She was shot 5 times, but Navy Master Chief stays in!

Shot 5 Times by Afghan Soldier, Navy Master Chief Refused to Quit
Military.com
By Matthew Cox
21 Jun 2018

"Whether that is three years or four years or 10, as long as I can make a difference every day, and I know I am making a difference every day, and I can serve my country in an operational function -- I'm gonna stick around."

Navy Master Chief Raina Hockenberry remembers everything from that day in 2014 when an Afghan soldier shot her five times.

Master Chief Personnel Specialist Raina Hockenberry, from Kalihi, Hawaii, competes in the 50-meter breaststroke swimming competition at the 2018 Department of Defense Warrior Games at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Navy photo/ Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Marcus L. Stanley)

She was serving as the senior enlisted leader position for Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan. Hockenberry was part of a group visiting a basic training facility for Afghan soldiers.

We stopped for our last briefing of the day, and one of the Afghan soldiers just opened fire through a window," she told reporters at the Pentagon Wednesday describing the green-on-blue attack that wounded 13 other military personnel that day. "He just started shooting."

Hockenberry suffered two gunshot wounds to the right leg, shattering her tibia. She was shot once in the groin and twice in the stomach.

While at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, "people tended to assume that I would be medically retired; I can understand why, but I just didn't see it."

Four years later, she won eight gold medals in the recent Warrior Games in Colorado Springs and now serves on the USS Port Royal at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

In four months, she plans to participate in the Invictus Games in Sydney, Australia.
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Seven Soldiers Wounded By Afghan Soldier

Seven GIs among eight wounded in Afghanistan shooting
Boston Herald
Brian Dowling
Sunday, June 18, 2017

An Afghan soldier turned his weapon on coalition forces at a base in northern Afghanistan, wounding eight people, including seven U.S. soldiers — the second such insider attack in the turbulent Middle Eastern country this month.

The group of 39 nations advising and assisting the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces said seven U.S. soldiers and one Afghan soldier were wounded when the rogue Afghan trooper opened fire.

“We have an enemy who is actively trying to drive a wedge between us,” Operation Resolute Support said in a statement. “We will not be deterred.”
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Afghan Soldier Killed Two US Soldiers

UPDATE

Pentagon: 3 US soldiers killed, 1 wounded in Afghanistan

Two US troops killed by Afghanistan army soldier, Afghan officials say
The Guardian
Sune Engle Ramsmussen
June 10, 2017

Attack comes shortly after US airstrike killed two Afghan border police, according to Helmand governor, as Trump considers sending more troops

An Afghan soldier has killed two Americans in an apparent insider attack in the highly contested Nangarhar province, according to Afghan officials.

The attack happened less than a day after a US airstrike in Helmand killed at least two members of the Afghan border police in a joint US-Afghan operation, according to the Helmand governor.

The incidents occurred at a time of intensified violence in Afghanistan, and when the Trump administration is considering sending more US troops to Afghanistan.

In Nangarhar, the governor’s spokesman, Attahullah Khogyani, told the Associated Press that two US soldiers had been killed and two others wounded in the attack. He said the attacker was killed.

The insider attack took place in Achin, a district partly controlled by militants loyal to Islamic State. This is where, in April, the US army dropped its largest conventional weapon ever used on a complex of cave used by Isis fighters. Since the Moab strike, US and Afghan forces have been engaged in ground fighting, assisted by regular airstrikes, to clear the area.
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Widow Celebrates Life of Husband By Taking Another Plunge

Her Husband Was Killed in Afghanistan 
Patch 
By TANYA SNYDER (Patch Staff) 
May 28, 2016

She Went Skydiving to Celebrate Him. Alicia Dickinson is part of a new generation of young military widows who are having to rewrite the script of their lives alone. Arlington, VA

ARLINGTON, VA — The woman walking in front of Alicia Dickinson at Arlington Cemetery that September day in 2012 was old. She was also there to bury her husband.

At age 30, Alicia Dickinson was a widow.

“I remember walking behind her, thinking, ‘This is what it’s supposed to be,’” Dickinson said. “Not me.”

