The Air Force has notified the 127 lieutenants being reconsidered by a special board about their fate. Officials elected to retain 22 of these junior officers, who got a second chance to remain on active duty when the service found irregularities in data presented to the spring “force shaping” board. The special board was to reconsider 192 lieutenants, but 65 elected to accept the original verdict that said they must leave the service by Sept. 30.
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.