The Pentagon on Friday released the name of the U.S. soldier killed during a Special Operations raid Thursday morning in Iraq.
Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler, 39, of Roland, Okla., suffered a gunshot wound during a firefight between Islamic State mililtants, and Kurdish forces and U.S. Delta Force soldiers as the Americans and their Kurdish allies stormed a prison in Hawijah, Iraq, in an attempt to free a number of hostages held by the Islamic State. U.S. officials said Thursday that the soldier succumbed to his wounds in Irbil after receiving medical treatment.
U.S. officials said the Delta team that launched the Hawijah mission had not expected to enter the compound or take part in a firefight. According to a senior defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the operation, the American forces, after reaching the area around the compound with the Kurdish forces, remained near the helicopters while the peshmerga advanced toward the compound. The militants opened fire, pinning down the Kurdish troops along the wall surrounding the compound; some were wounded. The U.S. team made a decision to advance to help the peshmerga.
Wheeler “ran to the sound of the guns, and he stood up,” Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday. During that maneuver, he was wounded.
“All the indications are it was his actions and that of one of his teammates that protected those who were involved in breaching the compound and made … the mission successful,” Carter said.
Carter said the rescued hostages reported that they had expected to be executed later that same day, following morning prayers. U.S. officials and the hostages said graves had already been dug on the militant compound.
The secretary added that he expected the United States would do more raids of this kind. “When we find opportunities to do things that will effectively prosecute the campaign, we’re going to do that,” he said. “And this is an example of a case where we could do something we alone had the capability to do, and I’m absolutely prepared to do that.”
Carter said that he would be present with Wheeler’s family when the soldier’s body returns to the United States on Saturday.
Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler, 39, assigned to Headquarters, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, N.C., was killed in action Oct. 22, while deployed in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. Wheeler marks the first combat death in Iraq since the end of the last war there in 2011. He was assigned to the headquarters unit at the U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C.
Wheeler graduated from Muldrow High School in the small eastern Oklahoma town of Muldrow in 1994. In May 1995, he joined the Army, where he would spend the next 15 years on the front line. Wheeler enlisted first as an infantryman with the 24th Infantry Regiment, then he moved to the vaunted 75th Ranger Regiment and finally, in 2004, to the Army’s Special Operations Command.
During his career, he wore many hats, from fire team leader to antitank section leader. All told, at the time of his death, he had deployed 14 times in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an Army release.
He is survived by his wife and four sons, the Army said.
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First American soldier is killed in combat in Iraq since 2011 troop exit
