Afghanistan - 4th of July

NANGARHAR PROVENCE, Afghanistan – As Americans prepare to celebrate the country’s independence this July fourth, one should take time to think about the men and women who protect and defend that independence.  Think about the men and women who lay down their lives, and think about their loved ones who sacrifice along with them.

No one understands sacrifice better than the friends and family of US Army 1^st Lt. Dimitri Del Castillo. 

Del Castillo was killed on June 25^th when his unit, the Hawaii based 2^nd Battalion, 35^th Infantry Regiment, part of 3^rd Brigade Combat Team, 25^th Infantry Division, Task Force Bronco, was conducting a massive counter insurgency operation in the Watahpur District of Kunar Provence, Afghanistan.

He was just 24 years old, a newlywed, and just starting his career as an infantryman. 

The news reached his bride just minutes after his death.  She was just a few miles away at a Forward Operating Base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

Within hours of being notified of Del Castillo’s passing, Pulliam was on her way back to the United States where she will spend the next several days preparing for the arrival of his body and making arrangements for his memorial.

So as you prepare for your picnics, parades and fireworks this 4^th of July, remember Katie Pulliam and Dimitiri Del Castillo’s story. 

They are just two of the thousands of brave Americans whose lives will forever be changed because they chose to serve a greater cause. 

Their story is a one of sacrifice and love, not just for each other, but for the country that affords you the liberties you enjoy. 

afghanistan - CSM Spano and Col Kim

What is amazing to me is how accessible the Commanders are. In books you read about them sequestering themselves in tents with maps and bottles of whisky. Now, if they see you they come up and chat awhile and ask you how you're doing.

CSM Spano is a poster boy for public relations. He is sincerely concerned about his soldiers and wants them to know about it. I was Kunar during the TOA when everyone was crazy busy, but he always took time out for people and looked them in the eye to make sure. I guess that would be what a leader does, access you within a few seconds. He wants to know if you're combat ready because he's leading the team.

Col Kim is a bit more serious, but I did manage to catch a shot of him with a hat presented by the Afghanistan Army. It is a tradition that all the men in the family wear the same hat and it designates what your profession is.

Team Kim and Spano: tearing up Kunar Province.

Afghanistan Through My Eyes-Eastburn & Robinson

In Jbad Major David Eastburn and SSG Robinson run the show, the Public Relations show. Maj Eastburn doesn't dress like this all the time, just when he's going to the shower and the FOB is on Delta Alert. This was actually April 30, the day before Osama bin Ladin was killed. 

SSG Amber Robinson is always ready for anything. This is on our way to Finley Shields and my first ride in a Blackhawk.

These two were great hosts and I really liked working with them.

Even though there is a lot of fun on a combat base it can get serious real fast. You gotta grab life when you can, just like sleep.

Afghanistan Through My Eyes-Fenty

Walking around the base I am always looking for a standout photo. Not being a photographer I usually miss the 'Amazing' cover story photos...sometimes because I don't want to be in any one's face. Being in a combat zone is hard enough and I think having someone taking your picture to capitalize on it without your permission is rude.

I walked up and down Fenty a lot. I was living down in 8 mile, no man's land. But still I found something I thought was interesting.

What you are looking at is a birds nest made in the air tower with a Queen of Clubs from a card deck. The significance of this is the 101st Airborne who left while I was there were 'the clubs'. How this card got up there, at least 30 ft. high, I'll never know.

This is an old abandoned bathroom in the middle of the base. Probably passed a thousand times a day with no one paying any attention, but I though the mottled paint and colors were really pretty.

Having gone through tough times and hardship in my life I try and find the beauty everywhere. It's there, sometimes it can be as simple as the blue sky or the breath you just inhaled or the sound of reveille.

The First Memorial Day

But for the earliest and most remarkable Memorial Day, we must return to where the war began. By the spring of 1865, after a long siege and prolonged bombardment, the beautiful port city of Charleston, S.C., lay in ruin and occupied by Union troops. Among the first soldiers to enter and march up Meeting Street singing liberation songs was the 21st United States Colored Infantry; their commander accepted the city's official surrender. Whites had largely abandoned the city, but thousands of blacks, mostly former slaves, had remained, and they conducted a series of commemorations to declare their sense of the meaning of the war. 

Then came black men marching in cadence, followed by contingents of Union infantrymen. Within the cemetery enclosure a black children's choir sang "We'll Rally Around the Flag," the "Star-Spangled Banner" and spirituals before a series of black ministers read from the Bible. After the dedication the crowd dispersed into the infield and did what many of us do on Memorial Day: enjoyed picnics, listened to speeches and watched soldiers drill. 

Among the full brigade of Union infantrymen participating were the famous 54th Massachusetts and the 34th and 104th United States Colored Troops, who performed a special double-columned march around the gravesite. The war was over, and Memorial Day had been founded by African-Americans in a ritual of remembrance and consecration. The war, they had boldly announced, had been about the triumph of their emancipation over a slaveholders' republic. 

Read more of David Blight's amazing words.

Thank you Chris Lombardi author of: I Ain't Marchin Anymore: Soldiers Who dissent, 1754-2008