The Air Force has awarded a Bronze Star medal to SSgt. Tom Pilla, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal instructor with the 86th Construction and Training Squadron at Ramstein AB, Germany for his actions while deployed to Iraq. Pilla led an EOD team that supported Army units in Iraq, handling unexploded ordnance fired at the bases and improvised explosive devices off base. During one convoy operation that came under attack, Pilla’s team located and neutralized a second IED, while under fire, that enabled the entire convoy to move out of the attack area.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.