Air Force Reserve TSgt. David Ewbank has received a Bronze Star for his work as an explosive ordnance disposal technician with a unit of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division in Iraq. Ewbank, who is assigned to the 446th Civil Engineer Squadron at McChord AFB, Wash., was one of several Air Force EOD specialists working with the Army unit, whose commander, Lt. Col. Brian Coppersmith, praised for helping ensure the unit had no deaths during its deployment. On one occasion, reports SSgt. Paul Haley, Ewbank got to disarm a live bomb. His comment, “It’s not every day you get a chance like that.”
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.