Insider Attack: Two U.S. Paratroopers Shot Dead in Afghanistan Identified
DOD:
DOD Identifies Army Casualties
“THESE YOUNG MEN WERE TRUE ALL AMERICANS”
Two 82nd Airborne Division Paratroopers were killed while conducting operations Monday, July 29 in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. The incident remains under investigation.
Spc. Michael Nance of Chicago, Ill. and Pfc. Brandon Kreischer of Stryker, Ohio, were members of Company B., 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division when they were killed by small arms fire.
“These young men were true All Americans and embodied the qualities of selfless service and courage as they answered our nation’s call to deploy to Afghanistan,” said Col. Arthur Sellers, Commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team. “Our focus is now providing their loved ones with every available resource to help them in this most difficult time.”
Nance joined the Army in January 2017 and completed Basic Combat Training, Advanced Individual Training and Airborne School at Fort Benning, Ga. before being assigned to 1-505th PIR as an automatic rifleman.
His awards and decorations include the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, and the Global War on Terror Service Medal, the Combat Infantryman Badge, and the Basic Parachutist Badge.
Nance is survived by his father of Chicago, Ill. and mother of Glenwood, Ill.
Kreischer joined the Army in June 2018 and completed Basic Combat Training, Advanced Individual Training and Airborne School at Fort Benning, Ga. before being assigned to 1-505th PIR as a rifleman.
His awards and decorations include the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terror Service Medal, the Combat Infantryman Badge, and the Basic Parachutist Badge.
Kreischer is survived by his wife of Fayetteville, N.C.
29 July The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.
Both soldiers died July 29, 2019, in Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, as a result of wounds sustained in a combat related incident. The incident is under investigation.
The deceased are:
Pfc. Brandon Jay Kreischer, 20, of Stryker, Ohio.
Spc. Michael Isaiah Nance, 24, of Chicago, Illinois.
Both soldiers were assigned to 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
NATO: Two U.S. service members were killed July 29, 2019 in Afghanistan. In accordance with U.S. Department of Defense policy, the name of the service members killed in action are being withheld until 24 hours after notification of next of kin is complete.
Panther-brigade: It is with a heavy heart that I inform you of the loss of two Paratroopers from the Brigade during combat operations.
When appropriate, further information will be shared through the Army’s and the Brigade’s official information channels.
Art Sellers, COL, IN, Commanding
Two U.S. service members have been killed in action in Afghanistan in what appears to be an insider attack, Jeff Seldin, Ayaz Gul of VOA reported:
The NATO-led Resolute Support Mission said Monday that two Americans are dead, withholding additional information pending notification of their families. A U.S. official later confirmed the deaths were the result of a so-called “green on blue” attack, during which an Afghan service member or an attacker wearing an Afghan uniform, fires on U.S. or allied forces.
The initial U.S. assessment followed claims by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Twitter that the Americans died when an Afghan soldier turned his gun on them in a military camp in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province.
Zabihullah (..ذبـــــیح الله م )@Zabehulah_M33
#خـــــبر:
امروز در داخل کمپ (بیس) تناوچه ولسوالی شاولیکوت ولایت قندهار یک عسکر با احساس افغان بر عساکر امریکایی از نزدیکی آتش کشود.
۴ عسکر اشغالگر امریکایی به هلاکت رسیدند، ۲ تن زخم برداشتند.
در فیرهای متقابل عسکر با احساس نیز زخمی گردید.
احمدی9511:52 AM – Jul 29, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy15 people are talking about this
The Taliban also claimed at least one other soldier was killed and that several others were wounded, though those claims could not be confirmed.
With the two confirmed deaths, at least 14 U.S. service members have been killed in Afghanistan this year, according to a tally by the website iCasualties.org. Thirteen U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan in 2018.
“Problems don’t miraculously disappear. We, and other oversight bodies, have identified problems that affected reconstruction. And some of these problems could affect lasting peace,” he said.
U.S., NATO efforts
SIGAR estimates the U.S. alone has spent about $18 billion to equip Afghanistan’s security forces, buying more than 600,000 weapons, 70,000 vehicles and more than 200 aircraft.
But its audits have found that U.S. and NATO efforts have often been unorganized, with Afghan forces suffering as a result.
Specifically, SIGAR blamed an eight-year lag in shifting Afghan forces to the latest standardized NATO weaponry for an ammunition shortage that left them unable to repel a Taliban attack in Ghazni province in 2018.
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