WEBSTER SPRINGS, WV. — In West Virginia, many of the thousands of bridges spanning mountain valleys and gorges are named for local veterans and on Main Streets in small towns, banners feature hometown soldiers, some of whom fought and died in past conflicts.

It’s a state with one of the country’s highest per-capita populations of veterans. Service in the military — including the various branches of the National Guard — has long been seen not just as a patriotic duty, but as an economic lifeline, particularly in some of the poorer parts of the state.

The death of Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom in a Washington, D.C. shooting and the wounding of another National Guard soldier — Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, have brought that reality home once more in their hometowns and across the state.

The two were attacked while patrolling near the White House as part of President Trump’s National Guard deployments to American cities. Trump has said the deployments are necessary to fight crime, but Democratic leaders and federal judges have questioned their legality. In deep red West Virginia too, there appears to be a growing chorus questioning the rationale for sending troops to D.C. 

Before moving to nearby Summersville after high school, Beckstrom, 20, grew up in Webster Springs, with its population of just 800 tucked amid mountains and spruce forests. Kenny Kidd has been driving a school bus in the town for years. He remembers all the children and Sarah he says, “was a great kid.”

“She always had a smile on her face. Always willing to help. And she always liked to give me a rough time,” he says laughing.

In this part of the state, job prospects for someone graduating high school are pretty sparse.

“Coal mining is on its way out,” Kidd says. “Other than that, it’s… work at a grocery store or a hardware store. And there’s just not much here.”

Main Street in Webster Springs, W.Va. on Dec. 3, 2025. The small West Virginia town with a population of just 800 offers few job prospects for high school graduates.

Chris Jackson For NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Chris Jackson For NPR

Advertisement

Flags fly at half-staff for West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom at the Webster County Courthouse in Webster Springs, W.Va. on Dec. 3, 2025.

Chris Jackson for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Chris Jackson for NPR

Financially, he says, the Guard is a good deal for young adults. The bonuses can help put them through college, the pay from monthly drills and annual training are much-needed money in their pockets. And then there’s the extra pay from deployments, like the one to D.C., where the West Virginia Guard has more soldiers per capita than any other state.

At a prayer vigil for Wolfe in his hometown of Martinsburg, Air Force Staff Sergeant Jason Mitchell says it was the need to pay off college debt that brought him to the National Guard. Mitchell, who is in the same unit as Wolfe — the 167th Airlift Wing — has served 13 years, but didn’t go to D.C. because he was already deployed in the Middle East as part of a regular rotation. He plans to stay for another seven years to get full retirement benefits, including a pension and veteran healthcare.

“My stepdaughter actually just joined and she graduated basic [training] while I was deployed,” he says. “She was kind of in the same boat where she was going to college and was looking for… an opportunity.”

Members of the West Virginia Public Safety community attend a candlelight vigil for SSgt Andrew Wolfe outside of the Berkley County Sheriff Office on December 3.

Michael A. McCoy for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Michael A. McCoy for NPR

Advertisement

Members of the West Virginia Public Safety community attend a candlelight vigil for SSgt Andrew Wolfe outside of the Berkley County Sheriff Office on December 3.

Michael A. McCoy for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Michael A. McCoy for NPR

At Martinsburg High School, guidance counselor Charity Powers advises seniors. It’s not just one thing that motivates those who choose the Guard, she says. Some want money for college, some want to travel and others see it as a patriotic duty to follow in the footsteps of relatives who’ve served.

“I think in this area, especially for kids who are kind of disadvantaged, which we have a lot of those students, it’s a really good opportunity for them.”

Despite the state’s enthusiasm for the military and the voluntary nature of the D.C. deployment, Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey has found himself on the defensive about it. Amid reports that troops are being employed in tasks such as trash pickup and landscaping instead of security, as the White House has suggested, West Virginia Democratic lawmakers have sharply criticized Morrisey for signing off on it. Several state newspapers have echoed that sentiment on their opinion pages.

Mike Pushkin, a West Virginia House of Delegates member and chairman of the state’s Democratic Party says Beckstrom and Wolfe “would not be there had it not been for the president calling in the National Guard in this strange form of political theater and it unfortunately put them in harm’s way.”

