Sancho Panza with an american accent

His Lieutenant was tall athletic and had the pedigree: his father was a General. The Sergeant was from somewhere like Kansas, Nebraska or Iowa. He shopped at Wal-Mart as did his whole family. The Lieutenant's family drove by Wal-Marts.
They were on a mission outside of FOB Fenty. Their medic was hit and killed. The Lieutentant was shot in the neck and their radio man went down. The Sergeant picked up the radio and called in the attack. He gave his units coordinates, the condition of the soldiers along with their terrain. He did this while returning fire. His forces were outmanned, temporarily out gunned and surrounded
The next day in Bagram at the First Sergeants meeting the Sergeant Major brought up the work of an unknown soldier praising both his effort and professionalism in battle.
He walked into our office two days later. He was a freckled face kid that would have been a second string lineman on his high school football team. He was the person you never really see unless he is under the hood of your car helping you. A bullet ricocheted off his weapon cutting up the side of his face. He would have some facial scars but nothing severe. In the hospital, they gave him one percodan and a bottle of Motrin. He and the Lieutenant were inseparable now.
The Lieutenant was quiet, reserved and didn’t talk about the attack. The Sergeant couldn’t stop talking about it. He talked about the sounds and how bullets snap as they pass you. How things slowed up and then went high speed. For three days they were part of the life at the Red Cross office. No one says, “Goodbye” people are just gone. We waited for them to come by when we heard the Sergeant and the Lieutenant left for Germany. The best way to see Afghanistan is the rear view mirror or 20,000 ft up.

Rip-its the energy preferred by Afghans

I met SSGXX last year in Bagram. He had come ahead of his unit and was energized ready for his mission. I saw him last night in the mess hall. He had lost weight and couldn’t keep his eyes focused. He was all over the place eager to leave. He has another week while staying out in the 500 man tents.
“How was it.” I said.
“You can take the whole country and all the Afghans and fuck em.
You can’t teach them anything. All they want are rip its.”
“You mean the drink,” I said.
“I spent months trying to instruct them. They would all nod their heads and after I was done they asked, ‘Where are the rip-its’” They are fucked.

NATO SUMMIT

15Nov10 Kabul, Afghanistan

Karzai calls Patraeus, "a mother fucker."

16Nov10 Kabul,Afghanistan

Patreaus calls Karzai, " a cocksucker."

Last weekend in Lisbon at the NATO Summit Patraeus and Karzai confirmed their friendship in moving Afghanistan forward.

the american dream

Johnson arrived home in May. He still has three more months before he is released. There will be no more military service for Johnson. He is home with his wife and daughter along with their two mortgages. His wife wants to visit her relatives in Russia. His daughter wants another Barbie doll. Johnson wants a life.
The fear is seeping out of him slowly. He gets triggered easily. Last night the refrigerator came on again in the middle of the night. He stayed up trying to decide if he should put it outside in the yard so could sleep. The house creaks and groans at night. It is too alive for him to sleep.
His first week home he threatened a driver that was tailgating him. His daughter stared terrified in her car seat. A few days later he swerved their car when he saw a box alongside the road. He thought it was IED.
He doesn’t drink much. He doesn’t have to he gets lit up quick. He wants sex all the time from his wife. But he has shelved some of his fear into her. She stares at him when he not looking. She feels hunted.
He sent me an e-mail last night saying, “I am twisting in the wind.”

memorial day

This is for the eight soldiers in the 3-61 Cav that lost their lives October 3, 2009. They were on the edge of the empire in small desolate Command Operating Base called Keating on the Afghan-Pakistan border. They along with 37 other US soldiers held off 250 to 300 Taliban in 12 hours of fighting.

Afghanistan in the review mirror

Rihaku was an ancient Chinese poet. I discovered his poems in Ezra Pound's "Translations" 30 years ago. The poems are filled with sharp concrete images, lyrical and haunt me. The following comes from an "Exiles Letter":

"And if you ask how I regret that parting:
It is like the flowers falling at Spring's end
Confused, whirled in a tangle.
What is the use of talking, and there is now end of talking,
There is no end of things in the heart.
I call in the boy,
Have him sit on his kness here
to seal this,
And send it a thousand miles, thinking.

www.lewisandclarkexpeditions.net

Hard winds of May

Today, I am packing for a trip down a river where you are gone for five days and four nights. We will be floating for 60 miles through a remote canyon in Montana. We are taking Disabled Veterans from the Wars. The Wars are Vietnam, Gulf 1 and now 2. The winds are coming from the north an ill sign. You can feel the ice as the wind slice through you.

When I was in Afghanistan, I would dream of being in remote country feeling safe and empowered. This is Montana my country. The country here gives me purpose. Fly fishing allows me grace. This is the place God whispers to me. Our hope is for the soldiers to get the same feeling. There is a time for war but there is also a time for healing.

www.lewisclarkexpeditions.net