With Special Operations Marines in Afghanistan
Story by Stewart Nusbaumer •
Photo by Sgt Michael J. Nyeste, 19th Public Affairs Detachment
U.S. Special Operations Command Read Online FREE!
It was a routine Saturday convoy for members of Embedded Training Team 3-5, set to deliver supplies to another base.
Five humvees and six Afghan National Army (ANA) light pickup trucks moved out of Forward Operating Base Bostick early Saturday afternoon, Oct. 18, 2008. Bostick was a joint Army-Marine base with four smaller combat outposts. Bostick was well up in the mountains north and east of Asadabad, and less than a mile from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The Marines were led by Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin T. "Ty" Edwards, the senior Embedded Training Team leader, mentoring the Afghan Army's 2/2 Kandak (Battalion).
The convoy had been on the road for less than an hour when it entered a sweeping S-curve on the narrow highway and was ambushed. LtCol Edwards was thought dead, but was seriously wounded. Evacuated, beginning a tortuous, painfully long recovery, he is ably supported by his family and dedicated fellow Marines--of all eras. We are proud of his continuing progress. (See Leatherneck's "Ambush in the East," March, page 30.)
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