When I arrived at brigade headquarters in Massum Ghar, the first thing I noticed was the soldiers' faces. I spotted a squad through my long lens and recognized a few soldiers. The strains, stresses and challenges of combat on these particular soldiers are seen by their faces and altered eyes. They appeared aged, older and different. They were the same soldiers I knew, but they had been changed and molded by their experiences in Afghanistan.
Looking at the photographs I made at [the National Training Center in California] a couple of months before deployment confirmed my impression. Walking behind the footsteps of the soldiers during several patrols and an air assault gave me a glimpse of their lifestyle, the high and low points of being at war.
Ancheta writes that he saw no combat but visited a U.S. medical facility at Kandahar airfield.
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