(Breitbart) The loss of six American airmen, including four federal agents, in Afghanistan provides proof that combat is not over as far as the Taliban are concerned.
Since the tragic attack on US forces in Afghanistan on December 21, there have been abundant news reports about the six US airmen who perished and the two individuals who were injured in a cowardly Taliban suicide bombing of a security patrol. But few Americans understand who they were, the dangerous nature of their jobs, and the fact our soldiers, sailors, and airmen are still being killed in a war zone where US forces have supposedly ended combat operations.
Of the six individuals killed in action, four of them—Major Adrianna Vorderbruggen, Staff Sergeant Michael Cinco (from Mercedes, TX), Staff Sergeant Peter Taub, and Staff Sergeant Chester McBride—were more than just Air Force personnel; they were federal agents with a little known investigative service called the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, generally called OSI in military circles. This attack, and the circumstances under which it happened, has hit me very hard; I used to be one of them.
OSI is the Air Force’s equivalent of the FBI. Its agents are responsible for investigating mostly felony-level crimes committed by or against Air Force personnel around the world. The agency is also charged with engaging in counterintelligence and counterespionage investigations, protective service operations (like the Secret Service), and force protection (a.k.a. counterterrorism) operations. This last mission comprises the bulk of what OSI agents do in deployed theaters like Afghanistan and Iraq.
Service members from several units at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan pay their respects during a fallen comrade ceremony held in honor of six Airmen Dec. 23, 2015.
And therein lies the tragedy and true heroism embedded in how these agents—and their two Air Force Security Forces partners, Technical Sergeant Joseph Lemm and Staff Sergeant Louis Bonacasa—perished on December 21. The “Chair Force” is much maligned by other services for working in cushy air conditioned offices, enjoying lush golf courses and visitors’ quarters on base, and flying drones from the comfort and safety of a warehouse.
However, OSI agents in the field are often some of the few individuals authorized to go “outside the wire” in places like Afghanistan. The six airmen killed by the Taliban were on a very common security foot patrol, looking for signs of danger like a potential mortar or rocket launch site. Agents go through an untold number of villages and towns with translators, getting to know the local population and cultivating sources who can inform them of potential dangers to US bases nearby. They are skillfully trained, and many of those killed had at least one combat tour under their belts already. They also work very closely with Security Forces personnel, who are responsible for air base ground defense.
Read Sylvia Longmire’s full article at Breitbart.com.
Comments are closed.