Johnson's War

Johnson was with Task Force Warrior and stationed out of Colorado Springs, Co. His Russian wife enjoyed looking at the peaks of the Colorado Rockies. Johnson loved America and it expanse. He didn’t ski but wanted to learn. He didn’t fish but enjoyed being near a mountain lake or a river. He loved Applebee’s going to Costco and Toy’s and Us.


Nuristan was deep in the mountains. Applebee’s, Costco and Toy and Us were not coming anytime soon to Afghanistan. On October 3, 2009 eight from Task Force Warrior died in a firefight that started at dawn and ended at dusk. Twelve hours of adrenalin. There were 45 American soldiers and 25 Afghan soldiers. When the Afghan soldiers felt the coordinated Taliban attack they walked off. They were retreating before the shots fired. The battle started from the local mosque with grenade launchers, automatic weapons and mortars. There were as many as 300 Taliban at the gate.

It was called COB Keating a remote outpost not far from Pakistan. The local field commanders warned that it should be closed because it was vulnerable and had no tactical or strategic value. The base was situated in deep bowel that geographically gave up the high ground. Even if was geographically vulnerable you could count on effective artillery and air support. Except it wasn’t coming on October 3.

Johnson would wake up singing off key. He liked Al Green’s - Let’s Stay Together. Johnson’s voices would screetch out, “Happy and Sad. Let’s stay together.” You tolerated Johnson’s voice not for the sound because there was little or no music to it but there was joy. The joy could be infectious unless your were trying to sleep.