” features capable of operating in temperatures ranging from -20 to 145 degrees Fahrenheit and at humidity levels of 85%.

The requirements all align with Marine Corps “Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations,” a forward-looking operating concept the Corps has developed over the last decade that emphasizes dispersed operations with self-sufficient small units in the littorals, or coastal regions.

EABO “involves the employment of mobile, low-signature, operationally relevant, and relatively easy to maintain and sustain naval expeditionary forces from a series of austere, temporary locations ashore or inshore within a contested or potentially contested maritime area in order to conduct sea denial, support sea control, or enable fleet sustainment,” according to a description published by the service in 2021.

The idea of operating in contested areas also informs security requirements, which include a friend-or-foe identification system, resistance to jamming or spoofing, and the ability to operate silently and with minimal detectable signature.

The new capability described in the RFI parallels the ship-based Joint Precision Approach and Landing (JPALS) system that has revolutionized aircraft carrier landings by providing GPS-based guidance in to the flight deck, taking much of the guesswork (and terror) out of catching the wire, particularly at night or in low-visibility weather conditions.

That’s no coincidence. JPALS is made by RTX-owned Collins Aerospace, which also has developed the land-based expeditionary Joint Precision Approach Landing System (eJPALS), built for rapid deployment and “full functionality within just 90 minutes,” according to the company.

Collins’ “land-based eJPALS and ship-based JPALS systems complement each other seamlessly, working in conjunction with the JPALS airborne software and providing pilots with familiar instrumentation,” an eJPALS fact sheet states. It adds that the system can come with an optional surveillance feature to support air traffic control.

The Marine Corps has already had an opportunity to test out a version of eJPALS. In 2021, the system was quietly shipped to Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, for a three-week demo involving 50 landings, including the vertical approaches performed by the service’s F-35B Joint Strike Fighters, according to a report from Breaking Defense.

An executive told the outlet at the time that the Marine Corps was “looking at ways of incorporating [eJPALS] into the next budget request.”

The company has also pitched eJPALS to the U.S Air Force.

The new RFI, which will “allow NAVAIR to conduct and identify possible sources in the commercial marketplace capable of providing Expeditionary Precision Approach Landing Capability,” according to the solicitation, represents an early step toward actually investing and fielding the technology. Interested companies have until Jan. 16 to respond with descriptions of tech that matches NAVAIR’s requirements.

An Air Force veteran whose interest in international affairs was kindled by supporting the urgent U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 is now one of fewer than three dozen Americans to be named a Rhodes scholar for 2026.

Hadi Kamara, who separated from the Air Force in 2022 and is now a senior at Princeton University, highlighted his military work in his application for the Oxford, UK-based Rhodes Scholarship, which is awarded to about 100 students annually and boasts an acceptance rate of less than 5%.

Kamara, 25, had been a C-130 crew chief supporting the 86th Maintenance Squadron at Ramstein Air Base, in August 2021 when word came down that the Germany-based outpost would be receiving thousands of troops and Afghan nationals amid a hasty evacuation.

“I don’t think I appreciated just the scale of it,” Kamara told Military Times in a November interview. “Basically, we were clearing out the entire flight line [at Ramstein] to transform it into an empty space so we can start creating these long term stay tents, because we’re going to be the base that absorbs the vast majority of the evacuees from Afghanistan.”

For Kamara, the work, and witnessing the professionalism of service members to his right and left adapt to the situation and work to meet evacuees’ physical and medical needs, procuring food and flexing to other demands, regardless of job specialty, represented something of an inflection point.

Until that moment, his assignments had largely been domestic. But after supporting Operation Allies Refuge and the withdrawal, Kamara’s base became focused on another global crisis: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war that ensued.

“As Americans, we can tend to be a bit insulated from the rest of the world, just given our distance you know — we’re surrounded by oceans on both sides,” he said. “But being in Europe, being in Germany at the time of these operations, really made this real for me, and seeing the effects that it had on human beings on the ground made it real for me. And so it became something that I became deeply intrigued by and wanted to learn more about.”

As a high school student in Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., Kamara had never pictured himself earning a globally coveted scholarship. A first-generation American whose mother came to the U.S. from Sierra Leone, Kamara was by his own admission an unimpressive student. But, he said, it wasn’t that he couldn’t do the work.

“I didn’t have discipline,” he said. “I just was not willing to dedicate my time, my energy and my focus to succeeding academically. But I was privileged in the sense that I always had a very robust network of people to support me.”

A turning point came for Kamara when he joined the Alexandria-based group The Untouchables, a mentorship organization with a presence at his high school, T.C. Williams. The school, made famous by the 2000 Denzel Washington blockbuster “Remember the Titans,” has since been renamed Alexandria City High. Mentors in the Untouchables helped focus his thinking about his future, resulting in the realization that the military would help him develop the discipline he sought.

“Call me biased, but I do believe that in the civilian world, the Air Force has probably the best reputation when it comes to specifically education,” Kamara said. “People joke, you know, [about] the ‘Chair Force,’ or the nerd branch, right? But — given that I was somebody who was really trying to better myself intellectually and academically — that reputation was actually something that I was drawn to.”

He opted for an aircraft maintenance specialist job pipeline out of a desire to gain exposure to work he hadn’t encountered before, including manual labor. He ended up with C-130 transport aircraft, another step that he believed would further his academic and career goals.

“Even before I joined the military, I always had a kind of inclination toward the international community,” Kamara said. “C-130s… we have locations everywhere, both domestically and internationally, and so being a C-130 crew chief also just gave me access to the most locations to be stationed.”

