Zabul province, Afghanistan, Sept. 17, 2013: Spc. Stephen Hamby lights up a cigarette before moving out. From left, Capt. Brandon Fuhrman, Pfc. Jackson Nelson, Spc. Hamby and Sgt. 1st Class Justin Steeves with Task Force Duke slept under the stars on the landing zone of what used to be Forward Operating Base Sweeney in a remote corner of Southern Afghanistan’s Zabul Province.

The Task Force serve in the area where just five months ago a suicide bomb killed diplomat Anne Smedinghoff and several soldiers and injured four other State Department employees who were on their way to a local school for a book handout. The diplomatic Zabul Provincial Reconstruction Team withdrew from the province shortly after the attack.

Read Seth Robson’s assessment of the situation in Zabul in September 2013 here.

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