This Week in DOW: National Guard Provides Storm Relief, Narco-Terrorists Taken Out, Deterrence Lauded

This week, over 5,500 National Guard members mobilized across 16 states and Washington to deliver critical aid and restore safety to people stricken by Winter Storm Fern that dropped snow and ice from the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic to the South, Jan. 24-25.

Across the country, guard members have been rescuing hundreds of stranded motorists on icy roads, supporting local authorities with patrols and logistics and escorting essential health care workers to hospitals, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said today during the department's Weekly Sitrep video.

She also pointed out the exceptional work of the National Guardsmen in the nation's capital, where soldiers and airmen already mobilized on federal crime prevention duty as part of the D.C. Safe and Beautiful mission pivoted to storm response.

"As the storm's peak subsides, guardsmen remain on high alert against lingering threats, embodying the unyielding spirit of service that safeguards our nation," Wilson said.

Yesterday, Undersecretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael formed the new Science and Technology Innovation Board.

Resulting from a merger of the Defense Innovation Board and the Defense Science Board, the newly formed STIB will replace "the previous 'alphabet soup' boards that bogged down our processes and slowed ingenuity," Wilson said.

She added that the STIB will be composed of a uniform board of scientists and private-sector experts who will work to cultivate a faster decision-making process, allowing the Pentagon to deliver the latest technologies to warfighters.

"These efforts help to ensure that the services always have an advantage over our adversaries and that they never enter a fair fight," Wilson said.

Also yesterday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth attended President Donald J. Trump's first cabinet meeting of 2026, during which the secretary lauded the deterrent effect of the U.S. military's capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

"No other military in the world ... could have executed the most sophisticated, powerful raid, not just in American history, I would say in world history," Hegseth said.

"What those men did, going downtown, in another country ... in the most secure base in the middle of the night - without anybody knowing until those simultaneous bombs dropped three minutes before the helicopters dropped - no other country could coordinate that; no other president would have been willing to empower those warriors that way," he added.

Lastly, on Jan. 23, and at Hegseth's direction, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by designated terrorist organizations.

"Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," Wilson said, adding that two narco-terrorists were killed in the operation.