The War I Always Wanted (11 page)

Months of waiting around in Pakistan for a mission, coupled with long hours on radio watch, eventually took its toll on Specialist Taylor.

Taking up positions on the east side of the Shah-e-Kot Valley shortly after sunrise on our first day in Operation Anaconda. The cloud on the left is a bomb exploding half a mile away.

Takhur Gar—also known as Objective Ginger during Operation Anaconda—loomed over us. During our time in the Valley, al Qaeda fighters remained dug in on the mountain.

Two soldiers from my platoon stay low as the bombs fall on the Shah-e-Kot Valley. An al Qaeda truck—caught in the previous day's fighting—lies burned out in the low ground.

Shortly before our extraction from the Shah-e-Kot Valley. Clockwise from left to right: Spc. Jose Limon, Sgt. Joseph Pascoe, Spc. Michael “Doc” Rojas, Sgt. Josh Nantz, me, Staff Sgt. David Reid, Spc. Jason Boudreau, and Pfc. Kyle Walter.

Flying into the Zhawar Kili area near the Afghan/Pakistan border. Two weeks after Operation Anaconda we went there to clear a cave complex.
Photo courtesy T. Kamauf

Always the social one, Specialist Kamauf practiced unit-level diplomacy with a serious-looking Afghan fighter who wore a borrowed American helmet for the photo.
Photo courtesy T. Kamauf

At Zhawar Kili, we had the privilege of working closely with Afghan anti-Taliban fighters. I am standing at the top left, while Sgt. Joe Pascoe is squatting in the middle.

A ruined, thousand year-old caravanserai lies in the open desert some 30 miles southwest of Najaf, on the old road between Baghdad and Mecca. We found it while operating a defensive screen on the southern edge of FARP Shell.

From left, Phil Dickinson and me. Sheltering a “caravan” for the first time in hundreds of years, the Delta Company command post and radio antenna can be seen outside of what remained of the northern wall of the caravanserai (roadside inn).

Three Chinooks flying low over the desert, twelve miles southwest of Baghdad. We staged there for half a day before moving on the city.

Sitting on the south bank of the Tigris in Baghdad's Daura neighborhood, this crumbling Baath Party mansion sustained two bomb strikes in the early stages of the invasion. By the time we entered it, nothing was left inside but rubble and debris. Everything else had been looted.

After clearing the Daura oil refinery, Delta Company set up its command post inside the perimeter. Distant explosions continued to rock the city, but we were safely out of range.