USS Wasp Sailor's Death Under Investigation

U.S. Navy sailor dies of non-combat injury off Libya
UPI
By Andrew V. Pestano
Sept. 22, 2016

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Defense on Thursday said Devon M. Faulkner, a U.S. Navy aviation boatswain's mate airman, died from a non-combat-related injury while supporting the U.S.-led coalition operation against the Islamic State in Libya.

Faulkner, 24, from Raleigh, N.C., was assigned to the Norfolk, Va.-based USS Wasp, which left in late June for a 6-month tour in the central Mediterranean Sea. The incident that caused Faulkner's death on Tuesday is under investigation.
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God And The Service Go Hand-in-Hand

Benghazi Soldier: 'God And The Service Go Hand-in-Hand'
Town Hall
Cortney O'Brien
Dec 30, 2015

“God and the service kind of go hand-in-hand,” said Paronto. “You’re doing something honorable that’s above yourself.”

“Faith teaches you how to live with courage, how to live with honor, gives you something to strive for,” said. U.S. Army Ranger Kris “Tanto” Paronto. “To me, that’s the American spirit.”

On September 11, 2012, terrorists attacked the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya. We lost four brave diplomats. While the incident will forever be remembered as a tragedy, we would be remiss to forget the courage displayed by the six American servicemen who ran toward the fire. It is their story that is told in the new Paramount Pictures film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.

What was it that compelled these men to run toward danger? In a new featurette from Paramount Pictures ahead of the film's release, a few of the soldiers who defended the Benghazi compound explained that they received their strength from a higher power.
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Libya Hotel Attack Claimed Life of Camp Pendleton Veteran

Camp Pendleton Marine Veteran Killed In Libya Hotel Attack (Video)
KPBS News
By Beth Ford Roth
January 28, 2015

The only American killed in Tuesday's attack on a luxury hotel in Libya was a Marine Corps veteran who'd served at Camp Pendleton.

According to CNN, David Berry was one of ten people killed when gunmen stormed the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli. Five of dead were Libyans, four French, and Berry the sole American who lost his life.

Cliff Taylor, who is CEO of Crucible (a private security firm), told The New York Daily News that Berry was an employee of his company, and worked as a security manager in Tripoli.
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General Dempsey gets blamed for Benghazi

Intel Committee report slams Joint Chiefs chairman on Benghazi
Stars and Stripes
By Jon Harper
Published: January 15, 2014

WASHINGTON — The Senate Intelligence Committee singled out Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, of exhibiting poor leadership and insufficient planning in their report on the Sept. 2012 attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

The committee on Wednesday released a declassified report on the attacks by al-Qaida linked militants that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.

“The tenure of … General Martin Dempsey, has been marked by what we view as significant deficiencies in command,” the report states. “From Syria to Benghazi, there has been either a profound inability or clear unwillingness to identify and prevent problems before they arise. Given the known operating environment in Benghazi, much less North Africa, a strong military leader would have ensured there was a viable plan in place to rescue Americans should the need arise.”

“General Dempsey’s attempts to excuse inaction by claiming that forces were not deployed because they would not have gotten there in time does not pass the common sense test. No one knew when the attacks against our facilities in Benghazi would end, or how aggressive the attacks would be.
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Ambassador said no to military offers of security in Libya, officials say

Considering General Carter Ham has never been afraid to tell the truth I believe he is telling it now. If you do not know who General Ham is, he spoke out about his own battle with PTSD so that he could help his men do the same. He did it way back in 2008!

Ambassador said no to military offers of security in Libya, officials say
By Nancy A. Youssef
McClatchy Foreign Staff
Published: May 15, 2013

CAIRO -- In the month before attackers stormed U.S. facilities in Benghazi and killed four Americans, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens twice turned down offers of security assistance made by the senior U.S. military official in the region in response to concerns that Stevens had raised in a still-secret memorandum, two government officials told McClatchy.

