Nancy A. Youssef
As a naval aviator, Alvin Holsey trained to conduct missions that required precise targeting. For years, his job was to fly helicopters over potential targets and, using radar and other detectors, assess whether they posed a threat to the United States; if so, he had to determine whether to launch an attack.
On September 2, Holsey, now an admiral leading the U.S. military’s southern command, was put in charge of a mission unlike any that has come before: The United States was, without any warning or attempt at interdiction, striking suspected drug boats in the Caribbean Sea. Early into the mission, Defense officials told us, he privately raised concerns to Pentagon leadership about the operations, which have now struck at least 10 suspected drug-trafficking vessels that the U.S. redefined as “terrorist,” killing 43 people.
Holsey’s complaints led to a tense meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, officials said, after which the 37-year Navy veteran announced that he planned to leave his post next month, less than a year into what was supposed to be a three-year tenure. (Like other officials we spoke with for this story, they requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly. The Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment on Holsey’s departure.)
Since then, the strikes have escalated even as the legal questions around them have yet to be answered. There was another strike overnight, this one killing six, according to Hegseth. And today, the Pentagon announced that the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft-carrier strike group, a multi-ship force staffed by as many as 5,000 troops, would travel from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. The intent, the Pentagon said, is to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors.” The ships, which are currently on a port visit in Croatia, will take just over a week; their movement was the latest indication that what began as a campaign to pick off alleged drug runners as they ply the seas in small fishing vessels is evolving into something far larger.
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