Her husband, Scott Dickinson, died August 10, 2012, in what’s called a “green on blue” attack, shot by an Afghan soldier the U.S. forces were training. He was due to come home in 10 days. He was just 29 years old.

“Going to Arlington, you’re reminded of how many young men and women gave their lives and how many young men and women they were married to and now were left to face a new life that you don’t expect at such a young age,” Alicia Dickinson said in an interview.

She’s part of the American Widow Project, a mutual support organization for a new generation of military widows. “There should be a different term when you’re so young,” Dickinson said. “’Widow’ just seems so old.”
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Soldier Killed In Afghanistan Green on Blue Attack

U.S. service member killed in Afghanistan, official says
CNN
By Jamie Crawford and Jason Hanna
April 8, 2015

A U.S. Army soldier was killed Wednesday in an attack in eastern Afghanistan by an Afghan National Army gunman, a U.S. military official told CNN, shortly after an American official met with a provincial governor.

A U.S. defense official didn't provide details about the attack in the city of Jalalabad. But an Afghan police chief told CNN that an Afghan National Army soldier shot at U.S. soldiers at a provincial governor's compound in Jalalabad on Wednesday.

The Afghan soldier opened fire on the U.S. troops as they were leaving a meeting at the compound, said Fazal Ahmad Shirzad, police chief of Nangarhar province.

An Afghan soldier was killed and another was injured in a subsequent exchange of gunfire, Shirzad said. It wasn't immediately clear whether the assailant was among them.
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Maj. Gen. Harold Greene's Aide Honored at Pentagon

This soldier, wounded with a U.S. general killed in Afghanistan, was just celebrated at the Pentagon
Washington Post
By Dan Lamothe
March 23, 2015

In the Pentagon courtyard, the world was introduced Monday to Capt. Jeremy Haynes, a wounded U.S. Army officer whose life was intertwined with the death of the highest-ranking U.S. service member killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Haynes served as an aide to Maj. Gen. Harold Greene, of Falls Church, Va., when both of them were shot multiple times Aug. 5 by a lone gunman at an Afghan military training academy outside Kabul.

Greene was killed instantly, and Haynes was left paralyzed and with numerous life-threatening wounds, said Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter.

At least 18 people were wounded.
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Maj. Gen. Harold Greene's death "could not have been foreseen"

Military report: No negligence in death of U.S. General in Afghanistan
CNN
By Jamie Crawford, CNN National Security Producer
December 4, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Maj. Gen. Harold was killed by a member of the Afghan National Army in August
A report said there was no way the death could have been "foreseen"
The International Security Assistance Force authored the report

Washington (CNN) -- An investigation into the killing of the most senior U.S. military officer since 9/11 found the incident could not have been "foreseen" or "prevented," according to a military report out Thursday.

Maj. Gen. Harold Greene, who was leading efforts to train soldiers in Afghanistan, was killed by a member of the Afghan National Army on Aug. 5 during a visit to a military training facility in Kabul.

The report was from the International Security Assistance Force, which serves as NATO's command over allied military operations in Afghanistan.

Greene, along with more than 90 other US and Coalition personnel, visited the Marshal Fahim National Defense University to take a look at the construction of a site at the school that would serve officers in the Afghan Army.

According to the report, overall security at the site was provided by Danish forces, but there were protection forces from the United States, United Kingdom and Germany also present. But despite "extensive security planning" for the event, the report said "there was no comprehensive plan that incorporated all participating security elements," as each individual security detachment did their own preparation.

"The threat level that day was assessed as low, with no indicators of unusual activity or concern," the report said.
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Six of the nine U.S. servicemembers wounded recovering in Germany

Servicemembers wounded in Kabul attack in stable condition
Stars and Stripes
August 8, 2014

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Six of the nine U.S. servicemembers wounded when a suspected Afghan soldier opened fire on coalition forces at a defense university in Kabul are in stable condition at a U.S. military hospital in Germany, officials said Friday.

The attack on Tuesday killed Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene, the first general officer killed in hostilities overseas since the Vietnam War, and wounded more than a dozen others, including nine Americans.

