(Martin Kuz/Stars and Stripes)

Barbar, Afghanistan, Dec. 31, 2011: Capt. Brad Wilson, a platoon leader with Company C of the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, talks with a resident of Barbar, a village in eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province and a suspected Taliban enclave. The man told Wilson that no insurgents live there. Intelligence reports suggested that a midlevel Taliban operative lived in the village and insurgents stashed weapons and ammunition there as they moved to and from Pakistan, some 20 miles to the east.

Check out the article on Company C’s mission here.