In 2010, Maj. Tyson Walsh was a platoon leader on his first deployment. Just ten days after arriving in Afghanistan, the platoon suffered its first casualties when an IED—an improvised explosive device—killed one soldier and wounded another. Eight days later, the battalion chaplain visited the platoon's combat outpost to perform a prayer service for the soldier they had lost. Afterward, when he left, his vehicle also struck an IED, killing him and four other soldiers. It was only the beginning of a very difficult deployment, and led to leadership challenges Walsh would have to overcome.
In 2007, Col. Marc Hoffmeister was a major on a Military Transition Team advising Iraqi Security Forces when an explosively formed penetrator, a specific...
In 2006, Jeremy Fox was a platoon leader deployed in Iraq, his platoon tasked for part of that deployment with providing security for an...
In 1998, retired US Air Force Colonel Mike "Starbaby" Pietrucha was an electronic warfare officer flying in an F-15E Strike Eagle, enforcing the northern...