AFGHANISTAN. Pech Valley, Kunar. 2007. Sergeant Brown in the final days of a fifteen-month deployment to Afghanistan. He was on his
second tour.
Earlier that day his platoon had patrolled to a nearby village of a few hundred people. A sizable
crowd gathered when word spread that the soldiers were there to hand out medical supplies.
The distribution had been poorly organized and the panicked troops flung packets of pills at the
surging crowd. A group of triumphant children walked away and began eating the aspirin and
vitamins. They ran into an interpreter and asked him why the candy tasted so bad.