Latest news with #VanAntwerp
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How this special operations leader ended up shuttering a US embassy and destroying sensitive materials just before Russia invaded Ukraine
A US Army special operations leader recalled shuttering the US embassy in Kyiv before Russia's invasion. Col. VanAntwerp said destroying sensitive information and clearing the office was a tough moment. VanAntwerp and his team had been on the ground in Ukraine to help train the Ukrainians. Just weeks before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a US special operations leader that Business Insider met last week found himself unexpectedly shuttering America's embassy in Kyiv. It was an unusual job, one for which US Army Col. Lucas VanAntwerp, then-commander of 10th Special Forces Group, had not specifically prepared, but that was the mission. In early 2022, Russian forces surrounded Ukraine, raising concerns it had plans to launch a full-scale invasion. US intelligence had assessed that Russia had moved military equipment and soldiers to borders along Ukraine, and the Ukrainians were preparing the troops and civilians for an attack. Russia invaded on February 24, 2022, bombarding Ukraine and launching assaults aimed at swiftly seizing Kyiv. Shuttering the embassy in those early days before Russia's invasion began wasn't as simple as turning off the lights and locking the doors. VanAntwerp and his team had to destroy any and all sensitive information to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Russian army. "There is a part of you in the moment that's like, 'I don't really know what I'm doing,'" VanAntwerp, now the director of US Army Special Operations Command's Capability Development Integration Directorate, told BI during last week's USASOC Capabilities Exercise at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. VanAntwerp got the call in early 2022 to shuffle his forces out of Kyiv. At that point, he and his team took over embassy security. He said that the 10th Special Forces Group had built trust with the Ukrainian military after long working with its operators since Russia's initial invasion in 2014. The goal for the US special operations advisors stationed in the country had been to help Ukrainian operators break away from their Soviet-style approaches and adopt more Western-style methods, changing how the individual soldier and the critical non-commissioned officer make battlefield decisions. "I'm not going to say we transformed everything," VanAntwerp explained, but "it was a big contributor to how they thought and how their SOF operated." Empowered NCOs have given Ukraine combat and decision-making flexibility that is vastly different from Russia's top-down approach that requires generals for battlefield decision-making, keeping them close to the front lines. When it was time to evacuate the embassy and shutter it, VanAntwerp got the call because of the relationship he and his team had cultivated in Ukraine. Embassy staff were moved to Lviv, and then the 10th Special Forces Group leader and his team shifted over to security and began sanitizing the diplomatic outpost. With an invasion looming, the amount of potentially sensitive materials in the embassy that needed to be swiftly removed was vast. Servers and computers were destroyed, and the personal effects of workers were tossed out. That experience in particular, VanAntwerp said, was eerie "because you're still sitting there seeing pictures of people's families on their cubicles, pictures of people's kids." When they wrapped, the office looked normal but empty. Once the embassy was cleared, the team went outside and watched the US flag come down. "It was probably one of the toughest moments of my military career, standing there watching that happen," he said. Despite the unusual nature of this particular job, VanAntwerp explained that it's often typical for special forces to fulfill roles that are sometimes out of the ordinary, particularly because of the relationships operators build with partners and allies. That is a key aspect of SOF's role in the US military, especially as it shifts from decades focusing on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency to great-power competition, with US rivals like China and Russia front of mind. Various SOF leaders have highlighted that operator presence around the world and the relationships that they have built are vital to success. VanAntwerp noted the importance of the partnership between the US and Ukraine, as well as between the US and Europe as a whole. "We're able to tie all that together with a very small footprint, small signature," he said, "and it really is all based on relationships." Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US Army will not conduct Typhon live-fire at exercises in Philippines
