Sgt. Maj. Thomas Payne Will Be 1st Living Delta Force Member to Receive Medal of Hono

[Peter1469]

Sgt. Maj. Thomas Payne Will Be 1st Living Delta Force Member to Receive Medal of Honor

A hostage rescue mission goes immediately FUBAR - then 1SGT Payne saved the day. Note: I have heard that hostage rescue in combat environments is one of the toughest missions for SF.

Seconds after U.S. military helicopters landed on their objective, Army commandos knew their mission to rescue 70 Islamic State-held hostages was off to a chaotic start."Ramp drops; it's complete brown-out, part of the compound was already in a pretty intense firefight," Sgt. Maj. Thomas "Patrick" Payne recalled in a video interview released by the Army this month.

Then-Sgt. 1st Class Payne was the assistant team leader of a group of operators attached to 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, which joined Kurdish commandos on a Oct. 22, 2015, nighttime raid to liberate Iraqi hostages from the ISIS prison compound in the northern town of Hawija.


Fierce close-quarters fighting during the raid claimed the life of Payne's teammate, Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, before the hostages were freed. For his actions that day, Payne will become the first living Delta Force member to receive the Medal of Honor, multiple sources confirmed to Military.com. Army officials have identified Payne as a Ranger, but they have not publicly confirmed his affiliation with the elite and highly secretive Delta Force.

Read the rest of the article at the link.

[MMC]

Sua Sponte.....Huah.

[carolina73]

St Major Payne?

[Peter1469]

It is understandable the Army is identifying him as a Ranger- these days the majority of Delta comes from the Regiment. But it is certainly not good that the press is identifying him as Delta. That is likely going to land him with a desk job from here on.

[Peter1469]