As Kamara wrapped up his final year in the Air Force at Ramstein, he turned his attention to education, first enrolling in Northern Virginia Community College and then transferring to Princeton. He “made a point” he said of making his experience at Princeton as focused on international relations as possible, making two trips to Kenya, learning Swahili and becoming immersed in East African politics. He also spent semesters abroad at the University of Sydney in Australia and at Oxford.

Princeton’s transfer program, he said, brought the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to his attention, and by then, he had a clear vision for how he’d want to use it: to pursue a Master’s of Philosophy in international relations, focused on U.S.-Africa policy.

“Africa tends to be — it’s not a space of U.S. foreign policy that receives, in my opinion, adequate attention,” Kamara said. “You have in the region, on the continent, one of the youngest populations in the world... it’s going to end up making up a very large share of the world’s population. The African continent is very much at the heart of a lot of geopolitical incidents or engagements taking place right now.”

He cited the expansion of Russian influence on the continent and global competition for resources and questions about sustainability.

“There just don’t seem to be conversations that are taking place the way that I believe that they should, in U.S. academic spaces or in policy spaces,” he said. “And so if I can use some of my research to answer these questions and fill these gaps, I think it would be a good thing for me to do with my time as a student at Oxford.”

Kamara’s advice to other troops seeking a path after service was emphatic: Take advantage of the educational resources and benefits the military has to offer. Even for those who might not see a traditional college experience in their future, he said, tuition assistance can cover certification programs that will build a bridge to civilian work.

“I’d say my biggest thing that I’ve learned up to this point with my journey is that you never self-select, whether it’s in or out of the military,” Kamara added. “If there’s a promotion or a particular job that you’re looking at going for, go for it. If you’re thinking about transitioning out of the military, and you’re not too sure about whether or not you will succeed in the civilian world, plan adequately. I want to emphasize this: Plan adequately. But once you’ve made that plan, have faith in yourself.”

The Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard members blocks from the White House had been unraveling for years, unable to hold a job and flipping between long, lightless stretches of isolation and taking sudden weekslong cross-country drives. Rahmanullah Lakanwal’s behavior deteriorated so sharply that a community advocate reached out to a refugee organization for help, fearing he was becoming suicidal.

Emails obtained by The Associated Press reveal mounting warnings about the asylum-seeker whose erratic conduct raised alarms long before the attack that jolted the nation’s capital on Wednesday, the eve of Thanksgiving. The previously unreported concerns offer the clearest picture yet of how he was struggling in his new life in the United States.

Even so, when the community member who works with Afghan families in Washington state saw on the news that Lakanwal was named as the suspect in the attack, they said they were stunned, unable to square the violence with the memory of seeing Lakanwal play with his young sons. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to share undisclosed details while cooperating with the FBI in its investigation.

West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed in the shooting, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, was critically wounded. Lakanwal, 29, has been charged with first-degree murder.

In Afghanistan, Lakanwal worked in a special Afghan Army unit known as a Zero Unit. The units were backed by the CIA. He entered the United States in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a program that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the American withdrawal. Many had worked alongside U.S. troops and diplomats.

As investigators work to determine a motive, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that officials “believe he was radicalized since he’s been here in this country. We do believe it was through connections in his home community and state and we’re going to continue to talk to those who interacted with him, who were his family members.” She offered no additional information to support her statement.

Lakanwal resettled with his wife and their five sons, all under the age of 12, in Bellingham, Washington, but struggled, according to the community member, who shared emails that had been sent to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nonprofit group that provides services to refugees.

“Rahmanullah has not been functional as a person, father and provider since March of last year, 03/2023. He quit his job that month, and his behavior has changed greatly,” the person wrote in a January 2024 email.

The emails described a man who was struggling to assimilate, unable to hold a steady job or commit to his English courses while he alternated between “periods of dark isolation and reckless travel.” Sometimes, he spent weeks in his “darkened room, not speaking to anyone, not even his wife or older kids.” At one point in 2023, the family faced eviction after months of not paying rent.

The community member, in an interview, spoke of becoming worried that Lakanwal was so depressed that he would end up harming himself. But the community member did not see any indication that Lakanwal would commit violence against another person.

Lakanwal’s family members often resorted to sending his toddler sons into his room to bring him the phone or messages because he would not respond to anyone else, one email stated. A couple of times, when his wife left him with the kids for a week to travel to visit relatives, the children would not be bathed, their clothes would not be changed, and they would not eat well. Their school raised concerns about the situation.

But then, there were “interim” weeks where Lakanwal would try to make amends and “do the right things,” according to the email, reengaging with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services as was mandated by the terms of his entry into the U.S.

“But that has quickly evolved into ‘manic’ episodes for one or two weeks at a time, where he will take off in the family car, and drive nonstop,” the email outlined. Once, he went to Chicago, and another time, to Arizona.

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia, said this past week that Lakanwal drove across the country from Bellingham, which is about 80 miles north of Seattle, to the nation’s capital.

In response to the two emails, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants or USCRI, visited Bellingham a few weeks later in March 2024 and attempted to make contact with Lakanwal and his family, according to the community member, who, after not receiving any updates, was left with the impression that Lakanwal refused their assistance.

A request for comment and clarification from USCRI was not immediately returned.

West Virginia communities and officials were honoring two members of the state’s National Guard who were shot in Washington this week, lauding their dedication to serving their country.

U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died, and U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains hospitalized after Wednesday afternoon’s shooting. West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Friday that Wolfe remains in “very critical condition.”

