Sartor was assigned to 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne). He died from injuries from enemy small arms fire, according to a Defense Department release.

He joined the Army in June 2001 and was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division as an infantryman. After he completed the Special Forces Qualification Course, Sartor was assigned to 10th SFG (A) in 2005.

Sartor had deployed numerous times, according to a release from U.S. Army Special Operations Command. He first deployed to Iraq as an infantryman in 2002. As a Green Beret, he was deployed in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010 with 2nd Battalion, 10th Group. He also deployed with the 10th to Afghanistan in 2017 and 2019.

“We’re incredibly saddened to learn of Sgt. Maj. James ‘Ryan’ Sartor’s passing in Afghanistan. Ryan was a beloved warrior who epitomized the quiet professional,” said Col. Brian R. Rauen, commander of 10th Group. “He led his soldiers from the front and his presence will be terribly missed.”

Sartor’s awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal with three oak leaf clusters, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal with three oak leaf clusters, Army Achievement Medal, Presidential Unit Citation Award, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, Valorous Unit Award with two oak leaf clusters, Meritorious Unit Citation with one oak leaf cluster and National Defense Service Medal, among others.

He has been posthumously awarded the Purple Heart medal and Bronze Star medal.

Sartor also earned the Special Forces Tab, Ranger Tab, Combat Infantryman Badge, Senior Parachutist Badge and Special Operations Diver Badge.

He is the 12th service member to have died this year in Afghanistan. Nine others have died in combat and two in non-combat related incidents.

Riley died in Nineveh province in a non-combat related incident, according to the DoD announcement.

He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Riley was a 13J fire control specialist on his first deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, Lt. Col. Martin L. O’Donnell, spokesman for the 101st Airborne, said on Sunday.

Riley enlisted in the service in October 2016. He was promoted to the rank of specialist in October 2018 and arrived in Iraq in December, O’Donnell said.

The incident is under investigation.

“We are deeply saddened by Ryan’s passing,” Col. Derek Thomson, commander of 1st BCT, 101st Airborne, said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to his family as together we mourn the loss of our brother-in-arms. As we grieve this tragic loss, we will also draw strength from his memory as his mates continue to build the capacity of the Iraqi Army and enable the defeat of ISIS.”

Riley’s awards and decorations include the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Korea Defense Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon and the Combat Action Badge.

The service member died in Nineveh province, according to a release Saturday from Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve.

The service member was not identified, pending notification of family members.

Further details about the incident were not available on Saturday, and “will be released as appropriate,” the release stated.

U.S. troops are serving in Iraq to advise and assist Iraqi forces in the fight against the Islamic State group. Operation Inherent Resolve is the U.S.-led mission to defeat ISIS.

The U.S. Army Special Operations Command International Sniper Competition had 21 teams moving and shooting through a series of events designed to push competitors in their sniper and reconnaissance tactical skills.

Teams from the Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard also competed in the event March 17-22 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. But in the end it was the soldiers who won the top awards.

The top two places went to snipers from USASOC. The Marine Corps team came in third.

The teams represented these organizations:

• USASOC
• 1st, 3rd, 7th, 10th, 19th, and 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne)
• 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, U.S. Marine Corps
• Marine Corps Special Operations Forces Advanced Sniper Course
• Marine Corps Scout Sniper
• Naval Special Warfare
• Unites States Coast Guard
• 1st Premier Regiment de Parachutistes d’Infanterie de Marine, France
• Kommando Spezialkräfte, Germany
• Army Ranger Wing, Ireland
• 9th Paratroopers Assault Regiment, Italy
• International Special Training Center

The shooters competed with their own sniper rifles, firing either 7.62 mm or 5.56 mm, their own carbines with 5.56 mm, and their own pistols in a variety of calibers.

They not only competed against each other and but against time limits, from four to eight minutes per event, with a limited quantity of ammo. The events change each year of the competition, each one designed by instructors from the Special Forces Sniper Course.

The instructors from the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School designed the events to challenge two-person teams in their ability to work together, and test their speed and accuracy in various types of environments.

The focus this year, in the 10th competition, was mental agility in real-world tactical applications, according to an Army release.

“This year we wanted to focus on bringing guys in who may shoot competitively on the side but the core tasks would revolve around real-world application,” said Master Sgt. Josh, a Special Forces Sniper Course instructor identified in the release only by his first name and rank. “We used sounds, artillery simulators, and bunkers to induce chaos and make them think through things.”

The winners:

• 1st place: USASOC
• 2nd place: USASOC
• 3rd place: Marine Corps Scout Sniper

Military Times remembers some of those who served and made their mark on the military and their country.

