The Tender Soldier: A True Story of War and Sacrifice (30 page)

F
irst I thank the Afghans
who shared their country and their stories with me. Without their patience and hospitality, this book would have been impossible. For their brains and guts, for protecting me and making me laugh, I am especially grateful to Muhib Habibi, Farouq Samim, Najib Sharifi, Waheedullah Massoud, Danish Karokhel, Bilal Sarwary, and Hassina Sherjan.

The main characters in this book participated actively in its writing. Tremendous thanks to Patty Ward and Frank Muggeo for helping me preserve Paula Loyd’s memory; to Don Ayala and Clint Cooper for wanting the story told and trusting me to tell it; to Andi Santwier and Kathy Cooper for their graciousness; to Montgomery McFate, Steve Fondacaro, and Mike Warren for opening the Human Terrain Teams in Afghanistan to my scrutiny; to Michael Nachmanoff for help with the legal parts of the story; and to Rob Albro and Kerry Fosher for
their insights about anthropology and its troubled relationship with the military.

I benefitted from the kindness of hundreds of soldiers and marines in Afghanistan who fed and sheltered me, shared jokes, songs, and stories, and sometimes gave up their cots so I wouldn’t have to sleep on the ground. They are too numerous to mention, but I am grateful to them all. Thanks to the commanders who hosted me in their battlespace, especially Colonel Mike Howard, Lieutenant Colonel Dan Hurlbut, and Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Denny of the U.S. Army; and Lieutenant Colonel Bill McCollough of the Marine Corps. I am grateful to Generals Mike Flynn and David Petraeus for finding time in the middle of a war to share their thoughts about the role of culture in military intelligence. For their powerful insights and good spirits in challenging circumstances, and for reinforcing my faith in what America could accomplish abroad, I thank Alberto Fernandez, Matt Pottinger, Kirsten Ouimette, Jimmy Story, Trevor Voelkel, Ted Callahan, Alec Metz, Robert Holbert, Steve Lacy, Cas Dunlap, and the Kandahar CAAT of 2010.

Several years ago, I walked into Gail Ross’s office convinced that I had the best story of my life. She immediately understood, and her support has never wavered. I am immensely grateful for her guidance and warmth, and for Howard Yoon’s editorial skill. I could not have written this book without the intellectual clarity and dedication of my editor, Priscilla Painton. Her curiosity and persistence made me stretch time and again, and she came to believe in this story as passionately as I did. Mike Szczerban offered a critical structural suggestion that transformed this book spectacularly in the eleventh hour; he was also a complete pleasure to work with. My conversations with Elisa Rivlin were among the most challenging and enjoyable aspects of the production cycle. I am grateful to Jonathan Evans and his copy editors for their meticulous attention to the manuscript and for accommodating my many
questions, and to Sydney Tanigawa for helping make this book a reality. My heartfelt thanks to everyone at Simon & Schuster, and especially to Jonathan Karp for his inspiring leadership.

Writers need encouragement, genial colleagues, peace and quiet, and enough money to keep the lights on. I am exceedingly grateful for the support of the Fund for Investigative Journalism and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, where I have been especially fortunate in the camaraderie of Jon Sawyer and Nathalie Applewhite. In the fall of 2010, the MacDowell Colony invited me to the New Hampshire woods and gave me the keys to a cabin where James Baldwin had once written. I will always be grateful for the peace I found there, and for the brilliant artists and writers I met. Thanks to Sydney Trent at the
Washington Post,
for assigning me the story that evolved into this book; to Colin McMahon of the
Chicago Tribune
for having faith in a young freelancer many years ago in Afghanistan; and to Bill Duryea, Kelley Benham French and my former colleagues at the
St. Petersburg Times
for making me a better storyteller. Sara Breselor’s stellar research skills saved me from many errors and significantly deepened some aspects of this story; her dedication and engagement provided a measure of companionship in a largely solitary effort. My deepest thanks to the Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan, especially to Charles Eisendrath and Birgit Rieck, for the lasting gift of time and renewal. I am grateful to Susan Douglas, Tony Collings, and the faculty, staff, and students of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Michigan, where I’ve had the pleasure of teaching and learning this past year.

I am lucky to have generous, tough-minded friends who know how to listen. Anjali Kwatra, Nara Schoenberg, Candace Rondeaux, and Delphine Schrank read early versions of this book. Their insights litter its pages and their company on long walks, over many dinners or during afternoons of Lego Ninjago with Calvin and Zephy freed my
mind and nourished my soul. Travis Holland and Doug Ollivant also graciously read portions of this book in draft form and offered valuable feedback. For their support and companionship along the way, I also thank Kathleen Flynn, Marc Kaufman, Vicki McClure, Scott Dempsey, Mark Oppenheimer, John Schidlovsky, Anita Huslin, Sam Roe, and the Knight-Wallace Fellowship class of 2012, especially Phillip Morris and Sarah Robbins.

My brother Sam Gezari’s visual sensibility shows in every part of this book, from the cover to the typefaces. His affection and support, and his willingness to indulge in marathon games of Words With Friends, have sustained me through long days of writing and revision. When I set off to freelance in India in my twenties, my father, Walter Gezari, tried everything he could think of to talk me out of it and bring me home. Over time he has become my steadfast supporter. This book is dedicated to him and to my mother, Janet Gezari, who has been my most exacting and appreciative reader for as long as I can remember. From the beginning, she encouraged me to travel the world and chart an unconventional path, though I’m sure my long engagement with Afghanistan caused her moments of regret. Her brilliant mind, girlish delight in the physical world, and fierce love for me have been indispensible in writing this book, and in many other aspects of my life.

