One of the U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers killed during the Oct. 4, 2017 ambush in Niger has been posthumously honored for a second time. Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black’s Bronze Star, given for his actions during the ambush, is being upgraded to the Silver Star.
The upgraded honor, eight years after Black’s death, comes after the Army received and reviewed new body camera footage from the firefight. The footage came from Sgt. 1st Class Jeremiah Johnson’s helmet camera, and shows more of Black’s actions during that battle.
Black will receive the Silver Star, the military’s third-highest honor, in a ceremony at the late soldier’s hometown of Pullayup, Washington on April 8.
Black was a medical sergeant serving with Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne). He was part of an 11-person Special Forces patrol, working with 30 Nigerien troops, near the village of Tongo Tongo, when more than 100 Islamic State militants ambushed them. The patrol was starting to head back to base when it came under heavy fire.
A Pentagon review of the ambush found that the vehicle with Black and two others in it was cut off from the rest of the convoy and soon surrounded. Black, along with Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson and Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, fought back. The new footage showed that Black, often while exposing himself to enemy fire, provided suppressing fire to cover his teammates. He fired so much that he ran out of ammunition early in the firefight. He was killed while moving to a new firing position to cover Wright and Johnson.
“His selfless sacrifice bought precious time for the detachment to break free of the ambush as he stoically accepted the brunt of the enemy’s attention,” the Army wrote.
Meanwhile Sgt. La David T. Johnson was killed when he, along with Nigerien soldiers, were cut off again. He shot at approaching Islamic State fighters but was overwhelmed and died in the firefight. The rest of the patrol was saved by a French and Nigerien response force.
News of the soldiers’ deaths in the ambush raised questions both about the U.S. mission in Niger and how a Special Forces patrol could be caught off guard like that. Investigations found that there was a lack of planning and pre-mission training that led to the patrol as a whole going wrong.
This is the second time Black has been honored for his actions. In 2019, the Army posthumously awarded him and Jeremiah Johnson the Bronze Star with “V” device; Wright and LaDavid Johnson were awarded the Silver Star. The citations then noted that each soldier took action “without regard for his own personal safety or life” in order to help one another. Jeremiah Johnson’s award was upgraded to a Silver Star in 2022. In 2021, Johnson and Johnson were both named honorary Green Berets.
“It is our honor to recognize SSG Bryan Black for his courage on that afternoon and for his service to the Nation as a Green Beret,” Brig. Gen. Kirk Brinker, head of deputy commander of U.S. Army Special Operations Command, said in a statement. “At USASOC we have a motto ‘without fail, without fear, without equal’ representative of our high standards, unwavering commitment, and exceptional capabilities our people possess. Bryan was all of those things.”
Niger had been a major part of the U.S. counterterrorism mission in Africa, and was home to two major airbases that the military used for drone flights. The United States military pulled hundreds of troops out of Niger last year, following an agreement with the military government that took control of the country in a 2023 coup.