Sgt. Johnson may have been alive when he was left behind.
PENTAGON -- The American soldiers killed in Niger were helping that country's military combat Islamic militants. The exact details of the Niger ambush have been slow to emerge, including the military's immediate response.
After the bodies of three American soldiers were brought out, Pentagon officials believed that Sgt. La David Johnson was still alive somewhere on the battlefield. For several hours, they tracked a locator beacon, which then became intermittent and finally faded out. By the time they found him two days later he was dead, raising the awful possibility that an American soldier was left behind -- a possibility which the Pentagon's Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie flatly rejected.
"I'll tell you, categorically, that from the moment of contact, no one was left behind, neither U.S. -- our partner Nigerian forces or French forces were on the ground actively searching for this soldier," McKenzie said.
The first reinforcements to arrive were French aircraft, starting about 30 minutes after the ambush was reported, according to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/niger-ambush-soldiers-killed-new-details/
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... like, why were they keeping the whole thing hush-hush?
But I hope for Sgt. Johnson's sake, it's not true.
