I did not make a post this year for the 9/11 anniversary, as I usually do. Despite that, I did want to at least make a note and say that 9/11 is why I joined the Army, even if I waited until I was 24 to do it. I joined specifically to do two things, if nothing else. That was to join the intelligence community, and then go to Afghanistan.
I would have been happy to go to Iraq too, but I mainly joined to go to Afghanistan, and so I did. It may not have been the warzone it was in 2001, but when I went it still kind of the wild west, if you want to put it that way. I guess it always will be though. As of this writing, 17 US servicemen have died in Afghanistan this year, which is apparently the most in a year since 2014. I was in Afghanistan for OEF 13-14.
During the time I was there, during the missions I was on, we lost three men. I didn't know any of them particularly well myself. I was part of an intelligence HUMINT Collection Team (HCT) with 504th BfSB and assigned to 2nd Cavalry Regiment for a while during my deployment, and later was moved to a multi-function team (MFT) and reassigned to a group called "Task Force Black". We were frequently tasked to go out and perform whatever intelligence-related function a particular unit requested in RC South. Through this, we worked alongside Rangers from 3rd Battalion and men from 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), in addition to Navy Corpsmen and Air Force CI.
The three men who were killed on our missions were Specialist Cody Patterson and Sergeant Patrick Hawkins from 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, and Staff Sergeant Richard Vazquez of the 7th SF Group (Airborne).
Never forget.
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