Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler, American Patriot

Master Sergeant Joshua L. Wheeler, 39, became the first American soldier to die in combat against ISIS in Iraq. He is survived by his wife and four sons. Wheeler, a 20-year army veteran and Oklahoma native, was killed on Thursday, October 22, 2015. The US Delta Force service member, killed during a raid in Kirkuk Province in northern Iraq, is reported to have died from wounds received by enemy small-arms fire during an operation in which he and 27 US special operations commandos and 48 Kurdish militia raided a compound near the city of Kirkuk, freeing 70 Iraqi prisoners who were in imminent danger of being executed. ~~~~~ Sergeant Wheeler enlisted in the army as an infantryman in May 1995, and was deployed three times in combat operations to Iraq and Afghanistan before 2004. He was later assigned to Headquarters US Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and deployed another 11 times to Iraq and Afghanistan. Wheeler was a heavily decorated soldier who received 11 Bronze Stars and numerous other commendations. He was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart. The fatality marks the first US service member death from hostile fire in Iraq since President Obama ordered a training mission there in June 2014, although nine US service members have died from "non-hostile" causes in Iraq since 2014. ~~~~~ US officials said the plan had called for the elite Delta Force to stay back from the prison compound and let the Kurds do the fighting. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Wheeler rushed into a firefight to defend his Kurdish partners, enabling the mission to succeed. However, a helmet camera video of the raid later released by the Kurdish peshmerga militia seems to show a greater US presence in the operation. US authorities said the raiders killed and captured a number of militants and recovered what the Pentagon called a trove of valuable intelligence about the ISIS terrorist organization. ~~~~~ Sergeant Wheeler's death has refocused attention on the role of US troops in what the Obama administration has always emphasized is not a “combat” but a "training" mission. During a press briefing at the Pentagon on Friday, Secretary Carter said he envisaged more such Special Forces raids, but added it “doesn’t represent us assuming a combat role” but instead marks a “continuation” of the mission to train and assist Iraqi forces fighting ISIS. But later during the same briefing, referring to the raid that cost Sergeant Wheeler’s life, Carter said, “This is combat - things are complicated.” He warned Americans not to be under “any illusions” that US troops attached to Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq will not be in harm’s way : "We do not have combat formations there the way we had once upon a time in Iraq, or the way we have had in years past in Afghanistan. But we do have people who are in harm’s way, and who evidently have shown a willingness to put themselves in harm’s way in order to have mission success.” [Note: this sounds eerily like Hillary Clinton's statements trying to avoid responsibility for Ambassador Stevens' Benghazi death]. US Commander of Operation Inherent Resolve, Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland agreed with Carter, stressing in a statement that the raid did not represent a change in US military policy in Iraq. White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz concurred on Friday. These comments came one day after Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the prison raid was “a unique circumstance in which very close partners of the United States made a specific request for our assistance.” ~~~~~ Dear readers, according to the security council of the Kurdistan Regional Government, 48 Kurdish officers and 27 US Special Forces members were involved in the operation, 68 hostages were freed and 20 ISIS terrorists killed. By whatever name President Obama chooses to call it, Sergeant Wheeler gave his life in a successful Delta Force operation that saved 70 bloodied and terrorized Iraqis from mass execution. He is a hero in an undeclared war against jihadist terrorist evil. Combat is combat is combat is....