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JTAC: Joint Terminal Attack Controller

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Kiowa Warriors (KW) playing aggressive as per normal.  Everyone knew that the moment the Pink Team (KW and Apache) headed off for gas, the enemy would likely attack us.  This dance would play out numerous times over the next 48 hours.  As the Pink Team disappeared, the Taliban would open up.

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The black shield by the door is a bullet-stopper for small arms.

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The Pink Team headed off to the FARP (Forward Arming Refueling Point) and a sharp firefight broke out between the Taliban and a nearby platoon.  JTACs called in this Navy jet to perform a SoF, or Show of Force.  The enemy doesn’t really need to worry about this jet, but they need to worry about the one they can’t see who didn’t come down for a low pass.

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No telling where he came from to get to Zhary District, but he probably came from an aircraft carrier such as the Ronald Reagan.

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The flares may have been intimidating years ago, but today they are just roman candles in the sky.  The enemy has seen it all.  The bombs, missiles and gun runs remain effective and at least on that level, the war remains algebraic: the goal is to suddenly impart great kinetic energy into the enemy then forget about him.  Nothing personal, no hard feelings: we don’t know each other’s names and don’t care to.  A strange thing about this war is that we don’t hate Afghans, and in a general sense they don’t seem to hate us: we are just having a good war.

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Another platoon was in a firefight and so our guys were waiting to see if the enemy would make a mistake and move in front of us.

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Waiting for the enemy to blunder and take a bullet.

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The enemy elected not to fight this night.  The cows, sheep and veloci-chickens were settled in.  They all live in this compound with the family, who chose to stay with us.  There were fourteen kids in this compound.

Michael Yon

Michael Yon is America's most experienced combat correspondent. He has traveled or worked in 82 countries, including various wars and conflicts.

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