IN SYRIA RECENTLY

The mess continues over there
By CLAUDIA GRISALES | Stars and Stripes | Published: February 4, 2019



WASHINGTON — A group of key congressional members are demanding top military officials explain how they will update a series of medical rules and a failed waiver process that led to the deployment of a Navy linguist killed in Syria.

Navy Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, 35, a mother of two, was killed last month by a suicide bomber at a restaurant in the Syrian city of Manbij. She was on her fifth combat tour.

Last fall, Kent was to attend a clinical psychology doctoral program in lieu of the deployment. But the Navy reversed the move because she previously had cancer and rejected her waiver applications; instead, she received orders to deploy to Syria.

She was killed less than two months later.