Both were described as selfless and dedicated, and had been deployed to Washington as part of a initiative to bolster public safety in the nation’s capital.

The governor issued a proclamation requesting that all West Virginians observe a statewide moment of silence or prayer on Friday afternoon to honor Wolfe and Beckstrom. Morrisey ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in recognition of Beckstrom’s death.

“These two West Virginia heroes were serving our country and protecting our nation’s capital when they were maliciously attacked,” Morrisey said. “Their courage and commitment to duty represent the very best of our state.”

At a Thanksgiving night vigil at a wall honoring veterans in Webster Springs, West Virginia, a few dozen bundled up people gathered not long after the news came out of Beckstrom’s death.

She graduated with honors from Webster County High School in 2023 and joined the National Guard several weeks later. Beckstrom served with distinction as a military police officer with the 863rd Military Police Company, the West Virginia National Guard said in a statement.

“She exemplified leadership, dedication and professionalism,” the statement said, adding that Beckstrom “volunteered to serve as part of Operation D.C. Safe and Beautiful, helping to ensure the safety and security of our nation’s capital.”

Beckstrom’s father posted on Facebook it was a horrible tragedy.

“My baby girl has passed to glory,” he wrote Thursday night.

President Donald Trump called Beckstrom an “incredible person, outstanding in every single way.”

One friend and classmate remembered her surprise at how someone remembered as a “girly girl” ended up wearing camouflage and training with a weapon. But they said it was all part of Beckstrom’s big heart and desire to help others. Beckstrom had been in Washington with her unit since August.

Her former boyfriend, Adam Carr, told The New York Times she wasn’t initially excited about her deployment but grew to enjoy helping people and getting the chance to see memorials and museums.

“As long as she was with people who cared about her, she was having a good time,” Carr told the newspaper.

After high school, Beckstrom ended up in Summersville, where she was a community engagement specialist with a clinic that provides services for teens and young adults with mental illnesses, substance abuse problems or developmental disabilities, Summersville Mayor Robert Shafer said in a statement on Facebook.

Summersville planned a candlelight vigil for her Saturday, Shafer said.

The Berkeley County Sheriff Rob Blair said in a social media post that Sgt. Jason Wolfe and his wife, Melody, wanted the public to know how much they appreciate their prayers for their son, Andy, and asked people to continue to pray for them.

Wolfe, who serves with the 167th Force Support Squadron, has worked as a lineman with Frontier Communications since early 2023, the company said Friday.

“He is a valuable member of our team, working hard to bring high-speed fiber internet to homes and businesses so everyone can stay connected to essential services and fully participate in the digital economy,” the company said in a statement. “We’re grateful for Andrew’s dedication — to our nation, to West Virginia and to the communities he helps keep connected.”

Berkeley County schools confirmed that Wolfe graduated from Musselman High School in 2019. Principal Alicia Riggleman said during his time at the school, Wolfe was an engaged and high-achieving student “who embodied the Applemen spirit, contributing positively to our school community both academically and athletically.”

President Donald Trump said that one of the two West Virginia National Guard members shot by an Afghan national near the White House had died, calling the suspect, who had worked with the CIA in his native country, a “savage monster.”

As part of a Thanksgiving call with U.S. troops, Trump announced that he had just learned that Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, had died, while Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, was “fighting for his life.”

“She’s just passed away,” Trump said. “She’s no longer with us. She’s looking down at us right now. Her parents are with her.”

The president called Beckstrom an “incredible person, outstanding in every single way.” The White House said he spoke to her parents after his remarks.

Trump used the announcement to say the shooting was a “terrorist attack” and criticized the Biden administration for enabling Afghans who worked with U.S. forces during the Afghanistan War to enter the U.S. The president has deployed National Guard members in part to assist in his administration’s mass deportation efforts.

Trump brandished a print-out of a news photo of Afghan evacuees sitting on the floor of a military plane during the chaotic evacuation from Kabul in 2021 during his remarks. He suggested that the shooter was mentally unstable after the war and departure from Afghanistan.

“He went cuckoo. I mean, he went nuts,” the president said. “It happens too often with these people.”

The shooter worked with U.S. forces in Afghanistan

The suspect charged with the shooting is Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29. The suspect had worked in a special CIA-backed Afghan Army unit before emigrating from Afghanistan, according to two sources who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, and #AfghanEvac, a group that helps resettle Afghans who assisted the U.S. during the two-decade war.

Trump blamed the asylum process in which Afghans who worked with U.S. forces arrived by plane for being ineffective and failing to ensure people were properly vetted.

“We have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remain in our country,” Trump said. ”For the most part, we don’t want them.”

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, declined to provide a motive for Wednesday afternoon’s brazen act of violence which occurred just blocks from the White House. The presence of troops in the nation’s capital and other cities around the country has become a political flashpoint.

Pirro said that the suspect launched an “ambush-style” attack with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver. As of Thursday morning, the suspect faced charges of assault with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, but Pirro suggested the charges would be upgraded if one of the National Guard members died, as happened later on Thursday.

The rare shooting of National Guard members on American soil comes amid court fights and a broader public policy debate about the Trump administration’s use of the military to combat what officials cast as an out-of-control crime problem.

Trump issued an emergency order in August that federalized the D.C. police force and sent in National Guard troops. The order expired a month later. But the troops have remained in the city, where nearly 2,200 troops currently are assigned, according to the government’s latest update.

The guard members have patrolled neighborhoods, train stations and other locations, participated in highway checkpoints and been assigned to pick up trash and guard sports events. The Trump administration quickly ordered 500 more National Guard members to Washington following Wednesday’s shooting.

