Zabul Redux: Stay Calm, Boys
October 19th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Chris Maddaloni
06/11/09: Hundreds of new members of the ANP graduate from a 16-week long training course at Camp Scorpion in Kandahar. They are issued new weapons, a Hungarian rifle similar to AK-47’s.
Zabul Redux: Aftermath
October 14th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Chris Maddaloni
6/6/09: The end of result of this mission – another angle of the new ANP recruit, Atam, who is helping search the remains of a Taliban KIA from the night before. A planned assault by PMT Viper on village occupied by the Taliban had been called off due to rough terrain – but the helicopter escort intercepted a few Taliban fleeing on motorcycles, still carrying their weapons.
Zabul Redux: Entering the Village
October 13th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Chris Maddaloni
05/25/09: Police Mentoring Team Viper’s XO, Staff Sgt. Sean Tremblay, from Williamsburg, Va., prepares to search a building in Kadu, in Afghanistan’s southern Zabul province. It’s remote even by Afghan standards, where villagers have mistaken U.S. forces for being Russian.
Right after Afghan National Police have swept through the village, Tremblay follows close behind. “It’s their country, we’re just escorting them. I’m going in to double-check,” he said. You look for things that may be out of the ordinary for a village, like binos or two-way radios. There is no law against owning them, but it gives you an idea of what you’re dealing with.”
The Graduates
June 14th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Chris Maddaloni
Hundreds of new members of the ANP graduate from a 16-week long training course at Camp Scorpion in Kandahar.
Tea Time in Qalat
June 10th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Chris Maddaloni
A local standard – nuts, raisins, and no almonds left during a copious tea time with some Afghans in Qalat.
A Handful of Dust
June 8th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Chris Maddaloni
Pfc. Matthew Hoyt, 20, from Chicago, Ill., waits to move an ammo resupply from a Chinook helicopter at PMT Viper in SW Zabul province. This is a few seconds into the takeoff – it was actually a total brownout in the beginning – and there are more than a few pebbles thrown in there. Larger bases have gravel for LZs – but for the smaller FOBs, well, as always, one makes do in more than one way.
Search Party
June 5th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Chris Maddaloni
Sunrise over the mountains in SW Zabul, as the Afghan National Police, escorted by PMT Viper, look for Taliban KIA from a helicopter gunship called in by them the night before.
It’s 4:40am, Still No Sleep
May 30th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Chris Maddaloni
PMT Viper Staff Sgt. Milo Wurth, from McClean, Ill., gets ready to leave his overwatch position on a night patrol in SW Zabul. It’s shortly after dawn and he still hasn’t slept from the day before.
In the Village of Kadu
May 29th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Chris Maddaloni
The village of Kadu, at the end of the patrol. As we took up positions overlooking the village, some men took off running. So, the Aghan police spoke with the men of the village – who didn’t explain much. However, they agreed to send some of their men down to the police HQ in the nearest bazaar town in few days – and when the men who had run away were in police custody for questioning, the villagers would return.
Headed South, спасибо!
May 28th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Chris Maddaloni
PMT Viper (Police Mentoring Team) heads out on a patrol with ANP trucks in southwest Zabul province – going the deepest south they’ve ever been. The trucks have to do some serious off-roading to go a few clicks, often in dried riverbeds – and the some of villages out this way are so remote that they weren’t aware Americans were in the country. In fact, they thought that they were Russians.