JANUARY

Former Sgt. Maj. Thomas Ellis, 97: He was one of six Tuskegee Airmen living in the San Antonio area when he died. He was drafted in 1942 and later spoke with pride in his unit — the first all-black Army Air Forces unit. “They had the cream of the crop in our outfit because we had to do everything better than the other outfits,” he said during a 2010 event honoring the Tuskegee Airmen. “No one will ever beat our record.” Jan. 2.

John Young, 87: After an early career as a Navy officer who flew the F-4 Phantom II, Young became one of NASA’s pioneers and one of a select few to walk on the moon. He later commanded the first space shuttle mission, aboard the shuttle Columbia in 1981. His 42-year career with NASA was longer than any other astronaut’s, encompassing the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs. Jan. 5.

Retired Brig. Gen. Anna Mae Hays, 97: The Army officer was the first female general in U.S. history, and the first nurse in the U.S. military to reach that rank. She led the Army Nurse Corps and worked toward changes to open opportunities for women to serve in uniform. Hays served in Burma, China and India during World War II and helped set up the first military hospital during the Korean War. Jan. 7.

Mort Walker, 94: The World War II veteran created the “Beetle Bailey” comic strip portraying some of the world’s best-known fictional Army characters. For decades, readers have followed the antics of Beetle, Sarge, Zero and others, and they can still find Beetle on the print pages of Army Times. Jan. 27.

MARCH

Retired Lt. Col. Floyd Carter Sr., 95: One of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, Carter served in three wars. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1944 and became a Tuskegee Airman — the first all-black unit of what was to become the U.S. Air Force — and served as a bombardier and navigator in World War II. He joined the Air Force Reserve in 1947, and the next year he took part in the Berlin Airlift. He served during the Korean and Vietnam wars, and flew U.S. troops and supplies into South Vietnam during the Tet Offensive in 1968. March 8.

Charles P. Lazarus, 94: Lazarus was a cryptographer in the U.S. Army during World War II. It was after his military service that he gained fame as the founder of Toys R Us stores, which became iconic across America. He died a day before the store chain went into liquidation. March 22.

APRIL

Sen. Daniel Kahikina Akaka, 93: The World War II veteran was the first Native Hawaiian in Congress, and he served there for more than three decades, first in the House and later in the Senate. He was in the Army Corps of Engineers during WWII and later became an advocate for veterans, introducing measures to improve services to vets and speaking out about their need for attention to all their wounds, both seen and unseen. Akaka, a Democraft, sponsored federal legislation that led to Medals of Honor for 22 Asian-American soldiers who fought during WWII, including the late Sen. Daniel Inouye. In 2012, Akaka chose not to run for re-election and he left the Senate the next year. April 6.

R. Lee Ermey, 74: The legendary Marine gained fame as an actor playing Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in the Stanley Kubrick film “Full Metal Jacket” and other tough military-guy roles. Known as “The Gunny,” the former drill instructor left the Marine Corps as a staff sergeant and later starred in movies and TV shows including “Gunny Time with R. Lee Ermey.” April 15.

MAY

Ernest Medina, 81. The former Army captain was a key figure in the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War. On March 16, 1968, he was a captain in command of U.S. soldiers who killed hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai, many of them women, children and elderly men who were reportedly unarmed. He was charged with responsibility for the massacre. At his court-martial, he said he didn’t know about the massacre until later and that he wasn’t with the troops who did the killing. He was acquitted. May 8.

Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Bannister, 57: A former commander of the 10th Mountain Division, Bannister was days from retiring and on transition leave when he died. He was running at the time and died of natural causes, medical examiners said. His last assignment was with U.S. Army Central at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. He commanded 10th Mountain Division for more than two years, leaving command in April 2017. He had multiple deployments to Afghanistan and also served at the Pentagon as director of strategy, plans and policy for the Army G-3/5/7. May 27.

JUNE

Frank C. Carlucci III, 87: He served as secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan, capping a career that began in diplomacy. He was a “transformative leader” who managed critical defense issues and rebalanced priorities during challenging times, said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. At the Pentagon, Carlucci faced crises in the Persian Gulf such as the USS Vincennes shooting down a civilian Iranian airliner, killing 290 people, in 1988. After leaving the Pentagon, he held executive positions at an investment group. June 3.

JULY

Retired 1st Sgt. Harold Eatman, 102: He was one of the original members of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. He was also one of the All American paratroopers who made all four combat jumps with the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II. Eatman signed up for the Army in 1942 and served with the 505th until September 1945. In 2015, he received France’s highest award, the Legion of Honor. July 6.

