Retired SMSgt. Norman R. “Jack” Matthews died March 8 at age 92, reports the Suffolk News-Herald. Matthews was an aerial gunner sent to the Philippines with other airmen in late 1941 to await their airplanes during World War II. They joined with land forces to fight the Japanese when they invaded the island. Matthews survived the infamous Bataan Death March and served 27 years in the Air Force. (Read more on the death march in Air Force Magazine’s 1995 Valor article)
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.