The Pentagon said on Saturday, November 24, that a U.S. service member was killed in action in Afghanistan.
No details of the individual’s identity have been revealed yet.
The release of that information is pending the notification of the individual’s next of kin, as Stars and Stripes reported and as Fox News noted as well.
So far this year now, 10 Americans have died in combat action in that country.
Army National Guard Maj. Brent Taylor, a Utah mayor who was on leave of absence, was killed earlier this month in an insider attack in Kabul, Afghanistan.
He was fatally shot by an Afghan commando he was training.
Taylor had been serving his fourth deployment in Afghanistan.
He had been expected to return home to his family in January 2019.
“On Monday [November 5], my two oldest sons joined me and their proud but devastated grandparents in welcoming their father, Major Brent Russell Taylor, back on to U.S. soil and back home to the land he has always loved so dearly,” Jennie Taylor, Brent Taylor’s widow, said recently.
“To call it a sobering event would be an unspeakable understatement. To say that our hearts are anything less than shattered would be nothing short of true deceit.”
She also said, “And yet to deny the sacred honor that it is to stand that close to some of the freshest blood that has been spilled for our country would be absolute blasphemy.”
She added, “I personally cannot yet find words adequate to tell you all that I feel as I stand here this morning by the dawn’s early light. So I echo the words someone recently shared with me: ‘Brent may have died on Afghan soil, but he died for the success of freedom and democracy in both of our countries.'”
Another service member was also injured in the very same attack, Fox News noted.
The United States of America has been involved in the conflict in Afghanistan for an astounding 17 years.
The war began in the fall of 2001.
And over 2,400 United States military personnel have lost their lives in the effort.
Right now, some 14,000 U.S. service members are currently stationed in Afghanistan.
The primary duty of the individuals stationed there is to train and aid the Afghan forces who are battling the Taliban, as Reuters reported.
On this Thanksgiving weekend and always, all Americans should be grateful to these men and women for their sacrifice, their bravery, their work on behalf of this nation — and all that they do, whether seen or unseen, to keep our country safe and to preserve our freedom.
“The price of freedom surely feels incredibly high to all those of us who know and love our individual soldier,” as Jennie Taylor wrote recently.
“But the value of freedom is immeasurable to all who know and love America, and all that she represents.”
She also wrote, “May God forever bless America.”
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