Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder Holds a Press Briefing

PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY MAJOR GENERAL PAT RYDER: All right, good afternoon, everyone. I have just a few things at the top and then I'll be happy to take your questions. First, taking a look at the Middle East region, the department continues to maintain a robust force posture throughout the US European Command and US Central Command areas of responsibility to protect US forces, enable our support for the defense of Israel, and to ensure the United States is prepared to respond to various contingencies. As we've discussed previously, US forces in the region include, but aren’t limited to, an amphibious ready group and marine expeditionary unit, multiple destroyers, fighter aircraft and carri...