In the summer of 2006, I was quietly practicing law in Columbia, South Carolina not knowing my life was about to be changed forever. That summer, I discovered the state’s 218th Infantry Brigade was being alerted for mobilization to Afghanistan. Though not a member of the 218th, I was a South Carolina National Guard Infantry Major who had spent over a decade on active duty as a Regular Army Infantry officer before attending law school (which explains a lawyer serving in the Infantry instead of JAG). I was assigned to another position within the state but firmly believed in what America was doing in Afghanistan. As a Christian, I felt called to volunteer my services to the 218th and take my post to help defend America. It began a long chain of events that culminated with my deployment to the sands of Southern Afghanistan in May 2007.

As a part-time editorialist, I had previously written articles for my hometown newspaper, The Times and Democrat. When I began the process of preparing for war, I decided it might make a difference to those back home to receive periodic articles about the deployment. This book is made up of the articles I wrote from Afghanistan explaining the experience of combat in Southern Afghanistan. My primary purpose was to inform family, friends, neighbors, and community so they would have an idea of what their soldiers faced during South Carolina’s largest deployment of troops since World War II. Writing was also good for my own piece of mind. Those in combat like to know fellow citizens are getting the “straight scoop” about events on the ground. Throughout the year in Afghanistan, whenever I finished a notable mission, came through a firefight, or conducted humanitarian activities I wrote about it.

As a brief summary of the background events covered in the articles:


I was assigned to Kandahar Province, Afghanistan for the first three months of my deployment. This was in the southern region of Afghanistan (note: 60% of the violent acts in Afghanistan took place in the southern region and it was known throughout the country as the most violent of the five regions). My job was as the “Joint Operations Officer” for the newly formed Afghan Police Advisory Mission. This was quite a challenging and unique experience; one that stretched all my abilities. Our higher command in Kabul was just starting the Afghan police advisory mission when we arrived yet expected us to quickly field advisory teams throughout the region. We were placed in the traditional heartland of the Taliban movement, Kandahar City, during the start of the Taliban spring/summer offensive. That summer, the police had become the targets of the Taliban as hundreds of Afghan police were killed each month. Our orders were very broad and non-specific. Essentially, we were to determine and prepare remote locations to send our teams and make connections with the local Afghan police. At that point, advisory teams were to help police with training, operations, financing, logistics, and personnel. This mission required much “outside the box” thinking, as the Southern Region was made up of various European NATO forces. We had to coordinate support and operations with coalition nations while discovering which Afghan Police we could trust to build relationships.

My primary duties at this time were determining where the teams should go, preparing those locations to receive teams, and giving guidance to the teams about how to conduct their mission. The problem was that I received little guidance from the national level about any of these matters. Additionally, our higher command was part of “Operation Enduring Freedom” under Central Command and the NATO nations we operated with were under “International Security and Assistance Forces” (ISAF) command. Therefore, it fell to me and the staff to coordinate with the European nations about where we could put our teams in their area of operations. I spent a great deal of my time during this period traveling throughout the Southern Half of Afghanistan to prepare and coordinate the basing of our teams. This travel was primarily by small convoy (though sometimes I was able to fly by helicopter or C130 airplane) riding in “up-armored” HMMMVs while wearing body armor. As you will see in my articles, being in 120 degree summer heat while cramped into a small vehicle space and wearing body armor was one of the tougher aspects of the deployment. Between forward operating bases, where soldiers could “ditch” their body armor, all soldiers are in a constant state of discomfort.

It was during that summer, specifically on August 21, 2007, when I was involved in my first sustained direct-fire combat action with enemy forces. I had been near many other combat actions and “Improved Explosive Device” (IED) incidents while on convoy. However, up to August 21 I had not been directly involved. Before that date, I recall how uncanny it seemed that so many violent acts had occurred in front of or behind our convoys and yet we seemed to never get hit. You will read my article outlining the massive firefight that day (Note: As one of the largest engagements during the 218th deployment, it was reported in South Carolina’s biggest newspapers in the following weeks. We were interviewed by State reporter Chuck Crumbo and briefed the SC Adjutant General on his later visit). It was a day etched in my memory.