The suspect also was shot and had wounds that were not believed to be life-threatening, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

Shooting raises questions about legacy of Afghanistan War

A resident of the eastern Afghan province of Khost who identified himself as Lakanwal’s cousin said Lakanwal was originally from the province and that he and his brother had worked in a special Afghan Army unit known as Zero Units in the southern province of Kandahar.

A former official from the unit, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said Lakanwal was a team leader and his brother was a platoon leader.

The cousin spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. He said Lakanwal had started out working as a security guard for the unit in 2012, and was later promoted to become a team leader and a GPS specialist.

Kandahar is in the Taliban heartland of the country. It saw fierce fighting between the Taliban and NATO forces after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 following the al-Qaida attacks on Sept. 11. The CIA relied on Afghan staff for translation, administrative and front-line fighting with their own paramilitary officers in the war.

Zero Units were paramilitary units manned by Afghans but backed by the CIA and also served in front-line fighting with CIA paramilitary officers.

Activists had attributed abuses to the units. They played a key role in the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from the country, providing security around Kabul International Airport as the Americans and withdrew from the country.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement that Lakanwal’s relationship with the U.S. government “ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation” of U.S. servicemembers from Afghanistan.

Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration program that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal from the country, officials said. Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration, but his asylum was approved under the Trump administration, #AfghanEvac said in a statement.

The initiative brought roughly 76,000 people to the U.S., many of whom had worked alongside U.S. troops and diplomats as interpreters and translators. It has since faced intense scrutiny from Trump and others over allegations of gaps in the vetting process, even as advocates say there was extensive vetting and the program offered a lifeline to people at risk of Taliban reprisals.

Lakanwal has been living in Bellingham, Washington, about 79 miles (127 kilometers) north of Seattle, with his wife and five children, said his former landlord, Kristina Widman.

On Wednesday night, Trump called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who had entered under the Biden administration. The director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Joseph Edlow said in a statement that the agency would take additional steps to screen people from 19 “high-risk” countries “to the maximum degree possible.”

Edlow didn’t name the countries. But in June, the administration banned travel to the U.S. by citizens of 12 countries and restricted access from seven others, citing national security concerns.

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said at a Thursday news briefing that the National Guard members shot were Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24.

The guard members were hospitalized in critical condition after Wednesday afternoon’s shooting.

Pirro said that the suspect, 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, drove across the country from Washington state to launch an “ambush-style” attack with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver.

The shooting happened roughly two blocks northwest of the White House near a metro station.

At least one of the guard members exchanged gunfire with the shooter, said one law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The suspect, who was in custody, was also shot and had wounds that were not believed to be life-threatening.

Hearing gunfire, other troops in the area ran over and held down the gunman after he was shot, according to Jeffery Carroll, an executive assistant D.C. police chief.

“It appears to be a lone gunman that raised a firearm and ambushed these members of the National Guard,” Carroll said, adding that it was not clear whether one of the guard members or a law enforcement officer shot the suspect.

“At this point, we have no other suspects,” Carroll said at a news conference.

Social media video shared in the immediate aftermath showed first responders performing CPR on one of the troops and treating the other on a sidewalk covered in broken glass.

The suspect currently faces charges of assault with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. Pirro said that “it’s too soon to say” what the suspect’s motives were.

The charges could be upgraded, Pirro said, adding, “We are praying that they survive and that the highest charge will not have to be murder in the first degree. But make no mistake, if they do not, that will certainly be the charge.”

The rare shooting of National Guard members on American soil, on the day before Thanksgiving, comes amid court fights and a broader public policy debate about the Trump administration’s use of the military to combat what officials cast as an out-of-control crime problem.

The Trump administration quickly ordered 500 more National Guard members to Washington.

Lakanwal had been living in Bellingham, Washington, about 79 miles north of Seattle, with his wife and five children, said his former landlord, Kristina Widman.

He entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration program that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal from the country, officials said.

The initiative brought roughly 76,000 people to the U.S., many of whom had worked alongside U.S. troops and diplomats as interpreters and translators. It has since faced intense scrutiny from Trump and his allies, congressional Republicans and some government watchdogs over gaps in the vetting process and the speed of admissions, even as advocates say it offered a lifeline to people at risk of Taliban reprisals.

Prior to his 2021 arrival in the U.S., the suspect worked with the U.S. government, including the CIA, “as a member of a partner force in Kandahar,” John Ratcliffe, the spy agency’s director, said in a statement.

He did not specify what work Lakanwal did, but said the relationship “ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation” of U.S. service members from Afghanistan.

An Afghan national has been accused of shooting two West Virginia National Guard members just blocks from the White House in a brazen act of violence at a time when the presence of troops in the nation’s capital and other cities around the country has become a political flashpoint.

FBI Director Kash Patel and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said the guard members were hospitalized in critical condition after Wednesday afternoon’s shooting. West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey had walked back his statement Wednesday announcing the troops had died, saying he received “conflicting reports” about their condition.

The rare shooting of National Guard members on American soil, on the day before Thanksgiving, comes amid court fights and a broader public policy debate about the Trump administration’s use of the military to combat what officials cast as an out-of-control crime problem.

The Trump administration quickly ordered 500 more National Guard members to Washington.

The suspect who was in custody also was shot and had wounds that were not believed to be life-threatening, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

The 29-year-old suspect, an Afghan national, entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration program that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal from the country, officials said.

The initiative brought roughly 76,000 people to the U.S., many of whom had worked alongside U.S. troops and diplomats as interpreters and translators.

