SETAF Africa Minute: Episode 17

For 1st Lt. Francesco La Torre, the Army’s first drone-on-drone kill wasn’t the Hollywood moment most would imagine. “In A New Hope, Luke Skywalker flies an X-Wing through the Death Star trench and blows it up,” La Torre said. “This wasn’t like that. It was way harder. Honestly, it felt more like Darth Vader shooting down rebel pilots. He might be the villain, but he’s also one of the best pilots in the galaxy.”

Few residents of Hagerstown, Maryland, realize their school board lawyer is also a superwoman of sorts. Monday through Friday, Capt. Brooke Gomulka serves as in-house counsel, but on weekends she dons a different cape as a U.S. Army Reserve judge advocate with the 360th Civil Affairs Brigade. Currently, she is on a nine-month deployment with the Civil Affairs Battalion, U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) in Vicenza, Italy.

VICENZA, Italy – When U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) identified a need to gather evidence, the U.S. Army’s Joint Theater Forensic Analysis Center (JTFAC) answered the call. Its forensic team launched into action at sea, turning expertise into real-world impact. At the request of CENTCOM and AFRICOM, JTFAC personnel deployed to collect and analyze forensic evidence from a vessel carrying Iranian-supplied advanced conventional weapons. The seized cargo included ballistic missile components, anti-ship ballistic missile parts and a warhead, all bound for Houthi rebel forces in Yemen. The forensic evidence helped secure a June 5, 2025, federal conviction of the ship’s captain, Muhammad Pahlawan, a Pakistani national who worked closely with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, on six charges related to smuggling Iranian-made advanced conventional weaponry destined for the Houthis in Yemen, as well as threatening multiple witnesses.