On the Line: Embedded journalism from Iraq and Afghanistan with Mike and Carlos Boettcher

From Beirut To Helmand

mike boettcher — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:34:16 +0000

I remember August 25, 1982, well. I was one of about 50 reporters standing on a south Beirut beach as the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment came ashore. I still remember Colonel James Meade in the lead amphibious craft.....

An Invasion

mike boettcher — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:24:03 +0000

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.....

Marines Make Push in Southern Afghanistan

carlos boettcher — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:20:02 +0000

The sound of gunfire and explosions fill the air, summer has come, and once more war has come to Helmand Province. In one of the largest military operations seen in Afghanistan since the start of the war, Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade have launched a wide ranging operation deep into the Helmand River Valley, a major poppy producing region, and a hotbed of Taliban activity.....

Helmand

carlos boettcher — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:43:36 +0000

I sit in a broken green lawnchair, writing. It is hot here: the sunlight is overwhelming, and even in shade the temperature is easily in triple digits; nightfall-the only respite anyone can hope for-is a long way off, and in the meantime there is little to do except sweat, and wait.....

Bombs Away!

mike boettcher — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:17:56 +0000

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.....

Captain And Commander – The Far Side Of The Earth

mike boettcher — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:07:46 +0000

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.....

Friends And Foes

mike boettcher — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:00:46 +0000

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.....

A New Focus: The Southern Front

carlos boettcher — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:47:38 +0000

People often call the conflict in Afghanistan “The Forgotten War,” a broad statement that misses the point on why the going has been so slow, 8 years this October, and why, until recently, there has been little spoken of it.....

One Day. One Attack. Two Oklahomans. Two Bronze Stars.

mike boettcher — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:50:01 +0000

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.....

The Warriors in the Peaks

carlos boettcher — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:20:02 +0000

The village of Kamu is only a brief walk from COP Lowell, and every month a MEDCAP mission is dispatched to provide medical assistance for locals. As the doctors work on the villagers a crowd of young boys swarm about the doctors like a cloud of gnats, waiting for the sweets inevitably passed out.....