It has since faced intense scrutiny from Trump and his allies, congressional Republicans and some government watchdogs over gaps in the vetting process and the speed of admissions, even as advocates say it offered a lifeline to people at risk of Taliban reprisals.

The suspect, who has been living in Washington state, has been identified by law enforcement officials as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, but authorities were still working to fully confirm his background, two law enforcement officials and a person familiar with the matter said. The people could not discuss details of an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Lakanwal arrived in Bellingham, Washington, about 79 miles north of Seattle, with his wife and five children, said his former landlord Kristina Widman.

He reportedly drove cross-country before the attack and faces assault and weapons charges, officials say.

Prior to his 2021 arrival in the United States, the suspect worked with the U.S. government, including the CIA, “as a member of a partner force in Kandahar,” John Ratcliffe, the spy agency’s director, said in a statement. He did not specify what work Lakanwal did, but said the relationship “ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation” of U.S. service members from Afghanistan.

Kandahar in southern Afghanistan is in the Taliban heartland of the country. It saw fierce fighting between the Taliban and NATO forces after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 following the al-Qaida attacks on Sept. 11. The CIA relied on Afghan staff for translation, administrative and front-line fighting with their own paramilitary officers in the war.

Wednesday night, in a video message released on social media, President Donald Trump called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who entered under the Biden administration.

“If they can’t love our country, we don’t want them,” he said, adding that the shooting was “a crime against our entire nation.”

Jeffery Carroll, an executive assistant D.C. police chief, said investigators had no information on a motive. He said the assailant “came around the corner” and immediately started firing at the troops, citing video reviewed by investigators.

“This was a targeted shooting,” Bowser said.

Troops held down the shooter

The shooting happened roughly two blocks northwest of the White House near a metro station. Hearing gunfire, other troops in the area ran over and held down the gunman after he was shot, Carroll said.

“It appears to be a lone gunman that raised a firearm and ambushed these members of the National Guard,” Carroll said, adding that it was not clear whether one of the guard members or a law enforcement officer shot the suspect.

“At this point we have no other suspects,” Carroll said at a news conference.

At least one of the guard members exchanged gunfire with the shooter, said another law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Social media video shared in the immediate aftermath showed first responders performing CPR on one of the troops and treating the other on a sidewalk covered in broken glass.

Witnesses saw people fleeing

Michael Ryan was just across the street when he heard loud bangs and started running with others. When he later came back, he told AP he saw a person pinned to the ground as people shouted “stay down,” and, nearby, National Guard troops hugged each other.

“It’s just a terrible situation to see,” Ryan said.

Emma McDonald, who exited a metro station just after the shots were fired, said she and a friend sought safety with others in a cafe. McDonald told AP that minutes later she saw first responders rolling a stretcher carrying a National Guard member whose head was covered in blood.

Police tape cordoned off the scene, and fire and police vehicle lights flashed and helicopter blades thudded overhead. Agents from the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were there, and National Guard troops stood sentry nearby. At least one helicopter landed on the National Mall.

“I think it’s a somber reminder that soldiers, whether they’re active duty, reserve or National Guard, our soldiers are the sword and the shield of the United States of America,” Vice President JD Vance said in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where he delivered a Thanksgiving message to troops.

Gen. Steven Nordhaus, chief of the National Guard Bureau, scrapped plans to spend the holiday with troops at Guantanamo Bay in order to travel to D.C. and be with guard members there instead.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said on social media that he visited the wounded National Guard members in the hospital and that his “heart breaks for them.”

Troops deployed to DC under emergency order

Trump issued an emergency order in August that federalized the local police force and sent in National Guard troops from eight states and the District of Columbia. The order expired a month later, but the troops remained.

Nearly 2,200 troops currently are assigned to the joint task force operating in the city, according to the government’s latest update.

Last week a federal judge ordered an end to the deployment, but she also put her order on hold for 21 days to allow the administration time to either remove the troops or appeal.

The guard members have patrolled neighborhoods, train stations and other locations, participated in highway checkpoints and been assigned to pick up trash and guard sports events.

More than 300 West Virginia National Guard members were deployed in August. About 160 of them volunteered last week to extend their deployment until the end of the year, while the others returned home just over a week ago.

Associated Press journalists Konstantin Toropin, Seung Min Kim, Safiyah Riddle, Matt Brown, Mike Balsamo, Eric Tucker, Jesse Bedayn, Evan Vucci, Nathan Ellgren, John Raby, Hallie Golden, Michael R. Sisak and John Seewer contributed.

Among the many late-night, gastrointestinal-wrecking delights within American fast-food culture, Taco Bell stands elite.

For decades, Americans have fearlessly and willingly forked over hard-earned cash despite knowing a minute on the lips, forever (or so it would seem)… on the lavatory.

Despite these Eric Cartman-esque Stage Four bouts of fecal displeasure, Taco Bell remains one of the top fast food chains in the nation thanks, in large part, to a Marine.

Glen Bell was born in Lynwood, California, on Sept. 3, 1923, to Glen and Ruth Johnson Bell. One of six children, the future American restaurateur set off on his own at the age of 16 and, according to his "Taco Titan“ biography, “[went] on the bum” and “r[ode] the rails in search of work.”

That work, or lack thereof, led him to joining the Marine Corps in 1943, rising to the rank of corporal and serving as a cook and food server.

Cpl. Bell seemingly learned about food efficiency while feeding hordes of hungry Marines while island hopping in the Pacific.

