Embedded journalism from the front lines of
Afghanistan & Iraq ~ by Mike & Carlos Boettcher

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. He was a dashing figure; movie star handsome. Meade, a marine aviator, wore a blue pilot’s scarf as he came ashore. It was flapping in the brisk Lebanese coastal wind.

Meade led the 32nd Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU). Lt. Colonel Robert…

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…

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.

Operation Khanjar

The operation has been dubbed, “Khanjar,” and commanders are calling it the largest…

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…

In the War To End All Wars (World War I ended nothing), artillery barrages, poison gas attacks and trench offensives came at predictable times. Much of that war was fought just before and after sunrise and at dusk. To be ready for the war’s prime killing times Allied soldiers began a tradition that became known as “stand to”. Translated, it meant stand towards the enemy, and be ready before they attacked.

90 years later, at a small U.S. post in a…

The sun had just set this evening when the alarm went off – “Condition Red”. Everyone, including us, ran to find our body armor and helmets. Mortars hit near Camp Bostick, where we are currently based, but three other locations were also attacked at the same time. Two of them were nearby small outposts. The last attack was against Camp Bostick’s Quick Reaction Force (QRF) shortly after it left the base to reinforce one of the smaller outposts that was…

May 1st, Observation Post Bariali was overrun during a surprise attack by Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. Three American soldiers, along with two Latvians and five Afghans died in the fight. Little notice was made back home of the horrible battle here. Swine flu was the topic number one in the American media. Death on an Afghan mountain top was lost somewhere in that day’s events.

Situated along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, Bariali overlooks three river valleys that serve as…