by Allen West
I remember sitting in the House Armed Services Committee hearing on Benghazi and hearing then-Secretary of Defense Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dempsey telling us it simply wasn’t possible to move any resources in for support at that time. Thanks to an article in the Military Times, we get a window into the forces that were available this past weekend to secure the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.
As reported, “Dozens of U.S. Marines and at least seven military aircraft were involved in Saturday’s embassy evacuation operation in Libya. Military officials have not disclosed the precise number of Marines assigned to the embassy in Libya, but NBC News reported Saturday that 80 “heavily armed” Marines were among the 158 Americans who vacated the compound. Embassy staff and their Marine escorts left the capital around 5 a.m.”
“The operation lasted five hours, ending without incident, officials said. Overhead, three Air Force F-16 fighters and two Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys kept watch on the convoy, said Tom Saunders, a spokesman for U.S. Africa Command in Germany. The aircraft were accompanied by an unspecified number of surveillance drones.” (Read the entire story at the link below)