WATCH: The Valley of Death; US Soldiers on the Front Lines

Rare access shows tough going in the fight against terrorists in Afghanistan.

ByABC News
September 11, 2008, 3:00 PM

September 11, 2008— -- Afghanistan's Korengal Valley has been home for the last 15 months to the 150 US soldiers in Company B, Battle Company, of the Second Battalion of the 503rd Infantry of the US Army.

It has been 15 months of death, despair and progress measured not in miles, but yards.

Throughout Battle Company's deployment, Vanity Fair magazine writer Sebastian Junger and photographer Tim Hetherington were allowed rare access as the men fought from hilltop to hilltop, from firefight to firefight.

(watch video)

Their video journal shows a desperately undermanned US effort has floundered as Taliban and al Qaeda fighters have gained strength, reinforced at safe havens across the border in Pakistan.

There are 33,000 US troops in Afghanistan, fewer than the number of police officers in New York City.

(watch video)