Fort Benning soldier killed during apparent insider attack in Afghanistan

A soldier assigned to assigned to 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning died Saturday in Afghanistan from wounds suffered in an apparent insider attack, according to the Department of Defense.

Cpl. Joseph Maciel of South Gate, Calif., died in the Tarin Kowt district, Uruzgan Province. He was part of the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, a unit that was established earlier this year. The unit immediately deployed to Afghanistan to train Afghan fighters.

Maciel is believed to be the first soldier from the new unit to be killed in combat.

The incident is under investigation, according to the Department of Defense news release. No additional details of the attack were available.

Maciel served in the Army for two years and this was his first assignment. He had been in Afghanistan since February. Maciel is survived by his father and mother.

“Cpl. Maciel was an excellent soldier beloved by his teammates and dedicated to our mission. He will be greatly missed by the entire Black Lion family. Our prayers are with his family and friends during this difficult time,” said Lt. Col. David Conner, Maciel’s battalion commander.

Maciel’s decorations included the Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Army Service Ribbon.

The 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, which went from concept to reality in less than nine months, wasted no time getting to work. After spending the better part of January training at Fort Polk (Louisiana), the unit deployed to Afghanistan in late February.

A few weeks before the unit left for Afghanistan Gen. Mark A. Milley, chief of staff of the U.S. Army, came to Fort Benning to officially activate the unit.

"Today is not just any routine activation ceremony,” Milley said on Feb. 8. "Today’s ceremony, in my mind, begins a new approach for the Army. A new asset for a critical mission that the U.S. Army has had for many, many years.”

This type of training of Afghanistan soldiers had been done in the past by Special Forces, Rangers and by pulling soldiers from other regular Army units. The 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade was comprised of about 800 carefully selected soldiers, most of them with combat experience. Additional units for the brigade are currently under formation.

“We often treated the mission as peripheral, when in fact it was central,” Milley said at Fort Benning. “The ad hoc approach had very mixed results — some good and some not so good. Most critically, the sourcing of a security force mission with the leadership of brigade force combat teams, we had to rip those teams apart, strip them of their leaders. Separate the leaders from their soldiers.”

The day after Milley spoke to the SFAB soldiers, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, a former Marine Corps general, came to Fort Benning to speak to the soldiers. During a White House briefing in advance of his trip to Fort Benning, Mattis talked about the importance of this unit and its mission.

“To advance to the security of our nation, these troops are putting themselves in harm’s way,” Mattis told the White House press corps. “In effect, signing a blank check payable to the American people with their lives.”

This story was originally published July 8, 2018 at 6:21 PM.