Danger Always on the Rise for Young U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan
Afghan war grows deadlier as battles moves into heart of Taliban country.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 11, 2010 — -- They are young men who served in Iraq. Young men who served multiple tours in Afghanistan, who have seen this terrain before, who have fought for different commanders, who survived to come back here. Young men who are now being told that their toughest mission might yet be to come. Young men who are at the forefront of those missions. What in past wars military leaders and analysts used to refer to as "The Tip Of The Spear."
We spent almost three weeks on what is rapidly becoming the front lines of the Afghan war, if there is a front lines. Here, where the Taliban was born, the war grows more violent by the day. Insurgents like to defend the places that are symbolically significant to them.
Nobody knows that better than Alpha company, 2nd battalion, 5th Stryker brigade. Every day these men are harassed – or bombed – or ambushed just a few miles from the mosque where Mullah Mohammad Omar created the Taliban in 1994. This is southwest Kandahar.
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In a week that has seen some of the highest casualty figures in this eight-and-a-half-year-long war, Alpha's battles are a reminder of all the threats that come to bear on Americans these days -- and a preview of what's to come this summer.
Sgt. First Class Alan McComie has survived 17 roadside bombs in Iraq and in Afghanistan. He is, as you might expect, no nonsense. A crooked smile, tattoos running down his arms. He prefers a baseball cap when his commanders don't mind his wearing one.
Four months ago he lost his best friend to an Improvised Explosive Device – the IED. But he'd rather not talk about it.
"The biggest threat's the IEDs," McComie said to us in Lak-o-Khel, a base with no running water and one tent for a couple dozen soldiers. "They're targeting either the trucks here on the roads. Or they're targeting us dismounted walking through the fields."