In a statement to NPR, Gov. Morrisey said: “The State of West Virginia is unwavering in its support for our National Guard. Since our founding, our state has a proud history of military service, answering the call for missions across the globe. The mission in D.C. is a continuation of this legacy of service — and we fully back the Guard members who willingly stepped up to clean up crime in our nation’s capital.”

A pedestrian walks into United Bank as ribbons in honor of Sarah Beckstrom adorn the door on Main Street in Webster Springs, W.Va. on Dec. 3.

Chris Jackson for NPR

hide caption

Advertisement

toggle caption

Chris Jackson for NPR

But in a state that went heavily for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024, it’s not difficult to find people who wonder aloud why sending the West Virginia National Guard to Washington makes any sense.

Roseanna Groves, who lives in Webster Springs and is related by marriage to Beckstrom was outraged that the man charged in the attack — an Afghan national who worked with the CIA — had been let into the U.S. at all. She blamed former President Biden, although he was let in under Trump’s administration.

“I think something should be done” about immigrants like him, she says. But she doesn’t understand the decision by Trump and Morrisey to send that Guard to Washington. “I feel it was crazy, I really do,” she says.

It’s a sentiment shared by Kidd, the school bus driver. He’s heard the reports that Beckstrom, Wolfe and others were busy in cleanup instead of “doing their jobs.” It just isn’t worth it, he says.

As for the deployment, “I think it’s turned into a lot more political than anything else,” he says.

Referring to those banners featuring local heroes in towns across West Virginia, “Sarah’s picture … it’ll be next,” he says. “But she’ll be missed.”

The alleged drug traffickers killed by the US military in a strike on September 2 were heading to link up with another, larger vessel that was bound for Suriname — a small South American country east of Venezuela – the admiral who oversaw the operation told lawmakers on Thursday, according to two sources with direct knowledge of his remarks.

According to intelligence collected by US forces, the struck boat planned to “rendezvous” with the second vessel and transfer drugs to it, Adm. Frank Bradley said during the briefings, but the military was unable to locate the second vessel. Bradley argued there was still a possibility the drug shipment could have ultimately made its way from Suriname to the US, the sources said, telling lawmakers that justified striking the smaller boat even if it wasn’t directly heading to US shores at the time it was hit.

US drug enforcement officials say that trafficking routes via Suriname are primarily destined for European markets. US-bound drug trafficking routes have been concentrated on the Pacific Ocean in recent years.

The new detail adds yet another wrinkle to the Trump administration’s argument that striking the boat multiple times, and killing survivors, was necessary in order to protect the US from an imminent threat.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told traveling press in Florida shortly after the strike that the alleged drug boat targeted was “probably headed to Trinidad or some other country in the Caribbean.” However, President Donald Trump said in a post announcing the strike on September 2 that “The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States.”

Bradley, who led Joint Special Operations Command at the time of the strike, also acknowledged that the boat had turned around before being struck, because the people on board appeared to see the American aircraft in the air, the sources said. CNN reported in September that the boat turned around before being hit.

The US military ultimately struck the boat four times—the first time splitting the boat in half and leaving two survivors clinging to a capsized portion, CNN reported on Thursday. The second, third and fourth strikes killed them and sunk the vessel.

The survivors were also waving at something in the air, the sources said Bradley told them, although it’s unclear whether they might have been surrendering or asking the US aircraft they had spotted for help.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It is considered a war crime to kill shipwrecked people, which the Pentagon’s law of war manual defines as people “in need of assistance and care” who “must refrain from any hostile act.” Although most Republicans have signaled support for President Donald Trump’s broader military campaign in the Caribbean, the secondary strike on September 2 has drawn bipartisan scrutiny — including, most consequentially, a vow from the Senate Armed Services Committee to conduct oversight.

Hegseth’s role in the secondary strike — including the precise orders he gave Bradley — continues to be a point of scrutiny.

Lawmakers were told on Thursday that Hegseth had made clear before the mission began that the strikes should be lethal, CNN has reported, but that he was not made aware of the survivors until after they had been killed, one of the sources with direct knowledge said.

Bradley understood the mission objective to be to kill all 11 individuals on board and sink the boat, a US official said. But the order was not specifically an order to kill all and provide no quarter, meaning that someone who surrenders will be killed, which has “specific implications” and is illegal, the US official said.

