October 19th 2017, the current White House Chief of Staff for U.S, John Francis Kelly gave a speech on the deaths of the four military members, down in Niger ambush.

According to the Fox News, three of the dead members were identified already, who are Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, 35, from Puyallup, Wash., enlisted in the Army in 2009 and has received numerous awards, including the Army Good Conduct Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, a statement said.

Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson, 39, from Springboro, Ohio, joined in 2007 and has earned the Army Commendation Medal and Army Achievement Medal, among other distinctions. Staff Sgt. Justin Wright, 29, from Lyons, Ga., enlisted in 2012 and also has won numerous awards, such as the Joint Service Achievement Medal and Special Forces Tab.

During the speech, one of the reporters asked General Kelly, “What are the specifics about the particular incident happened in Niger? And why were they in Niger?” while people were being told that Semper Fi weren’t in armored vehicles and there was no air cover while in Niger.

Kelly first claimed that there was an investigation going on down in Niger.

“Well,” General Kelly said, “I would start by saying there is an investigation. Let me back up and say, the fact of the matter is, young men and women that wear our uniform are deployed around the world and there are tens of thousands, near the DMZ in North Korea, in Okinawa, waiting to go -- in South Korea -- in Okinawa, ready to go. All over the United States, training, ready to go. They’re all over Latin America. Down there, they do mostly drug and addiction, working with our partners -- our great partners -- the Colombians, the Central Americans, the Mexicans.”

Mentioning the drug and addiction taking place in Latin America, Kelly indirectly explained our target and goal of going down to Niger. Right after the explanation of why sending the investigators down to Niger, General Kelly gave the elaboration on why having the investigation in Niger.

He said, “So why were they there? They’re there working with partners, local - all across Africa - in this case, Niger - working with partners, teaching them how to be better soldiers; teaching them how to respect human rights; teaching them how to fight ISIS so that we don’t have to send our soldiers and Marines there in their thousands. That’s what they were doing there.”

In order to ensure the we have efficient and effective strategy of sending the soldiers to the battlefield, soldiers were sent to get trained and get to know about the regions and enemies before the time comes.

<Jeff Mao / Crean Lutheran HS11th grade>