TWO SPECIAL FORCES SOLDIERS KILLED IN PHILIPPINES

An old buddy of mine from Okinawa Uncle Jimbo carried this story on his blog Blackfive. I became aware of this last night, as I sat at the bar scrolling through my Blackberry, so of course I did the modern thing and texted this sad news throughout my contacts in the Brotherhood. Then I had one in honor of our fallen heroes - S.L.




FORT BRAGG, N.C. (USASOC News Service, Oct. 1, 2009) – Two U.S. Special Forces Soldiers died when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device Sept. 29 on Jolo Island, Philippines.

The following Soldiers, both assigned to 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) headquartered at Fort Lewis, Wash. They were in the Philippines supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. 1st Class Christopher D. Shaw, 37, a native of Natchez, Miss., was on his second deployment in support of OEF-P.For Sgt. 1st Class Shaw's bio, click here. For the Shaw's Family statement, click here.

Staff Sgt. Jack M. Martin III, 26, was a native of Bethany, Okla. This was Martin’s first deployment in support of OEF-P; he was a veteran of Operation Iraq Freedom. For Staff Sgt. Martin's bio, click here.


Honor them.





Jimbo mentions how, during his first deployment to the Philippines 20 years ago, terrorists killed SF icon COL Nick Rowe. I was there also, in a different part of the P.I. - needless to say it was a bad time for the home team. In the years that followed that event - right up until very recently - I had the honor to be involved the US Army SERE program, at the US Army Special Warfare Center and School, Camp MacKall NC. SERE - Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape - was COL Nick Rowe's creation based on his experience in Communist Vietnamese prison camps in the U Minh Forest, south of Saigon. - S.L.