Six of them were flown to Ramstein Air Base in Germany and transferred to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, where they were in stable condition, spokesman Chuck Roberts said.

Five were being treated for gunshot wounds, while the sixth was injured by shrapnel.
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Afghan soldier kills US Maj. Gen. Harold Greene, wounds 15

Afghan soldier kills US Maj. Gen. Harold Greene, wounds 15
By ROBERT BURNS, RAHIM FAIEZ and LOLITA C. BALDOR
Aug 5th 2014

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - An American major general was shot to death Tuesday in one of the bloodiest insider attacks of the long Afghanistan war when a gunman dressed as an Afghan soldier turned on allied troops, wounding about 15 including a German general and two Afghan generals.

Maj. Gen. Harold Greene, who was on his first deployment to a war zone, was involved in preparing Afghan forces for the time when U.S.-coalition troops leave at the end of this year. An engineer by training, he was the deputy commanding general, Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan.

Greene was the highest-ranked American officer killed in combat in the nation's post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the highest-ranked officer killed in combat since 1970 in the Vietnam War.
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Gold Star Family Feels Betrayed by Marines After Green on Blue Attack

Marine Corps responds to Gold Star family's allegations of 'misleading, offensive' information
Marine Corps Times
By Hope Hodge Seck
Staff Writer
July 31, 2014

Lance Cpl. Greg Buckley Jr.'s father Greg, left, his mother Marina, third from left, and his two brother watch as his casket is carried into St. Agnes Cathedral for his funeral Mass on Aug. 18, 2012, in Rockville Centre, N.Y.
(Mary Altaffer / AP)

The Marine Corps responded in part to a 10-page letter from a Gold Star family that accused the Corps of misleading the public about events in the aftermath of their son’s death.

The family of Lance Cpl. Greg Buckley Jr. learned last week that the Afghan youth who killed their son and two other Marines in an insider attack in Afghanistan was sentenced by an Afghan court to seven years, six months in prison. The family’s attorney, Michael Bowe, fired off the strongly worded letter to Marine Corps commandant Gen. Jim Amos on Tuesday, demanding that the Marine Corps retract a statement on the sentencing of the killer, Ainuddin Khudairaham, and a timeline of communications allegedly made with families of the fallen.

Bowe called the release of the information a “publicity stunt,” saying the media received confirmation of Ainuddin’s sentencing before the families did. He also said the timeline failed to show how little information the families received about the case as it developed.

Marine officials are standing by the information, saying it was released to press outlets following inquiries about the Buckley case.
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Family fighting for answer in death after Green on Blue attack

Family seeks answers in killing of son in Afghanistan
News Telegram
By Bill Fortier CORRESPONDENT
May 11, 2014

Maj. David L. Brodeur's brilliance as a U.S. Air Force pilot ended in a burst of gunfire in Afghanistan on April 27, 2011, when an Afghan Air Force colonel fired at least 30 shots from an automatic handgun, killing the major, seven American servicemen and a Department of Defense contractor.

Since that bloody morning, Maj. Brodeur's father, Lawrence A. Brodeur of Sutton, has been determined to find the truth about what happened, and why.

But classified documents from military investigations will not be declassified until 2038, and gnawing questions persist about whether the shooter acted alone and what motivated his murderous madness.

Although reports documenting the investigation don't say it, Mr. Brodeur, a man who carefully measures his words, said he believes strongly that his son and the eight other Americans were killed that day by 46-year-old Col. Ahmed Gul because the American team was working on measures that would cut down on profits made by Afghan officers in a criminal patronage network within the Afghan military.

The attack came in the Air Command and Control Center at Kabul International Airport. It is believed to be the deadliest single attack involving U.S. Air Force personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan. When the gunfire began, the 34-year-old major was engaged in daily activities, talking to an Afghan Air Force captain.

