U.S. Army Sgt. Quandarius Davon Stanley, 23, died last week from injuries he sustained while working on the pier built by the Biden-Harris administration for the purpose of delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
As Breitbart News reported, the pier was a core promise of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. Biden assured Americans that there would be no “boots on the ground” — though, as Breitbart News pointed out, there would have to be U.S. personnel at sea, and at risk. The cost of building the floating pier was $230 million.
As Breitbart News’ Kristina Wong noted, the pier regularly broke apart due to storms and high waves in the Mediterranean. Wong also obtained exclusive video of the pier rising and falling dangerously in the surf.
Sources also complained to Wong that lives were being endangered for a “photo-op.” The administration itself admitted that there were other, more efficient ways of bringing aid to Gaza, principally over land and via truck, even if aid was stolen. Aid offloaded on the pier had to be trucked into Gaza anyway, rendering the sea route superfluous.
The pier opened in mid-May and was closed by mid-July, having only been operational for a total of 20 days. During the course of its operations, three U.S. soldiers were injured. Two returned to work; Stanley was disabled, then died.
CNN reported Monday:
Stanley was recently medically retired by his unit because his injuries meant he would be unable to continue military service, a defense official said. He died on October 31.
“Stanley was injured while supporting the mission that delivered humanitarian aid to Gaza in May 2024 and was receiving treatment in long-term care medical center,” Capt. Shkeila Milford-Glover, a spokesman for the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, said Monday.
…
It’s unclear how exactly Stanley was injured, though officials have emphasized that it was not combat related. Stanley’s injury — as well as the minor injuries of the two other troops — were first confirmed by Vice Adm. Bradley Cooper, deputy commander of US Central Command, who told reporters in May one individual was “undergoing care at an Israeli local hospital. He was injured out on a ship at sea.”
Israeli sources also reported that Palestinians no longer wanted aid from the pier after Israeli helicopters rescuing Noa Argamani and three other hostages from Hamas were filmed touching down in Israel on the beach near the pier.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
