War is not pretty. War is not glamorous.
War is hell, some say inhuman, but humans fight in them and there are human moments.
Here are some:
A U.S. paratrooper watches as a fellow U.S. soldier gives candy to a Afghan girl during a break in an operation Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, June 2, 2012. The soldiers are assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team.
U.S. Army Spc. Samantha Hall pets a goat during a patrol in Loy Murghoz in Afghanistan’s Khowst province, June 8, 2012. Hall is assigned to 2nd Battalion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment.
An Afghan villager asks U.S. Army 1st Lt. Kirk Shoemaker, left, if his soldiers can skirt around his fields to avoid damaging his crops in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, June 3, 2012. Shoemaker, assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, tells the farmer his men generally spread out while moving through fields.
A U.S. paratrooper gives a high five to an Afghan boy while on patrol in a village near Forward Operating Base Arian in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, May 29, 2012.
Finally, the skies and stars over Afghanistan can be just as beautiful as over Texas — or anywhere else on a planet at war.
U.S. Army Maj. Jason Glemser and U.S. Lt. Cols. James Salome and Daniel Mouton take a break under the stars on Joint Security Station Hasan in the Gilan district in southern Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, June 11, 2012. Glemser, Salome and Mouton are assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team.
Photos: Courtesy DOD
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.