Council of Colonels w guest Michelle Black Nov 15th, 2021

The Oct. 4, 2017, ambush of a U.S. Army Special Forces team by militants aligned with the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara caught the American public and the U.S. military flat-footed. The ambush sparked debate over the role U.S. forces played in Africa by shining a spotlight on far-flung missions many people weren’t even aware were underway.

The U.S. military investigation that followed did little to tamp down on the questions that bothered Michelle Black, the widow of Green Beret Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, who was among the four U.S. soldiers and five Nigeriens slain in the ambush.