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Thanksgiving R&R

Nov-27-2009 » Filed Under: 5/2 SBCT

A local paper catches up with an officer from the 5/2 SBCT home on leave.

Johnson, 23, described his first months of work in a remote Army camp in southeastern Afghanistan, where he leads a 40-soldier platoon on foot patrols, often at night, trying at the same time to combat Taliban fighters and engage Afghan civilians on friendly terms.

“We check every single house, every single orchard,” said Johnson, clad in a Harley-Davidson T-shirt and jeans in his College Township living room. “We’re checking for weapons caches, trying to make contact with any enemy that wants to fight us and check for bomb-making materials especially.”

Johnson’s is one of four platoons in Charlie Company, a 170-member force that is part of the 5th Stryker Brigade in the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division and among the 68,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan prosecuting the war against the Taliban.


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