You work with what you got.

We’ve been out in the field with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division for the past three weeks, and we’ve seen very different abilities among the Afghan government officials soldiers are supporting here in Zabul Province.

At Forward Base Mizan, we met a well-regarded district governor who seemed to be carrying out realistic goals with backing from U.S. and Afghan army troops. In Mizan, the Afghan National Police were less ready for action, and were in line to receive special training from American advisers.

At Forward Operating Base Wolverine in Shinkai Distirct, 3-2 soldiers …

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Greetings from Afghanistan

Walking in the dark toward the scene of an Apache helicopter attack against a team of insurgents, Sgt. Dison Ittu looked down and saw something that might help the days go by a little faster on his yearlong deployment to Afghanistan.

The tortoise at his feet looked

…

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SHINKAI DISTRICT, AFGHANISTAN – Soldiers here at Forward Operating Base Wolverine suddenly found themselves sprinting from mission to mission last week.

Their deployment at one time seemed slow because of the heavy snow that fell over the past winter. The cold weather helped keep enemy activity to low levels for months.

Last week, soldiers in the 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment started running two to three missions a day. Some took place at night. Some were planned. Some were based on suspected threats.

The intense run peaked Saturday night when the squadron’ s C Troop had its first successful engagement …

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SURRY, AFGHANISTAN – It’s confusing out there.

Today we accompanied a Joint Base Lewis-McChord infantry platoon as it tried to make sense of several Afghan security contractors who were carrying illegal weapons and executing independent patrols in such a way that they looked suspicious to American forces here.

The Afghan security guards – ASGs for short – used to be hired to protect supply convoys that in some cases supported NATO bases. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called for a ban on security contractors, and the American troops believed that included the ones outside Forward Operating Base Wolverine today. …

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Yesterday I got my first look at ballistic underwear, the shrapnel-blocking body armor extension that fights one of the most psychologically damaging wounds caused by Taliban mines.

The new armor comes in layers. One goes underneath your pants, another wraps from your front and on under to your rear – hence the nickname, “Kevlar diaper.”

Watching soldiers get acquainted with the protection was a little like the elaborate adjustment process you might witness near the dugout at a single A baseball game. Never quite comfortable.

As you can imagine, a discussion on Kevlar underwear triggered some colorful …

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Space is tight here at Combat Outpost Mizan.

A platoon from Fort Wainwright’s 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment is on its way out. Two platoons from Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment are just getting settled in.

The Wainwright guys have been here a year. They seem proud of their work, and they’re ready to get home. Their mood is best summarized by the soldier who declared several times today, “I can’t wait to get back to Alaska, land of beer and Taco Bell.”

He’s not asking for much.

The folks from Lewis have been on the ground …

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Here’s the handoff.

Stryker soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment are taking on a little more territory this week. They’re moving into Combat Outpost Mizan, a base that shares walls with compounds for the Mizan district governor, the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police.

It’s a post that American forces believe is ripe to be turned over completely to Afghan control. The Afghan army here plans and carries out its own missions – including one last week clearing nearby villages – with relatively little …

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