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Pentagon announced Wednesday that two airmen died May 26 of wounds received from an improvised explosive device near Bagram AB, Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Mark E. Stratton II, 39, had deployed from the Joint Staff at the Pentagon to Afghanistan, where he had been serving as commander of the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team, according to an April 8 American Forces Press Service article . SrA. Ashton L. M. Goodman, 21, of Indianapolis had deployed to Afghanistan from the 43rd Logistics Readiness Squadron at Pope AFB, N.C. According to an Air Force News Service article Goodman wrote, she also was serving with the Panjshir PRT. (A Pope Air Force Base release notes that she is the fourth airman from that base to die in action since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Mobile Press-Register reports that Stratton grew up in Foley, Ala., leaving in 1987 to attend Texas A&M University.
The U.K. and the U.S. will continue to enjoy access to the ports, airfield, and workshops at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for at least another century, under a deal inked between the U.K. and Mauritius May 22.