Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War (103 page)

With General Stan McChrystal at his headquarters in Kabul. He was a supremely gifted combat commander, outflanked by politics and the media.

Walking the streets of Now Zad, a village in southern Afghanistan reclaimed from the Taliban by U.S. Marines at a very high cost. I wondered to myself if the cost was too high.

A tepee with memorials to a unit’s lost comrades at Forward Operating Base Frontenac in Afghanistan.

Arrival and “dignified transfer” of a fallen soldier at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. I had directed in April 2009 that such photos could be taken with the family’s permission.

Gowning up to visit seriously wounded troops at Landstuhl Hospital in Germany, the first stop for wounded on the way home. Thanks to the doctors, nurses, and staff there, nearly everyone who went on from Landstuhl would survive.

Secretary Clinton and I at Panmunjom at the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ). I was tempted to make a very undiplomatic gesture to the North Korean soldier observing us through the window. I refrained, barely.

With two great Marine warriors, General Jim Mattis, on my left, and General John Allen.

Congratulating would-be SEALs on their survival of “Hell Week.” Only about a third of those who enter training for these elite units become SEALs.

Presenting medals and combat insignia in Afghanistan. The soldiers were so damn young and, as I said, my heroes.

Lunch with junior enlisted troops at Combat Outpost Senjaray, near Kandahar. I always learned a lot in these sessions, which were frequent.

Meeting privately at Forward Operating Base Connolly, eastern Afghanistan, with a platoon that had lost six soldiers in an attack by an Afghan soldier.

One unit in Afghanistan, to which I presented five Purple Hearts and multiple other medals.

I am pinning on the Purple Heart medal in Afghanistan, honoring those wounded in battle. It is the medal no one wants to earn but that I was deeply honored to present.