Maj. Brodeur was shot first in the neck and twice more, according to reports. According to his family and diagrams provided by the military, instead of fleeing through a nearby door, Maj. Brodeur moved nearly 20 feet toward the killer, who died minutes after being shot by Air Force Capt. Nathan Nylander. Capt. Nylander also died in the gunfire.
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Two Camp Pendleton Marines Posthumously Awarded Navy Cross

Camp Pendleton Special Ops Marines To Posthumously Receive Navy Cross
KPBS
By Beth Ford Roth
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Two fallen Camp Pendleton Marines

Staff Sgt. Sky Mote, 27

"In his final act of bravery, he boldly remained in the open and engaged the shooter, now less than five meters in front of him. He courageously pressed the assault on the enemy until he received further wounds and fell mortally wounded."

Capt. Matthew Manoukian, 29

Each be posthumously awarded the Navy Cross at a base ceremony on Saturday.

"Outgunned, Manoukian continued to engage the enemy until he fell mortally wounded to the shooter's overwhelming fire."

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Murderer shows no remorse after killing Australian Diggers

Disgraced sergeant Hekmatullah shows no remorse for killing of Australian Diggers
The Australian
JEREMY KELLY IN KABUL NEWS LIMITED NETWORK
JANUARY 12, 2014

At least 140 Coalition troops, including seven Australians, have been killed in 85 so-called insider attacks, according to the Long War Journal, yet the perpetrators either are killed on the spot or trying to evade capture, or have successfully fled.

AN AFGHAN soldier on death row for shooting dead three Australian soldiers is unrepentant, saying he should be rewarded and would do it again if released.

Disgraced sergeant Hekmatullah said he became maniacal after an Afghan colleague on the base he was stationed shared with him a mobile phone clip that showed a report about US soldiers burning Korans in Afghanistan.

"There were some real nasty thoughts that I had in my head," he told News Corp Australia in an interview inside Kabul's Pol-e Charkhi prison.

"I saw that video and went crazy."

It is the first time the 19-year-old has spoken publicly and provides a rare insight into the motives of an Afghan security forces member who has turned their gun against a foreign mentor.
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'Guardian Angel' keeps peace between American and Afghan soldiers

'Guardian Angel' keeps peace between American and Afghan soldiers
NBC World News
By Ghazi Balkiz, reporter
November 27, 2013

LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan — U.S. troops and Afghan soldiers sat together, monitoring classified information streaming in on various screens earlier this week at the Tactical Command Center on Gamberi military base here in eastern Afghanistan.

But they were being watched: Staff. Sgt Howard Linville, an official “Guardian Angel,” was stationed by the door, observing the peace.

Dressed in full battle gear, the 28-year-old Iowan’s mission that morning was to protect and to prevent any “Green on Blue” violence, a term used by the U.S. military to describe attacks by rogue Afghan security personal on American soldiers. The Guardian Angel program was started in March 2012 after a spike in "Green on Blue" attacks on U.S. troops.

When Linville arrived in Afghanistan last July for his first tour in Afghanistan – he’d already done three in Iraq -- he volunteered to be part of the Guardian Angel team.

“I think it is a really good responsibility to have, to be able to keep the other guys safe out there. It is something I wanted to do,” he said.
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US soldier shot dead in 'insider attack' in south-eastern Afghanistan

US soldier shot dead in 'insider attack' in south-eastern Afghanistan
Man wearing Afghan security forces uniform opens fire on Nato-led coalition troops in tenth such incident this year
The Guardian
Sunday 13 October 2013

An Afghan man wearing an Afghan army uniform shot at US soldiers in south-eastern Afghanistan, killing at least one serviceman on Sunday, local officials and the Nato-led coalition said.

The so-called "insider attack" in Paktika province is the fourth in less than a month and is likely to strain already tense ties between coalition troops and their allies, with most foreign troops scheduled to withdraw by the end of next year. A Reuters tally shows Sunday's incident was the tenth this year, and took the death toll of foreign personnel to 15.

"A man wearing an Afghan army uniform shot at Americans in Sharana city [the provincial capital] near the governor's office," said an Afghan official, adding that two soldiers had been hit by the gunfire.
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Hundreds gather to pay respects to a fallen soldier

Final salute to a selfless hero
Times Union
By Dennis Yusko
June 18, 2013

Hundreds gather to pay respects to a fallen soldier

An Army honor guard marches across the tarmac to receive the casket carrying the remains
of Lt. Col. Todd Clark at the Albany International Airport
Monday June 17, 2013, in Colonie, N.Y.
(Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Mourners lined Wolf Road and other Colonie streets Monday to welcome home the body of fallen Army Lt. Col. Todd Clark.