The U.S. Army will not conduct a live-fire operation of its Mid-Range Capability missile system, known as Typhon, during exercises in the Philippines this spring, according to the service commander in charge of U.S. Army Pacific operations. 'We are not planning to conduct live-fire in the Philippines right now,' Maj. Gen. Jeffrey VanAntwerp, deputy chief of staff of operations, plans and training at U.S. Army Pacific, told reporters in a media briefing Thursday. The news comes almost a year after the Army's 1st Multi-Domain Task Force transported a Typhon launcher to Luzon, Philippines, as part of that year's Salaknib exercise — marking the first time the new capability, deemed vital to the U.S. Army's strategy in the Indo-Pacific, had been deployed. The missile system traveled more than 8,000 miles from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, aboard a C-17 Globemaster cargo aircraft on a 15-hour flight. Typhon has since remained in the country, angering China, which has criticized the move and warned it could destabilize the region. Officials have yet to fire the missile system in the Philippines. It is unclear how long Typhon will remain in the Philippines or if it will go elsewhere in the Pacific theater. In response to a question on where the system might be headed next, VanAntwerp said, 'We're making plans, but I have to defer to [the Office of the Secretary of Defense].' The Lockheed Martin-built system, consisting of a vertical launch system that uses the Navy's Raytheon-built Standard Missile-6 and Tomahawk missiles, can strike targets in the 500- to 2,000-kilometer range. The complete system has a battery operations center, four launchers, prime movers and modified trailers. The missile system is capable of sinking ships, hitting land targets at long ranges and is 'mobile and survivable,' VanAntwerp said. As part of this year's Salaknib and Balikatan military drills between the U.S. and the Philippines, the Philippine Navy plans to fire C-Star, Spike Non-Line-of-Sight and Mistral missiles. The country's military will not fire its Brahmos medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile, which has a higher price point per shot. Typhon's presence in the Philippines has prompted other countries in the Pacific region to inquire about the possibility of hosting the weapon system, a U.S. defense official recently told Defense News. The Army knew Typhon would have a strong deterrent effect, but didn't expect it to have an effect as great as has been observed over the past year, the official said, particularly in rattling China. The biggest challenge now is transporting the capability around the Pacific — if the desire is to rotate it in and out of countries — due to the high costs of moving equipment, the official said. Meanwhile, the Army's 3rd MDTF, headquartered in Hawaii, is slated to soon receive its Typhon battery, which the service has certified at JBLM. 'We're constantly looking for opportunities to exercise capability like that forward in theater,' Col. Michael Rose, the 3rd MDTF commander, said recently. 'We learn enormous lessons by bringing capability into the theater.' Rose said the Army anticipates the Typhon supporting Operation Pathways, a series of year-round exercises designed to strengthen cooperation with regional allies and deter China. Noah Robertson and Leilani Chavez contributed to this report.
Axios
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
"Shucked," a Broadway musical about corn, heads to the Civic Center
For over a year, Quinn VanAntwerp, a cast member in "Shucked," has circled Des Moines on his travel sheet as a place he'd like to tour the musical. Driving the news: On Tuesday, that's becoming a reality as the Tony Award-winning Broadway show stops at the Civic Center while on its first tour across the U.S. We chatted with VanAtwerp, who plays Gordy Jackson, a "lovable bad guy." 🌽 What it is: While he doesn't want to reveal too much, VanAntwerp says the show is based in an "ambiguous" Midwest town. Expect to laugh throughout — there are 189 "corny" jokes. "It's one of those great shows where I actually think that going in blind without any real expectation of what you're about to see is the most fun way to go in," VanAntwerp says. 👋 First Iowa visit: It's the show's first North American tour and "it's probably a lot of pressure for us to get it right in Iowa," he says. "New York was a great run, but being on the road feels like this show is kind of coming home to its people," he says. 🚗 Touring life: VanAtwerp's wife and their 2-year-old daughter are also on the "Shucked" tour. His wife is a swing on the show who helps fill in on roles, and he says their family gets to stay in a new house every week. If you go: The show runs Jan. 28-Feb. 2 at the Des Moines Civic Center.
