The Louisiana National Guard awarded SSgt. James Lam, a joint terminal attack controller, a Bronze Star with Valor device for his actions under fire during a three-hour firefight in Afghanistan in 2012. Lam, then a member of the Louisiana Guard’s 122nd Air Support Operations Squadron, was attached to a the 1st Battalion, 179th Infantry Regiment tasked with locating high-value targets in Afghanistan when they came under direct rocket-propelled grenade and machine gun fire on Feb. 23, 2012, according to a Louisiana Guard release. During the firefight, Lam left cover to help soldiers get ammunition for a machine gun. “I did my job, nothing more, nothing less,” Lam said at a Dec. 6 ceremony. “If we do it right, what we do as a JTAC, it brings those infantry guys home—and for me, it’s about bringing home those infantry soldiers and combat arms soldiers.” Lam is now a member of the Oklahoma Air National Guard.
In a brief email Nov. 6, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth laid out a new Cyber Force Generation plan, meant to give U.S. Cyber Command more authority over the employment, training, and equipping of U.S. troops preparing for and waging cyber war. Former Air Force officers and national security officials say the…