© DEBORAH COPAKEN KOGAN

Vanessa M. Gezari
has been writing about Afghanistan since 2002. Her reporting from four continents, nine countries, and many corners of the United States has appeared in
The Washington Post, The New Republic, Slate
, and others. A 2012 Knight-Wallace Fellow, she is the James Madison Visiting Professor on First Amendment Issues at the Columbia Journalism School. This is her first book.

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My story / gets told:
Maulana Jalal al-Din Rumi, “Sometimes I Forget Completely,”
The Essential Rumi,
translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1995), 47.

Prologue

It follows the program through the height of American involvement:
For the number of U.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan here and below, Ian S. Livingston and Michael O’Hanlon, “Brookings Afghanistan Index,” May 16, 2012, 4.

Chapter 1: Election Day

In the desert west of Kandahar:
This chapter is based on interviews with Don Ayala; Clint Cooper; the Afghan interpreters known as Jack Bauer and Tom Cruise; and soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Regiment, of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division. I have also drawn on witness statements, diagrams, crime scene photographs, and other documents included in a report on the events of November 4, 2008, prepared by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command and obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Some documents in the Army file later resurfaced as court records, and in a few instances when the Army redacted pertinent information, I have relied on the more complete version of a document submitted in federal court. I used other court records, as well as photos Ayala and Cooper took
during their time in Maiwand, as secondary sources. Finally, I have relied on my field notes, photographs, and video and audio recordings from visits to Maiwand in March and April 2009 and October 2010, when I slept on the same bases as Loyd and her teammates and walked the patrol route they walked on November 4, 2008.

the soldiers thought their mission would be an easy one:
Clint Cooper described it as a “routine patrol to the Maiwand District Market and the village of Chehel Gazi which was located just south of the market. . . . We walked through the bazaar and set up a perimeter in an open area just inside the village. We were interested in finding out the value of commodities within the bazaar. Several days previous we’d been through the bazaar polling local merchants about the cost of various grains, fuel, bread, as well as other items. We were also trying to map out the local leadership structure as well as to find out more about a coalition of merchants working together within the Bazaar. There were dozens of children walking through the area on their way to school and we were handing out pens to the older kids and candy to the smaller children. Villagers would be roughly screened by soldiers at the perimeter and Paula and I would talk to them. People were very friendly and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.” Cooper statement, U.S. Army Report of Investigation 08-CID369–43873–5H1.

On this day they would be photographing:
“We were mapping out north Chehel Gazi, doing the entire town in sections.” Specialist Justin Skotnicki, interview by author, March 24, 2009. In his statement to Army investigators, the platoon leader, Lieutenant Matthew Pathak, described the work of the soldiers and Human Terrain Team members that day as “intel gathering efforts.” Statement of Lieutenant Matthew Pathak, November 4, 2008, filed in federal court, 1:08-cr-00474-CMH, May 1, 2009.

‘God protect us and bless us for this day’:
Don Ayala remembered the words of their prayer on November 4, 2008, this way. Clint Cooper recalled: “We’d pray for safety and protection and that we would know what to do and what to say and be able to determine what the people were in need of—that we’d be well accepted.” Ayala, interview by author, August 19, 2009, and Cooper, interview by author, April 22, 2010.

His name was Clint Cooper:
Cooper is six foot two. Physical descriptions of him, Ayala, and Loyd are drawn in part from photographs taken during their time in Maiwand.

They’d been warned:
Cooper told me: “[W]e had seen intel reports of suicide bombers and things like that in our area, so we always knew that was a possibility.” Cooper, interview by author, April 22, 2010.

She had been up all night:
“Paula stayed up writing the report  . . . I think it was an all-nighter.” Cooper, interview by author, April 22, 2010.

After hearing Afghans complain:
“Patrol Report: Today We Went to the Bazaar,” draft report, November 1, 2008, and Cooper, interview by author, April 22, 2010.

Loyd told Cooper that she was irritated:
Cooper, interview by author, April 22, 2010.

The American soldiers had noticed:
An Army medic in Maiwand told me: “She was pretty much interested in doing her job and [in] these people, local nationals. I got another word for them: terrorists. Don’t write that. She loved going out on patrol.”

As always, she was unarmed:
Every photo I have seen of Loyd during her time in Maiwand shows her in civilian clothes and unarmed, though she did wear a Kevlar vest and a helmet. That she wasn’t wearing a uniform on November 4, Army medics, interview by author, March 24, 2009, and Cooper’s and Ayala’s statements to Army investigators.

others formed a human wall to protect them:
“She was talking with some kids when I set up my security watching the road to the north.” Statement of Specialist Chad Schadewald, November 4, 2008, filed in federal court, May 1, 2009.

Chehel Gazi means “forty meters”:
Hajji Sadoo Khan and Hajji Qala Khan, interview by author, January 19, 2009.

The Taliban were in the bazaar every day:
Don Ayala, Clint Cooper, Timothy Gusinov, and Mike Warren, “HTT Patrol Report: Maiwand District Governor Meeting,” October 25, 2008.

‘Chalgazi Village has Taliban’:
Ayala and Cooper, “HTT Patrol Report: ‘Hotel’ Police Station,” October 26, 2008.