Adrian Cronauer, 79: The Air Force sergeant and disc jockey with the Armed Forces Radio Service became legendary during the Vietnam War and inspired the 1987 Robin Williams movie “Good Morning, Vietnam.” He would begin his early morning radio show “Dawnbuster” saying “Gooooood morning, Vietnam!” He defied traditional broadcasts and gave the fighting troops humor and current music to keep them entertained. He later served as an adviser to the deputy assistant secretary of defense from 2001 to 2009, according to his obituary. July 18.

Retired Rear Adm. Alene Duerk, 98: She was a trailblazer as the Navy’s first female admiral. Duerk trained as a nurse and in her early tours she served as a ward nurse at Naval Hospital Portsmouth, Virginia. She served at sea on the USS Benevolence and in 1945 she tended to wounded troops returning from fighting in World War II. In 1970, Duerk was named director of the Navy Nurse Corps, and she worked to expand Navy medical capabilities in a number of specialties. Duerk retired in 1975 but stayed involved in Navy medicine for many years afterward. July 21.

AUGUST

Retired Gen. John Abrams, 71: A former commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command, Abrams retired in 2002 after 36 years in the Army. He came from a family of four-stars: His father was retired Gen. Creighton Abrams Jr., a former Army chief of staff, and his brothers are Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, and retired Brig. Gen. Creighton Abrams III. Like his father, John Abrams had commanded V Corps. The younger Abrams also was commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and Joint Task Force Kuwait. Aug. 20.

Sen. John McCain, 81: As a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War, he was shot down and spent five years as a prisoner of war, becoming one of the best known veterans in America. In his more than 30 years in the Senate, he was a leading voice on defense-related issues and a persistent and influential advocate for the military. He ran for president twice unsuccessfully, against Gov. George W. Bush in 2000 and then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008. He remained one of the leading voices in the Republican Party. Before he died, he asked his former opponents Bush and Obama to speak at his funeral. Both former presidents paid him tribute during the service at the National Cathedral. Aug. 25.

Former Staff Sgt. Russell Brown, 96: He was one of the paratroopers who made all four combat jumps during World War II. Only about a dozen of the legendary paratroopers are still alive. Brown’s service was featured in “Four Stars of Valor: The Combat History of the 505th Parachute Infantry” and “All American, All the Way: The Combat History of the 82nd Airborne Division,” by Phil Nordyke. Brown had been an F Company mortar squad leader. Aug. 31.

OCTOBER

Retired Lt. Gen. Thomas Vandal, 58: The former commander of Eighth Army and 2nd Infantry Division died of cancer weeks after retiring from service. The veteran of the Iraq war officially retired Sept. 1. He was commander of Eighth Army and chief of staff of Combined Forces Command, South Korea, from February 2016 to January 2018. His assignments also included serving as commandant of the Army Field Artillery School and Army Fires Center of Excellence. A message from Eighth Army-Korea remembered him as “the epitome of the Eighth Army Motto: “Fight Tonight!” Oct. 7.

NOVEMBER

President George H.W. Bush, 94: As a young Navy pilot, he flew 58 missions and in World War II he was shot down over the Pacific. He later served as a congressman, director of the CIA, and spent eight years as vice president under President Ronald Reagan. He was elected president in 1988 and was defeated four years later in his bid for re-election. In later years he worked toward humanitarian causes, raising funds for disaster relief and forming a partnership with the man who defeated him in his final bid for president, Bill Clinton. He died months after his wife of more than 70 years, former first lady Barbara Bush, who died in April 17 at age 92. Nov. 30.

DECEMBER

Richard Overton, 112: He was the nation’s oldest World War II veteran and he was also believed to be oldest man in the United States. Overton volunteered for the Army in 1942, when he was in his 30s, and he was at Pearl Harbor shortly after the Japanese attack. He was a member of the Army’s 188th Aviation Engineer Battalion, an all-black unit that served on islands in the Pacific, according to an Army report. At a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in 2013, he was honored by former President Barack Obama. Overton once said the secret to his long life was smoking cigars and drinking whiskey, which he often did on the porch of his home in Texas.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Labrador retriever will join Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the late president’s son, former President George W. Bush, said in an Instagram post.

“As much as our family is going to miss this dog, we’re comforted to know he’ll bring the same joy to his new home, Walter Reed, that he brought to 41,” Bush wrote, referring to his father, who was the 41st U.S. president.

Jim McGrath, spokesman for the elder Bush, on Sunday tweeted the same photo of Sully, with the words: “Mission complete. #Remembering41.”