This story was updated with additional information.

It’s one of the most anticipated events ahead of the 2026 World Cup.

On Friday, FIFA will conduct the draw for the top men’s soccer tournament, taking place across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The draw — at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. — will determine which opponents all 48 teams participating in the World Cup will eventually face in the initial group stage.

The draw will be attended by the three leaders of the countries hosting the event, including President Trump, in an event that has become quite the spectacle over the years.

Here’s what to know about the draw for the World Cup, with the ceremony set to kick off at 12 p.m. ET.

What is the draw for?

Next year’s tournament is the biggest ever, with 48 teams set to be split among 12 groups of four.

These groups make up the first stage of the tournament, which determines which teams advance to the knockout rounds. The top two sides of each group automatically qualify, along with the eight best third-place teams.

Not all teams that will take part in the 2026 World Cup are known, though. So far, 42 countries have qualified, with the remaining six — including Italy — set to compete in playoffs next March to determine the final list of participants.

How will the teams be drawn?

Ahead of the draw, all teams have been placed in four pots, primarily based on their most recent FIFA rankings.

Pot 1 will include top-ranked teams such as Spain and Brazil, along with the three hosts. Pot 4 will include the lowest-ranked teams, including World Cup debutants Cape Verde, Curaçao and Jordan, as well as placeholders for the six teams that have yet to qualify.

Teams will be drawn randomly from each pot — but there are a few rules.

There can be only up to two European teams per group and only one team per group from each of the remaining five continental confederations under FIFA. That means, for example, that an African team such as Tunisia cannot be drawn into the same group as Ghana, even if they are in two separate pots.

In addition, in a quirk for this year’s tournament, FIFA has determined that the top two-ranked teams — Spain and Argentina — will be placed in groups that would end up on opposite sides of the tournament bracket should they each win their respective groups. That ensures these two early favorites would not meet until the final.

The same rule will apply to France and England, the third- and fourth-best ranked teams according to FIFA.

When will we know where teams will play?

In another quirk, teams will not know at Friday’s draw where or when they will play. The locations and kickoff times for each team across all 16 host cities will be determined on Saturday, at a separate event.

FIFA has said it wants to try to take travel times for teams in mind, while also ensuring that teams are drawn into kickoff times that are more favorable for spectators in their respective countries. For example, evening start times would likely be better for Asian sides, ensuring games are taking place when it’s roughly the following day for spectators back home.

Spain is considered one of the early favorites to win the 2026 World Cup. Pictured here is star player Lamine Yamal, celebrating a goal against France in the semifinal of the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament, which Spain eventually won.

Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

hide caption

Advertisement

toggle caption

Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

Does this all matter?

The draw helps determine how easy — or difficult — the path to the knockout rounds will be for most teams.

Just like in any tournament, all teams would prefer to face the ones they view as weaker and avoid being placed in the “Group of Death,” the moniker given to the group perceived to be the most difficult in a tournament.

“You don’t want to be one of these heroes — like, ‘give me the best,’” says Herculez Gomez, who played for the U.S. in the 2010 World Cup and now hosts the Men in Blazers podcast Vamos. “That’s not how it works. Even the best don’t want the best at the World Cup.”

But World Cups are unpredictable. Strong soccer powerhouses have failed to advance past the World Cup’s group stage before, including Germany in 2018 and 2022, and Spain in 2014.

That said, this year’s tournament is bigger. Even finishing third in a four-team group can ensure qualification, although where each team ends up within its group will determine its path through the knockout rounds.

Which are the early favorites and the teams to watch?

Predictably, among the early favorites are recent global soccer powerhouses such as Spain, England and France, along with South American teams, such as Argentina and Brazil.

But there will be interesting storylines to watch outside the favorites, including Curaçao, which became the smallest country to qualify for the World Cup, with a population of just over 150,000 people.

And, of course, there will be enormous interest in which teams the three hosts will end up facing in their respective groups.

The U.S. men’s national team, for example, is approaching the World Cup draw with some momentum after staying undefeated in the past five games. Its most recent record marks a big improvement after a rocky period under coach Mauricio Pochettino and previous coach Gregg Berhalter, which included an early exit from last year’s Copa America regional tournament.

NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan contributed to this report.