Heroes killed in ISIS fight always wanted to serve
Report: Friendly fire eyed
Sgt. Joshua Rodgers, one of two Army Rangers killed fighting ISIS in Afghanistan this week, was determined to join the elite fighting unit, his high school coach told the Herald.
“I went around asking all the kids what they wanted to do senior year and he said ‘Ranger.’ He had no doubt,” said Bryan Thomas, head track coach and co-defensive coordinator for the football team at Normal Community High School in Normal, Ill.
“He was a hard worker and an outside linebacker who could get after you on a football field, but then pick you up,” the history teacher added. “He was a cleancut, nice kid. We were all talking about him today in school.
“We just want to support the family now,” he added of the 22-year-old’s kin.
Rodgers and Sgt. Cameron Thomas, 23, of Kettering, Ohio — both assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment out of Fort Benning, Ga. — were identified yesterday by the Department of Defense as the soldiers killed during a firefight Wednesday night with ISIS in eastern Afghanistan.
The U.S. forces were accompanying Afghan troops on a raid when they came under attack in Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan, officials said.
The raid was in Mohmand Valley, the same region where the “Mother Of All Bombs” was dropped two weeks ago on an ISIS target.
The Army Times reported last night military officials are investigating if the Rangers were killed by friendly fire. The paper added AC-130 gunships, Apache helicopters, F-16 fighters and drones were called in to help the soldiers during the fierce fight.
Other soldiers on the mission disputed reports of friendly fire, the Army Times added.
The mission was targeting ISIS’s regional branch for South Asia, known as ISIS-K — for the Khorasan province — and highranking ISIS-K leaders in Afghanistan were targeted, NBC News reported.
“The fight against ISIS-K is important for the world, but sadly, it is not without sacrifice,” Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said in a statement sent to NBC.
“My heart goes out to the families for the loss,” Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Herald Thursday during an event honoring veterans in Quincy. “I just know it was two Rangers doing what great soldiers do and I’m very sorry to have lost them.”
The other Ranger killed also went straight into the military, according to media reports from his home state.
Thomas was born in Colorado Springs, but grew up in Kettering, where he enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.
A third soldier suffered a head wound in the attack and was airlifted to safety.