Sully is shown in front of the late President Bush’s flag-draped casket.

The dog is reportedly traveling with the casket on the flight to Washington, D.C., where tributes and services are planned in honor of Bush, who died on Friday night at age 94. He will be buried on Thursday in Texas, the Associated Press reports.

Sully came to the Bush family this summer, after training at America’s VetDogs, a nonprofit organization that prepares dogs for service to veterans and first responders. The president had a form of Parkinson’s disease and was often shown in a wheelchair toward the end of his life. Sully is trained for tasks such as opening doors, picking up items and summoning help.

“Sully will be joining the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center’s Facility Dog Program,” the organization posted on its Facebook page. Sully will work with other dogs assisting with physical and occupational therapy to wounded soldiers and active-duty personnel during their recovery at Walter Reed in Bethesda, Maryland, the post said.

Sully is named for former airline pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III, who famously landed a passenger jet on the Hudson River during an in-flight emergency, saving all passengers and crew in 2009.

The dog has an Instagram account, sullyhwbush, with about 117,000 followers. In one post he is shown with U.S. Marines, participating in their Toys for Tots program.

The hashtags tell their own story about Sully: #goodboy.

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A post shared by Sully H.W. Bush (@sullyhwbush)

The latest design concept for the memorial has been approved by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, according to an announcement Thursday from the World War I Centennial Commission.

Plans call for the memorial to built built at Pershing Park along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington by 2020.

Illustrations of the planned memorial feature a long bronze wall with figures of troops leaving their families, fighting and falling in combat, suffering wounds and ultimately returning. The plan shows the structure in a wooded park setting with a reflecting pool.

Designs for the memorial got a unanimous vote during a presentation Thursday by the commission’s project team. The project was presented to CFA, the National Park Service and the National Capital Planning Commission.

“We will continue to push forward in this effort. Our veterans deserve our best effort, and we owe it to them,” said WWI Centennial Commission chair Terry Hamby in a release.

Architect David Rubin and members of the commission said variations on the design may be developed further with the oversight organizations.

Congress in 2014 designated the site of the new memorial, which is intended to honor the Americans who served in the war, numbering more than four million men and women.

The memorial project is funded through private donations. Donations may be made at the commission’s website.

A memorial to the war already exists on the National Mall, a small structure with columns supporting a dome, placed by the citizens of the District of Columbia in the 1930s. But a national World War I memorial was never built, while the nation’s World War II memorial opened in 2004, and the site for the Desert Storm memorial was approved last month.

It is the first blood test for use in evaluating mild TBI to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to a Feb. 14 release from the Army Medical Materiel Development Activity.

“There are blood tests for many diseases on the market, but this is the first one dedicated to traumatic brain injury,” said Army Lt. Col. Kara Schmid, project manager for the Neurotrauma and Psychological Health Project Management Office at the USAMMDA at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

“For the first time, medical personnel won’t have to rely only on a description of the incident and symptoms, but will have access to an objective marker of injury to the brain, all from a simple blood test,” Schmid said. “This test holds promise to change the practice of medicine for brain injury.”

The goal is to have the blood test ready for fielding to the force in the next year to 18 months, Schmid told Military Times.

The blood test can help fill a critical need to quickly evaluate injured troops in remote locations, where there is a “knowledge gap” in assessing how severe the injury is, said Army Col. Sidney Hinds, coordinator of the DoD Brain Health Research Program.

The Defense Department has been working for more than a decade to find ways to diagnose and evaluate TBI in service members. TBI has been called the signature wound of the recent wars, with more than 375,000 cases diagnosed since 2000. More than four in five of those cases are considered to be mild TBI.

Of the 375,230 TBI cases, the Army has had 220,014 cases, with 50,937 in the Navy, 50,995 in the Air Force and 53,284 in the Marine Corps, according to DoD records.

The new blood test works by identifying two protein markers that are specific to the brain. After an injury, these rapidly appear in the blood. Medical professionals can then evaluate the patient and assess whether the patient needs a CT scan and other treatment.

Limited user testing will be done at three military treatment facilities in this fall, while two more configurations of the product are in development,Schmid said.

The current version of the analytical tool, also referred to as an assay, can be used in military hospitals with clinical laboratories. Deployed units would see future versions that are in the works for combat support hospitals and, potentially, battalion aid stations, Schmid said.

“We are currently developing a configuration of the assay that could be supported, logistically, at the point of injury,” Schmid said.

However, she added, decisions to deploy it will depend on several factors including approved uses for it, and what providers are available to use it at the point of injury.