Serving from 1943 until his honorable discharge in 1946, Bell took the Corps’ lessons of streamlining and logistics to fuel a burgeoning empire.

After the war, according to The New York Times, Bell “bought a surplus Army truck and began hauling adobe bricks at 5 cents each. A miniature golf course that he leased failed to make a profit. Then, he opened a hamburger stand in a Hispanic neighborhood.”

While drive-in stands dotted San Bernardino at that time — the McDonald’s brothers were just getting their start down the road — Bell wanted to streamline Mexican food.

Ground beef, chopped lettuce, shredded cheese and chili sauce could, Bell believed, outpace hamburger sales among Americans, but the problem remained the vehicle of delivery.

Traditional Mexican restaurants served their tacos in a soft shell. According to Bell, “If you wanted a dozen, you were in for a wait.”

But Bell had a secret weapon: a man who made chicken coops for a living.

Hiring this individual to fashion a frying contraption made from chicken coop wire, Bell was able to quickly fry preformed shells made for easy assembly.

Selling for 19 cents, Bell’s hamburger shack-turned-taco-stand took off.

Recalling his first customer, Bell wrote in his memoir, “He was dressed in a suit and as he bit into the taco the juice ran down his sleeve and dripped on his tie. I thought, ‘Uh-oh, we’ve lost this one.’ But he came back, amazingly enough, and said, ‘That was good. Gimme another.’”

By 1954, Bell garnered enough success to open Taco Tia, which exclusively sold Mexican-style food.

Alongside partners, Bell opened four Mexican food-adjacent restaurants, but concluded the endeavor was not worth the pursuit and eventually sold out.

Then, with a $4,000 investment in hand, Bell struck gold.

In 1962 he opened his first Taco Bell in Downey, California, and over the next two years opened eight more — “each with a grand opening featuring live salsa music, searchlights and free sombreros,” according to The New York Times.

Bell sold the chain to PepsiCo in 1978, cementing his legacy as the late-night munchies king.

“I always smile,” Bell told Nation’s Restaurant News in 2008, “when I hear people say that they never had a taco until Taco Bell came to town.”

Now, thanks to Bell, one can consume a stack of Nacho Cheese Doritos® Locos Tacos Supreme® before washing it down with a perfectly crisp, turquoise Baja Blast with mere 111 grams of sugar per serving.

A true culinary experience, courtesy of a devil dog.

A Norwegian Army sniper team took home top honors at an annual event hosted by the U.S. Army Europe and Africa command.

A sergeant and lance corporal first class assigned to the Norwegian Army’s 1st Armored Battalion outshot 34 other teams from 21 other nations on their way to being named the winners of the command’s 2025 European Best Sniper Team Competition, according to a release.

Second and third place honors in the event, which was held Nov. 22 in Grafenwoehr, Germany, were awarded to Latvian and Greek sniper teams, respectively.

“It’s been fun meeting new challengers, going to new ranges, trying new things and being challenged in new ways we haven’t been before,” the Norwegian lance corporal 1st class said in the release. The team was not individually identified in the report.

The competition, organized annually by the 7th Army Training Command in either Grafenwoehr or Hohenfels, Germany, aims to enhance readiness through training scenarios, build military partnerships and better align with allies, according to the release.

To make this year’s training more realistic, the competition was held later in the year than usual to ensure competitors were met with Bavaria’s winter snow and below-freezing temperatures.

“The modern battlefield is evolving faster than at any point in history,” 7th ATC’s Command Sgt. Maj. Paul Fedorisin said in the release. “We must evolve our tactics, techniques, procedures and equipment — at speed — to remain survivable and lethal.”

In addition to enduring the climate, competitors took on tasks involving shooter and spotter communication, land navigation and target engagement at varying distances.

Each two-person team completed 16 sniper skill-level tasks across six days, earning scores throughout each event.

“It’s nice going to somewhere else to see that the things we train in at our home unit — see that it works other places and in other environments,” the Norwegian sergeant said.

The 22 participating countries included Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States.

“You are the best that each of your nations and organizations has to offer,” Fedorisin told the winning team at the award ceremony. “You represented them incredibly well.”

Research into traumatic brain injuries has neglected the effect of TBI on special operations forces, according to a new study by a U.S. think tank.

“There is limited research focused on TBI among SOF, although this population faces a higher risk of blast exposure and TBI,” according to a report published by the Rand Corporation earlier this month. Special operations personnel “experience higher rates of blast exposure and repetitive neurological stress in both combat and training compared with other service members,” the report’s authors wrote.

The report reviewed TBI studies from 2015 to 2025, with a focus on the SOF community. Out of 480 research papers on TBI that Rand reviewed, Army and Marine Corps personnel were the most frequently studied populations, according to the report, and “only seven papers focused solely on SOF, and 14 included SOF in mixed samples.”

In addition to special operations forces, there has been little research into identifying and treating TBI among airmen, sailors, National Guard troops and reservists, “even though these groups face high risks,” the report notes.

More than 500,000 personnel have been diagnosed with a service-related TBI since 2000, according to the Department of Defense. More than $2.1 billion in federal and private funds have been spent on TBI research since 2015, the report estimated.

Nonetheless, the report found numerous problems with existing research into TBI. For example, studies have tended to focus on diagnosing TBI rather than what specific conditions caused it, such as “correlations between injury and blast pounds per square inch, soldier positioning, or the source of the blast (e.g., breaching versus shoulder-mounted artillery),” the report states.

In addition to Rand, other research points to brain injuries in special operations forces, which are subject to both intense stress and frequent deployments.

