River Liberty (also called Khanjar) was described as an operation. However, it had the feel of an invasion. U.S. Marines were moving, as an expeditionary force, into the homeland of their enemy, the Taliban.

At 4:30 am, the company with whom my son, Carlos, and I were embedded, Golf Company, 2/8 Marines, stepped out of the U.S base at Hassan Abad, in southern Helmand province, and headed south into certain trouble.

The Taliban were determined not to let Golf Company just walk south through the Helmand river Valley unchallenged.…

Surrounded by mountains, and by men who’d like to kill them, the Scouts from Apache Troop, 6/4 Cavalry had one huge advantage in their fight. The Taliban had the high ground, but NATO aircraft owned the highest ground, and COP Lowell’s defenders called on them often.

The most dangerous weapon used against the American defenders at Lowell is the mortar. Insurgent mortar teams position themselves in protected areas behind ridge lines. Lowell’s defenders fire back with their own 120 mm mortar rounds, but often fighter jets equipped with heavy bombs or cannon were needed to hit well protected insurgent positions.…

Ask any Army or Marine General officer what was the best period in their career, and all will answer the same – when they were Captains and leading a company. Undoubtedly, some day, Frank Hooker, commanding officer, Apache troop, 6/4 Cav, will say the same thing.

In the course of our year journey through the small combat outposts of Iraq and Afghanistan, we have worked with a lot of captains and their companies. At a level of the military – the pointy end – where things need to work and good leadership is required, good leadership is consistently delivered at the rank of Captain.…

Kamu village, a short 15 minute hike from Combat Outpost Lowell’s front gate, is the extent of Afghan government and NATO influence in the mountainous Nuristan Province in northeast Afghanistan. Its residents have paid a price for their support.

Kamu’s businessmen have been awarded contracts that range from laundry service to donkey rental. Its residents have grown wealthier than other villages up valley. This has bred resentment and reprisals aimed at Kamu. Villages upriver have cut off some of Kamu’s water supply.…

Flat on their bellies with no cover and mortars raining down on them, two Oklahomans, Sergeant Shane Ayres and Staff Sergeant Tyler Mobra, looked at each other and communicated an unspoken message, “What the hell are we doing here.”

It was October 31, 2008 and Combat Outpost Lowell, Nuristan, Afghanistan was under attack again. Lowell is the most attacked U.S. base in Afghanistan and on Halloween day, Afghan insurgents treated the scouts of 6/4 Cavalry, Ft. Hood, Texas, with a barrage of mortars.…

In daylight the mountains that surround Lowell took on a new, more dangerous significance. While at night they stood as singular, monolithic entities, the sun revealed them to be a mass of trees and valleys, stone wrinkles and ridgelines that provided ample cover to anyone who cared to attack the base, which, I was assured, was often.

I had known before coming to Lowell that it was under frequent attack, but the sheer volume of action it saw shocked me: COP Lowell is the most attacked post in both Iraq and Afghanistan, taking a staggering amount of indirect and assorted small-arms fire.…

My Legs were burning and my knees were aching, and that was only after two minutes of climbing an Afghanistan mountainside – an event that felt like two days.

Scouts from Apache Troop, 6/4 Cavalry, 1st Infantry Division, were patroling outside their base, Combat Outpost Lowell in Nuristan Province. Lowell is the most attacked base in Afghanistan, so the steep climb was only one of many things to worry about as they made their way to check on a remote observation post.…