The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command worked with Banyan Biomarkers, Inc. to develop the technology, and Banyan Biomarkers received FDA approval to market the brain trauma indicator, or BTI. The effort has also included scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, the University of Florida and partnerships with industry and academia.

“When we started this development effort, many people were skeptical that you could find brain proteins in the blood after a head injury, especially in those classified as mild TBI,” Schmid said. “This test will open the doors to what blood based biomarkers can do for the evaluation of TBI.”

Nakasone, who took command of Army Cyber Command in October 2016, has been leading an organization that has grown rapidly to stand up 41 cyber protection teams and the service’s new cyber career branch.

He has been cited as a frontrunner for the job in a report by Fifth Domain, a sister publication of Army Times.

President Trump is expected to name Nakasone to the job heading one of the nation’s top security agencies, according to a report Tuesday in Politico.

Rogers will soon be at the end of his four-year term in the dual role.

A spokesman for Army Cyber Command on Wednesday told Army Times the command could not comment at this time on whether Nakasone is being considered for the top job at NSA and Cyber Command.

Before commanding Army Cyber Command, Nakasone was the leader of the Cyber National Mission Force at U.S. Cyber Command. He has also been director of intelligence for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

At the helm of the Army’s newest command, Nakasone has been vocal about the way forward for the Army’s role in multidomain warfighting, and the progress Army cyber has seen.

A common narrative a year ago was that ISIS could operate in virtual space uncontested, and “there wasn’t much we could do about it,” Nakasone said recently at the International Conference on Cyber Conflict in Washington, D.C.

But in the past year “we have taken that on, and that narrative is no longer true,” he said.

An “incredible amount of work” has gone into creating Army cyber forces, doctrine and strategy in the last few years, Nakasone said, and the pace is faster than expected.

“We are running faster than our headlights,” he said at the cyber conference. “We are learning so much we are well forward of where we thought we’d be.”

The portable device would be used on the battlefield to assess combat-related traumatic brain injury at the point of injury. The effort will focus on moderate and severe TBI.

The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command awarded the nearly $10 million contract to Neural Analytics, Inc., which develops medical devices to measure, diagnose and monitor brain health and neural disorders, according to information from the company.

Neural Analytics will work with the Defense Department to develop the Lucid System, designed to measure and monitor physical signs of TBI.

The company wants to give troops a capability that any of them can use when immediate action may mean saving a life.

“Our objective is to build an instrument for someone with little or no training that they can use reliably,” Leo Petrossian, chief executive officer of Neural Analytics, told Army Times.

The idea is that any troop could use the device with about a half hour of training.

The software will do much of the thinking for the troops, who will likely be dealing with several things happening at once.

“The goal is not to give the combat medic more data,” Petrossian said, but to have the software do an assessment of a person’s brain condition and tell the medic, or anyone using the device, how severe it is so they can act faster for the right treatment.

Traumatic brain injury can occur without obvious symptoms, and may not be evident right away, researchers say.

TBI has been called the signature injury of the ongoing wars. Since 2000, more than 370,000 service members have had a first-time diagnosis of TBI, according to data from the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center.

In the Army, more than 217,000 soldiers across the three components have had a TBI diagnosis reported. The Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force each have had more than 50,000 service members diagnosed with TBI since 2000. These Defense Department numbers reflect only first-time brain injuries, so the actual total incidents of TBI among service members is higher.

TBI can have long-term effects on service members. Veterans have a greater risk than civilians of developing Alzheimer’s disease, and TBI is one of the factors that significantly increases that risk, according to a report this month from veterans’ advocacy group Veterans Against Alzheimer’s.

Brain injury can be hard to diagnose immediately, and it’s best to get treatment sooner rather than later, Petrossian said.

He said he and his company have spent four years developing software for assessing brain injury and recovery.

Now the project is to deliver the hardware to make the device rugged and deployable, and to power it for the mission, he said.

He anticipates the device will available to multiple branches of the military.

The $9,990,947 contract for the project was awarded at a “firm fixed price,” according to DoD documents.

The development is expected to take place within the next 18 months. The estimated completion date for the work is March 2019, according to DoD documents.

Petrossian estimated it would be about two years before the device might be far enough along for potential approval by the Army and the FDA.

The development of the device will also play a role in providing civilian versions of the technology for emergency medical services before the patient gets to the hospital, he said.

The Army has not decided at this point whether it would procure the device, officials told Army Times.

For now, Petrossian is envisioning what the device can do for the warfighter.

“It’s a win when the combat medic is excited to do the training,” he said. “It’s a win when it leads to better outcomes on a mission.”