He beloved to rewatch “Star Wars” DVDs, his mates mentioned, and regarded the sequence the best illustration of excellent versus evil. He additiona
He beloved to rewatch “Star Wars” DVDs, his mates mentioned, and regarded the sequence the best illustration of excellent versus evil. He additionally was notoriously late, working on what his household and mates jokingly known as “Ben Time.” He was shut mates with the third Marine, Sergeant Slutman, regardless of their 12-year age distinction. He joined different Marines who joking known as Sergeant Slutman “Previous Man,” mates mentioned.
Sergeant Slutman, who had been a Marine for 14 years by the point he was deployed at Bagram, arrived on the airfield already well-tested and revered after years of combating fires throughout the boroughs of New York Metropolis. He had obtained medals for bravery in 2014 after rescuing an unconscious girl from a burning constructing within the South Bronx. He was continually difficult different Marines who known as him previous to attempt to sustain with him, his mates mentioned. However above all, they mentioned, he adored his three daughters.
The Assault on Their Convoy
That October, a automobile bomb exploded close to a Czech convoy exterior of Bagram, wounding 5 Czech troops. However Thanksgiving and Christmas got here and went uneventfully for the Marines. In February the brand new appearing protection secretary, Patrick M. Shanahan, confirmed up in an all-black outfit, prompting the American press to dub him “Dr. Evil.”
A month later, Sergeant Hendriks celebrated his 25th birthday.
The three Marines and the remainder of their unit have been going out virtually every day. Sleep, eat, patrol. The routine has been repeated many 1000’s of occasions by 775,000 American troops in Afghanistan for greater than 18 years. Generally the Marines have been on foot and generally in convoys as they patrolled the Bagram perimeter.
The Marines knew that each time they left the airfield, their possibilities of getting hit by an improvised roadside explosive or a automobile bomb went up exponentially. The highway between Kabul and Bagram was particularly harmful, which is why visiting American dignitaries took helicopters between the 2 areas.
On April 8 — lower than two weeks earlier than the Marines have been as a result of return to the U.S. — the three set out on one other patrol. Sergeants Slutman, Hendriks and Hines have been in the identical automobile.
Simply earlier than four p.m., because the convoy was approaching an intersection close to Bagram, a automobile slammed into the three Marines’ personnel provider and detonated. The Taliban shortly claimed accountability.