A military jet carrying Clark's remains arrived just before 10 a.m. at Albany International Airport. A motorcycle escort accompanied the hearse and family members as they took a slow drive through Colonie.

"I just feel terrible about what happened to him and everyone else over there," said Wayne Chandler, a retired plumber from Colonie. "We're over there trying to help them, and they are killing us."

Clark, 40, died June 8 in eastern Afghanistan, where he and two other Americans were shot to death by a disgruntled Afghan soldier they were mentoring, Clark's family said.
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Three US soldiers killed in Afghanistan Green on Blue attack

Taliban kill four Nato soldiers in Afghanistan
Three US troops shot dead while Italian dies in bomb attack on armoured convoy
Staff and agencies
The Guardian
Saturday 8 June 2013

Four Nato soldiers have been killed in two separate Taliban attacks in Afghanistan.

Three US soldiers were killed in Paktika when a man in an Afghan army uniform turned his weapon on them, according to a spokeswoman for Afghanistan's Nato-led force.

In western Afghanistan, an attacker threw explosives into an armoured vehicle, killing an Italian soldier and wounding three others.

The Italian defence ministry said the attack in Farah province came as the soldiers were returning to their base from training Afghan security forces.
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Green on Blue attack leaves two Marines dead along with dog that tried to save them

Parker Marine killed in action in Afghanistan, dog tried to save him
POSTED: 05/06/2013
By Ryan Parker
The Denver Post

A 23-year-old Marine from Parker — and the Military Working Dog that was trying to save him — were killed during a combat operation in Afghanistan's Farah province Saturday, Major Jeff Landis of the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command told The Denver Post on Monday.

Cpl. David Sonka and his dog, Flex, were killed during an alleged insider attack, the Marine Corps Times reported Monday.

Staff Sgt. Eric Christian, 39, of Warwick, N.Y., also was killed, Landis said.
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5 US service members killed by IED and 2 killed in Green on Blue

7 US troops killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan
By Heath Druzin
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 4, 2013

KABUL – Eight coalition troops, including at least seven Americans, and one Afghan interpreter were killed in separate attacks across Afghanistan, reflecting a rising death toll in the country.

Five Americans and an Afghan interpreter were killed Saturday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's Kandahar province, according to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and local officials.

David Lakin, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, confirmed the U.S. deaths in the bombing.

Two more ISAF troops were killed Saturday in a so-called insider attack in western Afghanistan, according to a coalition news release. According to The Associated Press, the two victims were Americans who died after an Afghan National Army soldier fired on coalition troops. Another coalition servicemember was killed in northern Afghanistan, though ISAF did not immediately say where the attack took place or which country the servicemember is from.
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Green Beret among the dead in Afghanistan insider attack

U.S. Green Beret among those killed in Afghan attack
By Mark Morgenstein and Masoud Popalzai
CNN
March 11, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
A Green Beret is one of two Americans killed in Afghanistan, a U.S. official says
Two Afghans also are killed; 10 more Americans are wounded, coalition officials say
The assailant is dead, a U.S. official says
It was first fatal "green-on-blue" attack on coalition troops in two months

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Two Americans -- one a Green Beret -- were killed Monday when an assailant wearing an Afghan National Security Forces uniform opened fire on the group, U.S. and NATO's International Security Assistance Force officials said.

The shootout in eastern Afghanistan didn't last long, as coalition forces "returned fire and killed the attacker," a U.S. official told CNN.

Two Afghan army personnel also were killed, said Gen. Zahir Azimi, an Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman. A U.S. military official told CNN that at least 10 Americans were wounded as well.

The assailant fired at the victims with a truck-mounted machine gun, Azimi said, after a meeting between coalition and Afghan forces at a military base in the Jalrez district of Wardak province, about an hour west of Kabul. Green Berets and Afghan forces are based there, a U.S. official said.
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2 Service Members Killed Insider Attack