Every Step is Your Last

This Afghan Soldier has a flash suppressor packed with soil.  He smiled and said it’s okay because when he shoots it blows out the dirt.

The night before, while Soldiers slept in the dirt on the ground, I was up on a village roof and whispered to a guard asking how Sergeant Larson was doing.  I’d heard Larson got shot.  He said he was Larson and that an Afghan Soldier had accidentally shot him a couple days before during a firefight.

Luckily the bullet only hit Sergeant Larson’s gear.

During every mission that lasts more than a day, some Soldiers end up with ripped britches.

EOD blasts the bombs just around the corner.  The dog is startled but no more than a Soldier would be.  The handler actually carries an IV for his dog.

Major Matt Graham often has something funny to say when situations get tense.  Firefights kick off and he practically yawns.  I looked at him, wondering what it might be this time.

It was time to move forward.

The casualty had been evacuated, the bombs had been cleared, and so we walked by the crater and moved deeper into the village.

There is no tidy ending to these war stories.   The war didn’t end here.