Two Deaths in Afghanistan

Up close against the Pakistani border provinces of North and South Waziristan is Paktika province in Afghanistan. My friends are there now spread across some of the more Godforsaken real estate on the planet. The area is like the foothills of Southern California without the charm and more altitude. Combat Outpost Zerok is one of the more “picturesque” outposts of our military in Afghanistan. There’s a single rough track they call a road that runs miles in from another dirt track. The resupply crews call it “Ambush Alley”. Think about Gunga Din and lose the illusion. Aggregate carboy walls and sandbags and shit burning details, some Conex containers to offer some cover from the elements and very small arms fire, and a couple of generators to run the lights and radios, and you get the idea.  Lots and lots of sandbags and razor wire.

On the 4th of July, like many others, I read of an attack on an outpost somewhere in Afghanistan that killed two American soldiers. The AP reported that the Taliban had launched a coordinated attack first with a suicide truck bomber to try and blow the gates (which failed), and then with coordinated mortar, machine gun, and RPG fire, raking a quiet FOB Zerok. Over 200 Talibi hit pretty much at once from 2 sides with everything they had.

The American paratroopers on the base reacted quickly and their training took over. The machine gunners, infantrymen, and mortarmen all went into action as all hell broke loose. Medics set up an aid station for the casualties, both theirs and ours. Funny how Americans are like that. We’ll rain hell down on our enemies and then go out and police the area and take extraordinary measures to save their lives after we’re done. It’s a Judeo Christian thing.

One of the mortarmen, PFC Aaron Fairbairn, 20, of Aberdeen, WA was hit by shrapnel from a mortar bomb. His team member, PFC  Justin Casillas, 19, of Dunnegan, CA lifted Aaron over his shoulder and ran towards the aid station. They did not make it. Another mortar bomb exploded, and both of them were mortally injured. 7 other soldiers were wounded in the attack. The attack went on for hours with air and Apache support that helped keep the base from being overrun.

Our soldiers devastated the enemy. Dozens were killed, and the bloodstains leading back across the border to the safe haven for the Taliban were many. These were murderous thugs trying to impose the worst sort of degradation on their own people, and their sole goal was to take as many American scalps as possible on our most sacred civic holiday for the glory of Allah and Sheikh Sirajuddin Haqqani.

PFC Casillas was buried yesterday back in the central Valley where he grew up. He always wanted to be a soldier, and he paid the soldier’s price. He was met by his family and friends and the Patriot Guard at the airport, and the Woodland and Dunnegan Fire Departments and CHP provided an escort and honor guard. Yesterday they and other public safety officers did the same again as they laid him to rest. It seems that across the country, mainly in the small towns, we reach out now to the families to honor these kids, and some old men sometimes too, who pay that price. People were lined along the streets in respect as PFC Casillas was taken to his final rest , holding flags and covering their hearts with their palms.

PFC Fairbairn was met with a similar escort when he arrived at the Hoquiam, WA airport out on the coast south of Seattle at the base of the Olympic Peninsula.  He enlisted in early 2008 and this was his first deployment. He will be buried tomorrow.

These young men knew their duty and did it in the face of death to protect all Americans. As we had our barbecues and picnics and parades, and as we ate too much and drank too much, these kids died for our freedoms to say and think and do as we pretty well please. We don’t see this in the suburbs and cities. Death is distant, hermetically sealed off. It’s in the small towns that we see the price of war more clearly.

We must respect the  sacrifice of these young men and so many others who have paid that price and demand more of ourselves in return. It’s called keeping the faith. May God rest their souls and comfort their loved ones and buddies back in Afghanistan.