For example, a 2024 University of South Florida study “found repeated exposure to low-level blasts is associated with signs of brain injury in special operations forces.”

TBI research also appears split short- and long-term TBI, according to Rand’s report.

“Studies that assessed the short- to medium-term period following TBI described general neurological symptoms, such as pain, inflammation, balance issues, and sensory changes, rather than any specific diagnoses,” the report noted. “Longer-term studies examined neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), whereas others explored early biomarkers without clear clinical outcomes.”

Researchers have tended to focus on blast-related injuries and mild TBI. Sub- concussive and penetrating TBI have received less attention, as have the “the links between injury characteristics (e.g., blast pressure, soldier positioning, blast source) and clinical outcomes.”

Regarding comorbidity between TBI and other conditions, previous research has examined links between TBI and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as sleep disorders and other neurological problems. However, little attention has been paid to TBI, substance abuse and audio and visual problems, according to the report.

Nor has there been much research into rehabilitation for long-term care for TBI victims. This leaves patients with “few long-term, evidence-based recovery pathways,” the report states.

Nonetheless, a decade of research into progress in dealing with military TBI has achieved results, even if benefits are uneven, the report concluded.

“Substantial investments have advanced imaging techniques and biomarker identification and have improved our understanding of comorbidities, such as PTSD, depression, and sleep disorders. These achievements underscore a growing scientific understanding of the mechanisms of injury and the complex ways in which TBI intersects with broader neurological and psychological health challenges.”

Still, there are gaps in understanding and treating TBIs, the report warns.

“Doing so is not simply a matter of scientific advancement,” the report said. Progress here will “advance prevention, sharpen diagnosis, improve treatment, and strengthen long-term recovery, ensuring that service members and veterans receive the care and support they deserve.”

The U.S. Marine Corps hit its fiscal 2026 retention goals just weeks after the target window opened, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith announced in a recent video.

While the Corps’ retention goals were quickly achieved in FY2024 and FY2025, this year’s numbers were met “earlier than ever before,” Smith said in the video, which was produced in October but released later due to the U.S. government shutdown.

Smith noted that, despite the success, a handful of military occupational specialties remain open for interested Marines.

Alongside Smith in the video, Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Carlos A. Ruiz encouraged “qualified Marines who still have the desire to serve … to pursue lateral move opportunities into our critical need MOSs.”

A MARADMIN released earlier this month rattled off a number of MOSs as options for such moves, with the message noting that “lat move” requests will be ”processed on a case-by-case basis and … subject to school seat availability."

That list included MOSs such as Counterintelligence/Human Intelligence Specialist (0211), Reconnaissance Marine (0321), Critical Skills Operator (MARSOC) (0372), Influence Operations Specialist (1751) and Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician (2336), among others.

“There are also outstanding opportunities in the reserve component through the Direct Affiliation Program and the active reserve,” Ruiz added in the video.

Smith and Ruiz capped the message by urging leaders to prepare Marines for reenlistment with an eye toward fiscal 2027.

Additional retention efforts targeting other Marine Corps components were unveiled last week, meanwhile, when officials announced that Selected Marine Corps Reserve personnel in ranks E-4 to E-6 were being made eligible for one-time pay bumps for remaining in specific job specialties.

As part of the Selected Marine Corps Reserve Retention and Affiliation Bonus Program, corporals, sergeants and staff sergeants with select MOSs are eligible for up to $20,000 lump-sum bonuses upon extending service in the SMCR for 36 months, according to a Nov. 19 memo.

Marines in those ranks are also eligible to serve terms of 12 and 24 months, with corresponding bonus payments of $5,000 and $10,000, respectively.

In addition to retention goals, data released by the Marine Corps in September showed that the service had exceeded its most recent active-duty and reserve enlisted recruiting goal by a single person, bringing in 30,536 Marines across those components.

Marine Corps officials at the time noted the close-call total was a credit to the service being more selective of who it recruits.

Editor’s note: This report has been updated to reflect that FBI Director Kash Patel has said the troops are alive and in critical condition. West Virginia’s governor initially said the troops had died, but later walked back the statement to say his office was “receiving conflicting reports” about their condition.

Two West Virginia National Guard members who deployed to the nation’s capital were shot Wednesday just blocks from the White House in a brazen act of violence.

FBI Director Kash Patel and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said the Guard members were hospitalized in critical condition. Bowser said they were victims of a ”targeted shooting.”

The West Virginia governor initially said the troops had died, but later walked back the statement to say his office was “receiving conflicting reports” about their condition. The governor’s office did not immediately respond to questions about the attack and the condition of the troops.

A suspect who was in custody also was shot and had wounds that were not believed to be life-threatening, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The Trump administration quickly ordered 500 more National Guard members to Washington following the shooting. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said President Donald Trump asked him to send the extra soldiers.

There are currently 2,188 troops assigned to the joint task force operating in the city, according to the government’s latest update.

Law enforcement was reviewing surveillance video from the scene and believed the suspect approached the soldiers and pulled out a gun, said another law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

At least one of the soldiers exchanged gunfire with the shooter, the official said. Investigators were trying to determine the gunman’s motive, including whether the suspect was targeting the troops for any specific reason, the official said.

The shooting happened roughly two blocks northwest of the White House.

Social media video shared in the immediate aftermath showed first responders attempting CPR on one of the soldiers and treating the other on a glass-covered sidewalk. Other officers could be seen steps away restraining an individual on the ground.

Stacy Walters said she was in a car near the scene car when she heard two gunshots and saw people running. Almost instantly, law enforcement swarmed the area. “It’s such a beautiful day. Who would do this, and we’re getting ready for the holidays?”

