In Bleak Afghan Outpost, Troops Slog On

American soldiers recently patrolled several ridges in the mountains above the Korangal Valley in Afghanistan. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

From The New York Times:

KORANGAL OUTPOST, Afghanistan — The helicopters landed in blackness before the moon rose. The infantry company rushed out and through waist-high vegetation and into forests on an Afghan ridge.

Over the next 40 hours, more than 100 soldiers from the First Battalion, 26th Infantry, swept Sautalu Sar, the mountain where members of the Navy Seals were surrounded in battle in 2005. They were looking for weapons caches and insurgents.

They labored uphill through snow until daybreak, when the company broke into smaller patrols above 9,200 feet. They descended the next night through gullies and shin-deep mud and staggered back to their outpost without having yet slept.

All the while, the insurgents watched. Why fight the Americans when the Americans were ready and strong?

Read more ....

My Comment: More stories like this one should be published by our main stream media. It gives the feel of what our men and women are going through in these war zones.