E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Editor's note: Two Associated Press photographers Photoblogged this summer from an embed with the U.S. military in Afghanstan. This was their last post. The rest of the series is below, in reverse chronological order.
It’s nothing like the movies. There's no glamour when a young man loses his leg to a hidden bomb. There's nothing romantic about the ear-piercing shrieks from a man as his leg is torn from his body. These are images Americans back home rarely experience - the gritty horror of war fought in a land half a world away.
So it was when the bomb, or IED, went off about 30 yards from Combat Outpost Nolen in the Arghandab Valley, home to troops of the 101st Airborne Division. Everyone froze, expecting the worst. And it was bad. A soldier had lost his leg. It was the sixth limb lost among soldiers at the outpost in just three weeks.
The thought that the Taliban could sneak so close to the base angered many soldiers. Thick trees and mudwalls offer plenty of cover for Taliban bombers to hide. Cut down the trees? The idea had come up. But cutting down trees might anger the locals. And winning their friendship and support is a key goal of the campaign against the Taliban.
After the blast, the scene was chaotic. Soldiers scrambled to carry the wounded comrade to a helicopter landing zone. One soldier, Pvt. James Stennett, sat on the ground, dazed after being hit by a bomb fragment. Several soldiers screamed at photographers not to take pictures of the scene .
Soon a medevac helicopter arrived and flew the soldier who'd lost his leg to a military hospital. The men had a chance to decompress. A young officer walked over to apologize for screaming at us. The sun was boiling. And tensions were high. The American people need to see the reality that soldiers at Combat Outpost Nolen must endure every day, he says.
Editor’s Note: Pvt. James Stennett gave his permission to the Associated Press to have his name and image published. The second wounded soldier has not. Under standard rules for journalists embedded with combat units, the identity of wounded military personnel may not be published without their permission.
Leave a Comment:
Having been RA, I asked for what I got, however after having been blessed to live for 59 years, I changed my views many years ago. "Winning the hearts and minds" brings back memories of my time. I bought that for a while, but ultimely I came to realize that "winning the hearts and minds" was a political slogan. Soldiers fight, that is what we are trained to do, nothing else. If you want to "win the hearts and minds" then send politicians and leave the military out of this. Once again, America you have entered into a situation that will have no end as long as you are there. Does ANYONE in our government remember Viet Nam? We are there again. God Bless the brave men and women who are serving, they go where they are told to go and do what they are told to do. They deserve better than this.
The Soliders need to come home and they are right if we are not demanding policy makers to bring them home then we are not supporting the troops.
I was in Iraq for a year and agree with the photojournalists comment that the harsh reality of war is not like what you see in the movies. There is no exciting music, no dramatic editing to speed the plot along.
I once flew to Landstuhl Germany in a giant C117 with full load of war wounded. I saw things that most Americans don't see. It is not glamorous or pleasant to look at. They'll get a hero's welcome and then fall into the VA system.
To all the arm chair generals blogging about how to win this war. IMO, we can't win this one with more violence and hate. It has the opposite effect. Hate merely breeds more hate and creates more terrorists. We had the world on our side after 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden surrounded at Tora Bora but we let his legend escape to Pakistan. Then we got distracted with Iraq. Now it's a mess with no easy solution.
We need to figure out and get to the root of the problem rather than throwing even more our young men and women into the shredder.
Great photos! Keep up the work in documenting the ongoing operations.
Why not remove the trees which are being used as cover and use the wood from them to build the locals (with their help) something they can use to gain goodwill in additional to a decent sightline for those on lookout at the base? Negotiations and involving the locals will get us what we want, just doing it without their input is what pisses them off.
Godspeed!
Butch, there's only one person that can do this. Who's that? Lord Baltimore.....
Maybe just maybe every American should watch the beheading of a human being done by these so called "enemy combatants".
I want to go on a rant about you "goldfish" civvies. But nope. If you were in combat, this is "normal". If you haven't ,go stick your civvie heads back in the sand. Sooner or later you will have to become a civilian army to oust the Islamic scourge that's invaded our country. If it offends your "sensibilty" don't watch it.
To Jim B who writes "God Bless the brave men and women....
Firstly there is no God.
