Roughly 10 years ago this week, I was in Afghanistan on Operation Anaconda as a member of the 3 PPCLI Battle Group in the mountains of Paktia Province, east of Gardez on a U.S.-led coalition effort to search the mountains for Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, capture them, and destroy their shelters. At that time we had started our mobile air assault from Bagram on Chinook Helicopters. I remember vividly how beautiful the landscape was beneath us and it reminded me for a brief moment of the Rockies until the reality of what we were doing came back at full force, when we received the 2-minute warning prior to landing. I can clearly remember the tension going up in the Chinook, as we had never done this type of operation before. I was a medic attached to A Coy with roughly 125 lbs rucksack on my back, which included my food, water, ammo, as well as my med bag. The terrain was unforgiving and our loads were incredible. As I sit here on my couch 10 years later, so much has happened since those days. I can remember vaguely the pain and difficulty we had operating in such an extreme terrain. Nothing had prepared me for this mission but being with an amazing group of guys, we were all in the same boat so to speak, therefore no one complained. We just did our job and we were proud to do it. In hindsight, what an extraordinary feeling it is to have been a part of this operation and mission.

Does anyone remember where they were and what they were doing 10 years ago?