Emergency medical responders transported all three people to a hospital, according to Vito Maggiolo, the public information officer for the DC Fire and Emergency Services.

The presence of the National Guard in the nation’s capital has been a flashpoint issue for months, fueling a court fight and a broader public policy debate about the Trump administration’s use of the military to combat what officials cast as an out-of-control crime problem.

More than 300 West Virginia National Guard members were deployed to Washington in August. Last week, about 160 of them volunteered to extend their deployment until the end of the year while the others returned to West Virginia just over a week ago.

Police tape cordoned off the scene where fire and police vehicle lights flashed and helicopter blades thudded overhead. Agents from the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on scene, as National Guard troops stood sentry nearby. At least one helicopter landed on the National Mall.

President Donald Trump, who was in Florida for Thanksgiving, warned in a statement on social media that the “animal” who shot the guardsmen “will pay a very steep price.”

“God bless our Great National Guard, and all of our Military and Law Enforcement. These are truly Great People,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I, as President of the United States, and everyone associated with the Office of the Presidency, am with you!”

In Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Vice President JD Vance urged “everybody who’s a person of faith” to pray for the two Guardsmen. He cautioned that much remained unknown, including the motive of the shooter.

“I think it’s a somber reminder that soldiers, whether they’re active duty, reserve or National Guard, our soldiers are the sword and the shield of the United States of America,” Vance said as he delivered a Thanksgiving message to troops.

A spokesperson for Mayor Muriel Bowser said local leaders were actively monitoring the situation. Bowser had spent the morning at a Thanksgiving event at the Convention Center and then held a news conference to explain why she was not seeking reelection.

Trump issued an emergency order in August that federalized the local police force and sent in National Guard troops from eight states and the District of Columbia. The order expired a month later, but the troops remained.

The soldiers have patrolled neighborhoods, train stations and other locations, participated in highway checkpoints and also have been assigned to trash pickup and to guard sports events.

Last week, a federal judge ordered an end to the deployment but also put her order on hold for 21 days to allow the Trump administration time to either remove the troops or appeal the decision.

Associated Press reporters Konstantin Toropin, Seung Min Kim, Safiyah Riddle, Matt Brown, Mike Balsamo, Eric Tucker and Jesse Bedayn contributed to this report.

The U.S. Navy has deployed a salvage vessel to comb the depths of the South China Sea for the remnants of a jet and helicopter that crashed last month.

A MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter and F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz went down less than an hour apart on Oct. 26. All personnel involved in the crash were recovered safely and in stable condition.

The USNS Salvor, “a Safeguard-class salvage ship operated by Military Sealift Command, arrived on location on Nov. 12 to conduct recovery efforts,” a statement from the U.S. Seventh Fleet read. “Recovery efforts are still ongoing.”

The cause or causes of the crashes are still under investigation.

Recent data shows significant spike in US military aircraft accidents

At 2:45 p.m. on the day of the crash, the MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter “went down in the waters of the South China Sea while conducting routine operations,” the U.S. Pacific Fleet said at the time.

The carrier’s strike group deployed assets that were able to rescue the three crew members from the helicopter, which was assigned to the “Battle Cats” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 73.

At 3:15 p.m., an F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet from the Strike Fighter Squadron 22 “Fighting Redcocks” also crashed while conducting routine operations.

The two crew members on the jet were able to successfully eject from the cockpit and were rescued.

The U.S. Navy has lost several F/A-18s within the last year, an expensive deficit with each jet costing $60 million.

The USS Gettysburg accidentally shot down an F/A-18 in December 2024, an F/A-18 attempting to land on the USS Harry S. Truman in May fell overboard, another F/A-18 fighter jet slipped off the hangar deck of the Truman in April and an F/A-18E crashed during a training flight off the coast of Virginia in August.

The commanding officer of the Okinawa, Japan-based Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 36 was fired Wednesday, according to a Marine Corps notice.

Lt. Col. Calischaran G. James was relieved of his duties by Maj. Gen. Marcus B. Annibale, the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing commanding general, “due to a loss of trust and confidence in his ability to command,” the Marine Corps announced.

Military services often use “loss of trust and confidence” as a blanket term when dismissing senior leadership.

A request for additional information regarding the nature of the dismissal was not yet returned as of press time.

“Commanders are held to the highest standards of conduct and must consistently live above reproach,” 1st Marine Aircraft Wing spokesman Maj. Joseph Butterfield said in the announcement. “This decision reflects the Marine Corps’ dedication to upholding the trust and confidence that are essential for effective leadership.”

Originally from the Caribbean island nation of Dominica, James enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1998, according to his now-archived command bio. He was commissioned in 2006 after completing the Enlisted Commissioning Program.

In 2020, James was named the recipient of the Marine Corps Aviation Association’s Earle Hattaway Ground Officer of the Year Award. He assumed command of MALS-36 in May 2024.

Lt. Col. Ryan T. Iden has been appointed as interim commanding officer until a selected replacement arrives, the release stated.

Iden enlisted in the Marine Corps 1997 as an infantryman, rising to the rank of gunnery sergeant before earning his commission in 2008.

James’ dismissal, meanwhile, comes on the heels of recent firings that overhauled the entire leadership structure of a Marine Osprey squadron.

On Oct. 28, the commanding officer, executive officer and senior enlisted leader of the Hawaii-based Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268 were fired “due to a loss of trust” in their ability to enforce safety and readiness standards, according to a statement announcing the trio’s dismissal.