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Afghanistan Journal:
A Reporter At War
In the other war, a soldier mourns
By KEITH KLUWE
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS-JOURNAL
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (March 31, 2003) — March 24. I think about Iraq every day, but I have my own worries here. We have plenty of war here in Afghanistan, so I don’t need to worry about their war. I just worry about the people. I have friends there I have known for years. I served with some of those people in another combat zone, Bosnia.
I was getting e-mail from some of my friends there, but that has stopped now that the ground war has started. Everyone is on the move, headed toward Baghdad, or they have a group of prisoners of war to guard, or are headed someplace none of us have ever heard of to do their mission. I worry about them being maimed or killed, leaving behind a wife or a husband and their children.
The other soldiers here are of mixed opinions. Some of them are with the 82nd Airborne Division and are worried about their friends in the other half of the division that’s over there. Others in the division would do just about anything to fly over there and be able to parachute into Baghdad and earn a gold "combat jump" star they would wear on their jump wings.
Other soldiers who are in very specialized fields are worried about getting stuck here in Afghanistan, being home for a week or a month, then heading to Iraq for another six months to a year, away from their family and friends. Some units have been extended here because their replacements were diverted to the war over there.
But, we have our own war to fight here. In the past week while most of America was glued to the television watching the news about the war in Iraq, troops at three different bases here were attacked with rockets by hostile Taliban and Al Qaeda forces. We have a huge force out on Operation Valiant Strike, taking enemy prisoners, seizing war materiel and weapons caches, putting their life on the line like the soldiers in Iraq. I was told that we had a helicopter go down here last night as well.
A few hours later: I wrote the first part of this column while I was doing my laundry this morning. When I walked into my office one of the guys I work with, "Archer," told me it was a pararescue bird that went down. That changed my whole day.
I went up to Air Force hill hoping to find out what happened to the "green helicopters." All I found out for sure was that all six airmen on board were killed. We didn´t find out who until a formation a few hours later.
I knew all six on board. Yesterday, my off day, I watched a volleyball tournament many of them were playing in. We had a BBQ after that. That was the last time I saw any of the six.
They crashed while flying out on a mission to pick up an 8-year-old Afghan girl who had been badly burned and needed to be medivaced to a hospital. They lived the pararescue motto "That others may live."
My friends and I have cried a lot today. Now, six hours later, it is only coming in spurts. This is one more thing I won´t ever forget, the death of six friends, who are now heroes to me, on my birthday.
I looked again at what I wrote earlier today and now I´m sure I have enough war going on right here in Afghanistan.
Pray for the family and friends of the six airmen who died here in Afghanistan yesterday going to the aid of an Afghan girl in need.
It´s a real war over here still.
Keith A. Kluwe
109th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
Kandahar Air Base, Afghanistan
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