Secondly, its easy to be brave when you are backed up by tanks and planes.
To quote a famous person "Thou shalt not kill" - there were no exceptions
You are an awful person to say such a thing, I sincerely hope you never have to go through what these young soldiers endure everyday.......you are shameful
I believe this war needs to be finished and the only good way would be to go over there and start dropping bombs. We have the planes and we have the manpower to finish this fiasco and finish it now This crazy way we are going about fighting this way are unbelieveable and will never end at this rate. I said from the beginning we were headed for anot her Vietnam and this is exactly where we are. Last but not least we have a Commander in Chief who doesn't know his head from a hole in the ground!
What the young soldiers are going through is nothing worse than what the Afgans have to go through. I dont see many people on this blog having any sympathy for them.
Too nad the incompetent boobs in the bush adminsitration frittered away any chance of 'winning' in Afghanistan by lying their way into Iraq to settle a long time neonutcase goal of toppling Saddam Hussein,,,mission accomplished and all you know...
I am always amazed that the biggest warmongerers are the ones with 5 deferrments or who took the chickens way out in Vietnam by joining an air national guard unit knowing they weren't sent into combat...typical rightwingnut chickenhawks are to blame for every death in Afghanistan and Iraq...everyone of them
Concerning the Air Force, the `ol Gunny says about sleep, if you want to get some sleep join the Air Force. And to all the grunts on the ground who see this "in the suck" everyday. Semper Fi
God bless all our troops all around the world Be with them Heavenly Father. Do not let our enemies overtake them. Give our leaders your wisdom Lord, and bring all our men and women home safely.
A CANADIAN-- TO QUOTE ANOTHER FAMOUS PERSON: There are no atheists in foxholes. YOU MORON.
These are very powerful, yet ordinary, photos of what is happenig in our wars right now. We should be seeing more of this material. With photos like these we do not need the commentary, the talk, the interpretation from the media. Just show us the photos.
To el-1372142
Dispite your prayers, its not working, which means either:
Their god is more powerful than your god, or
Your god is not listening to you, or
There is no god.
Maybe if you showed some compassion for the suffering of the Afghan people, god might listen....
If we showed no compassion, then we would have bombed the whole thing and left. Without a single troop on the ground.
If we showed no compassion, then we wouldn't be sending in our engineers to build schools, homes, water lines, electricity, and other facilities.
If we showed no compassion, we wouldn't be giving the people an education. Including the women that have been denied it.
Maybe you should think before you type. Because you obviously have no idea what's going on.
Oh Armywife, I feel sorry for people like you that believe what you have written! (But its so sweet). Compassion is bombing only a little bit of their country?!?
You forgot to also mention how we have given the Afghans western-style capitalism, and the opportunity to make tons of money grow poppies and shipping drugs to the West. You should check the UN statistics on opium production in Afghanistan.
Oh that's cute. You're acting like I get my information from the biased media with an agenda. Again running your mouth like you know something when you clearly don't. Maybe you should wake up and not just look at the news reports. My information comes from the ground. Not what some politician or media outlet told me. Grow up and get a real education.
Our troops are NOT DOING what they are trained and capable of, this winning the minds of people politically correct CRAP is not and will not accomplish any thing, the pictures tells the story.
We need strong guts and glory respecting our flag and our American heritage leaders,
Starting from so called president in the white house to Congress. After that cut the ropes and chains of the troops, Objective is to WIN and destroy ISLAMIC fundamentalism
Terrorize the terrorist with devastating power period.
God Bless USA
To all the brothers in arms that risk life and limb, screw the kid glove of appeasing the locals, war is war, and we need to play to win. Fighting the Taliban by appeasing the civillians is to what advantage -- saving the trees?
We've got all the technology, take the gloves off and control the media -- this is how the Soviets do it and China would do it. F*uck the geneva convention and get the war over with. Use every weapon and tactic at our disposal, dominate and win.
I'm glad I never enlisted to be told I can't fire on an enemy! I'm not sure how I would react to that command. Collateral damage is to be expected, we didn't choose the war..
My husband is in the 101st and stationed in Afghanistan. I appreciate you allowing us to see what they are going through. Thank you.