美国国家公共电台 NPR 16 Years Since The First Deployment, U.S. Soldiers Prepare To Go Again

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Next month marks the 16th anniversary of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. And thousands of troops are preparing to deploy 1, including part of the Army's 25th Infantry 2 Division based in Alaska. For many of these soldiers, it's their first combat deployment 3. Alaska Public Media's Zachariah Hughes reports on how they're preparing for their mission overseas.

ZACHARIAH HUGHES, BYLINE 4: Five soldiers are locked inside the cab of an armored assault vehicle that's suspended within big metal hoops 5. And then they're flipped 6 upside down like some kind of military carnival 7 ride.

STAFF SARGEANT DUSTIN OGDEN: The paratroopers inside are conducting rollover training to prepare themselves for the upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.

HUGHES: Staff Sergeant 8 Dustin Ogden says the point of the exercise is learning how to evacuate 9 a vehicle if it flips 10, whether that's from rough terrain 11 or a roadside explosive.

OGDEN: So in the event that it does happen while deployed 12, they can react appropriately.

HUGHES: The 4th Brigade Combat Team 25th Infantry Division is sending about 2,100 troops for a nine-month deployment mostly in eastern parts of Afghanistan. But unlike the last time the 4-25 deployed to the country in 2011, their primary mission isn't direct combat. Instead, they're advising Afghan security forces and assisting in their training, which, according to Sergeant First Class Aaron Cawthon, means teaching a lot of the basics.

SERGEANT FIRST CLASS AARON CAWTHON: You know, how we fire our weapons systems, how we put together our weapons systems. How do we conduct our patrols - things of that sort. So that way they can take the lead and protect their country.

HUGHES: Cawthon's from San Antonio, Texas. He enlisted 13 not long after 9/11, and his first deployment was the invasion of Iraq. This will be his fifth. But each previous stint 14 focused more on direct engagement. Still, Cawthon isn't treating it any differently. He's taking the same steps to prepare his family. His packing list and mental expectations are like almost every other time he's deployed.

CAWTHON: It's just a different mission. We're still going to be over there in a combat zone.

HUGHES: Cawthon is in charge of about two dozen other soldiers, and many of them have never deployed before. They have what are called slick sleeves, fuzzy patches of green Velcro on their right shoulder where the insignia patch for a combat-deployed unit will eventually go. Originally from Nevada, Corporal Hank Thompson has been in the Army just a year and a half. And his sleeve is slick. When he learned the unit would be sending personnel to Afghanistan, Thompson hoped he'd be tapped.

CORPORAL HANK THOMPSON: I was pretty jovial 15. Typically when you - at least in my experience when you go to be especially an infantryman, it's more of a rite 16 of passage. Like, you know, we didn't join to sit on the sideline.

HUGHES: Thompson's job is as a radio telephone operator. But he has no idea whether that'll be the kind of task he's helping 17 with day to day. But it doesn't matter. He just wants to go.

THOMPSON: It's one of those things that you're kind of secretly hoping for and then you're secretly hoping that you do see some action because, you know, you want to become an Army soldier, to take part in the fight versus 18 sitting in garrison 19 or doing the training rotations 20 over and over and over again.

HUGHES: In this he's hardly alone. Sergeant Nicholas Murray did a combat deployment once before in Afghanistan's turbulent Helmand Province, patrolling villages with special forces to beat back the Taliban. Though the Army's role is different this time around, Murray is still excited to be going back.

SERGEANT NICHOLAS MURRAY: When they told us we were going, I couldn't - I can't wait to get over there and actually do my job.

HUGHES: Murray says that job is straightforward 21.

MURRAY: To close with and destroy the enemy.

HUGHES: This time he'll be teaching his Afghan counterparts how to close with and destroy the enemy. Even though this isn't strictly 22 a combat mission, the prospect 23 of engagement still looms 24 large.

MURRAY: It's kind of hard to explain, actually. I guess as infantrymen it's an adrenaline rush, I guess you could say, that some people grow attached to.

HUGHES: One fixture 25 of deployments is separation from family. Twenty-seven-year-old Murray is a father of three. He and his wife are expecting a fourth child to be born sometime in the months ahead. For NPR News, I'm Zachariah Hughes at Joint 26 Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Anchorage.