“I’m pretty sure our battle tank is actually an RV. This is not a way to maintain military discipline,” commentator Ken White wrote, recalling the plot from the 1980s screwball comedy “Stripes.”
in Afghanistan.
It’s supposedly over, and I wasn’t happy. I didn’t cry until later. I just was empty. And if anything, I felt almost angry. It seemed like the announcement was coming not as a result of a watershed moment. It’s cliche, but it was definitely not with a bang, but with a whimper. There wasn’t a moment of reckoning. .
I remember there was this colonel who had talked to us right when we got into country. And he said, “I want you to remember that not a single thing you do out here is worth the life of a single Marine.”
Emptiness, Anger, Relief: Afghanistan Veterans Wrestle with Coming End of Forever War
U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Dustin Hanson, a section leader with Charlie Company, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, observes a moment of silence in respect of Lance Cpl. Ramon T. Kaipat, an infantryman who served with Charlie Co., 1st LAR, and 22-year-old native of Tacoma, Wash., during a memorial service in Afghanistan, April 16, 2012. (Alfred V. Lopez/U.S. Marine Corps)
20 Apr 2021
When the news broke that the United States planned to pull its remaining troops from Afghanistan, Marine veteran Peter Lucier s thoughts drifted to his old platoon mate, Lance Cpl. Ramon Kaipat.
For Afghanistan veterans, old feelings of frustration and loss surface as the US prepares to end its longest war Published 3 hours ago
Spc. Dallas Purdy from Hockley, Texas, hangs a message of support from friends Ashley and Katie Daniels while serving with the 1-320th Alpha Battery, 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division at COP Nolen, in the volatile Arghandab Valley, Kandahar, Afghanistan on July 29, 2010. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)
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Print article As the U.S. military shut down scores of remote outposts and patrol bases across southern Afghanistan 10 years ago, the Taliban planted a white flag on a former U.S. position that had been bulldozed, claiming the turf as its own and taunting the withdrawing Americans.