Why Stevens, who died of smoke inhalation in the first of two attacks that took place late Sept. 11 and early Sept. 12, 2012, would turn down the offers remains unclear. The deteriorating security situation in Benghazi had been the subject of a meeting that embassy officials held Aug. 15, where they concluded they could not defend the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi. The next day, the embassy drafted a cable outlining the dire circumstances and saying it would spell out what it needed in a separate cable.

"In light of the uncertain security environment, US Mission Benghazi will submit specific requests to US Embassy Tripoli for additional physical security upgrades and staffing needs by separate cover," said the cable, which was first reported by Fox News.

Army Gen. Carter Ham, then the head of the U.S. Africa Command, did not wait for the separate cable, however. Instead, after reading the Aug. 16 cable, Ham phoned Stevens and asked if the embassy needed a special security team from the U.S. military. Stevens told Ham it did not, the officials said.
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3 State Department resignations after Benghazi report

3 Resign at State Department After Libya Attack Report
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: December 19, 2012

WASHINGTON — Three State Department officials resigned on Wednesday after an independent panel severely criticized the “grossly inadequate” security arrangements at an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, where Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in an attack.

The officials who resigned were Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security; Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security; and Raymond Maxwell, a deputy assistant secretary who had responsibility for the North Africa region, an administration official said.

The report left unscathed some more senior officials who oversaw those bureaus, including Ambassador Patrick Kennedy, the undersecretary for management. Mr. Kennedy has vigorously defended the State Department’s decision-making on Benghazi before Congress.

Thomas R. Pickering, the former ambassador who led the independent review, told reporters at a news conference Wednesday that most of the blame for what happened in Benghazi should fall on officials in the bureaus of diplomatic security and Near East affairs.
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CIA deputy: Rice got initial assessment on Libya

CIA deputy: Rice got initial assessment on Libya
The Associated Press
Published: November 15, 2012

WASHINGTON -- The deputy CIA director has told lawmakers that U.N. ambassador Susan Rice was provided with an unclassified version of what happened during the deadly Sept. 11 attack in Libya that later proved to be incorrect.

Mike Morell briefed members of the House Intelligence committee on Thursday. Emerging from the session, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said Morell told the panel that Rice was given an initial assessment that a spontaneous protest over an anti-Muslim video evolved into an attack on the consulate.
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What Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham Can Learn from Sherlock Holmes

UPDATE
McCain did a press conference instead of going to the hearing.

CNN’s Dana Bash reported on air that McCain, when questioned by a producer on the subject on Capitol Hill, not only refused to answer, but grew “very angry":

I have to tell you something that just happened on Capitol Hill, and that is our Senate producer Ted Barrett just ran into John McCain and asked about something that we're hearing from Democrats, which is John McCain is calling for more information to Congress, but he had a press conference yesterday instead of going to a closed briefing where administration officials were giving more information. Well, Ted Barrett asked John McCain about that, and it was apparently an intense, very angry exchange and McCain simply would not comment on it at all.

Pentagon timeline shows military response to Libya attack

Pentagon timeline shows military response to Libya attack
By LOLITA C. BALDOR AND DONNA CASSATA
The Associated Press
Published: November 9, 2012

WASHINGTON — New Pentagon details show that the first U.S. military unit arrived in Libya more than 14 hours after the attack on the consulate in Benghazi was over and four Americans, including the ambassador, were dead.

A Defense Department timeline obtained by The Associated Press underscores how far the military response lagged behind the Sept. 11 attack, due largely to the long distances the commando teams had to travel to get to Libya.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his top military adviser were notified of the attack about 50 minutes after it began and were about to head into a previously scheduled meeting with President Barack Obama. The meeting quickly turned into a discussion of potential responses to the unfolding situation in Benghazi, where militants had surrounded the consulate and set it on fire. The first wave of the attack at the consulate lasted less than two hours.
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