A C-17 Globemaster drops com-bat-delivery system bundles just a few hundred feet above anoth-er set fl oating down to Coalition Soldiers waiting below during the largest air-supply drop in Op-eration Enduring Freedom histo-ry in Paktika Province Photo: Spc. Micah E. Clare/October 2007

Spc. Joshua Black, a rigger with the 11th Quartermaster Company, 82nd Airborne Division, attaches one of 62 parachute ripcords to the static line of a C-17 Globemaster III at Bagram Airfi eld. This was the fi rst time two C17s have participated in a combat cargo drop of this magnitude over one drop zone. Photo: Air Force Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson

An Army Materiel Command’s Afghan First program trainee grinds an ammo box in the metal shop at Bagram Airfield. Since its inception in March 2006, the Afghan First program has infused millions of dollars into the Afghan economy. Photo: Air Force Staff Sgt. Daniel Bellis/August 2007

Top: Airman 1st Class Josh Huffman, a C-130 Hercules loadmaster, drops a box of 10,000 warning leaflets over the southeastern mountains of Afghanistan. The leaflets were used to warn Taliban extremists not to interfere with Coalition activities. The airdrop mission contributed to Operation Achilles, launched by the International Security Assistance Force, to create an environment that will enable the Afghan government to improve security and quality of life for Afghan people. Photo: Tech. Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo/March 2007Center: Country-music singer Toby Keith signs a Hellfire missile, “Hello Taliban! Love, Toby Keith,” after performing with his band at Forward Operating Base Salerno. The performance, his fifth USO concert tour in five years, was the first time Keith brought a band this far out on a com-bat tour. Photo: Army Pfc. Micah E. Clare/May 2007Left: Medical-logistics technician and Afghan National Army mentor Air Force Master Sgt. Doug Suddueth (bottom) and Sgt. 1st Class Antonio Rivas move a load of medical equipment. The equipment was trans-ported to a newly built $6.5 million, 50-bed hospital on the ANA’s Hero Camp, just outside Kandahar Airfield. Photo: Air Force Master Sgt. Jim Var-hegyi/August 2007

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Above: A Republic of Korea Army nurse performs a wellness check on an Afghan child at Bagram Air-fi eld. The humanitarian-aid project was one of 11 that handed out nearly seven tons of supplies to Af-ghan nationals at the Korean Hospital. Photo: Army Sgt. Rodney Carreiro/April 2007Left: An Afghan woman and her grandson stand on the side of a road that Bravo Company, 864th En-gineering Battalion, built. The thoroughfare passes directly in front of their home. “We like the road. It gives us better access to the things we need,” said the woman through an interpreter. Photo: Air Force Staff Sgt. Daniel Bellis/August 2007Below: Two Afghan National Army Soldiers meet with a local Afghan during Operation Saray Has near For-ward Operating Base Naray. The ANA worked with Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 1st Squad-ron, 91st Cavalry Regiment (Airborne), during the operation. Photo: Army Sgt. Brandon Aird/July 2007

Left: Air Force Staff Sgt. Eric Showalter, 391st Expeditionary Fight-er Squadron avionics specialist, secures the lights on an F-15E at Bagram Airfield. Photo: Senior Airman Andrea Wright/February 2007Middle: Three construction workers from Panjshir Valley build the foundation for a new elementary school. The school will teach children in shifts and have approximately 400 students. Photo: Senior Airman Brian Stives/May 2007Bottom: Army Maj. Gordon Crawford, Headquarters Company, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, gets his ear irri-gated by Army Sgt. Heather M. Cusson, C Company, 710th Brigade Support Battalion. Photo: Army Pfc. Melissa M. Escobar/March 2007

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Above: Tech. Sgt. Myles Debshaw, 455th Expeditionary Air-craft Maintenance Squadron crew chief, cleans the wind-shield of a C-130 Hercules. Myles works for the Illinois Air National Guard full time and is on his second deployment.Photo: Air Force Staff Sgt. Kevin Tomko/February 2007

Left: Spc. Kassandra Ketteler, Panjshir Provincial Recon-struction Team veterinary technician, de-worms a don-key during a Veterinarian Civil Action Program event in Panjshir Valley. Photo: Senior Airman Brian Stives/May 2007

Vehicles of the Afghan National Army and 3rd Platoon, Troop B, 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, tear across the rocky terrain of Paktika Province. Photo: Army Pfc. Micah E. Clare/April 2007

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Above: Afghan children walk toward a Medical Civic Assistance Program site in Chamkani, Paktya Province. Photo: Army Sgt. Michael Zuk/August 2007

Right: Members of Task Force Pegasus load boxes of rice, milk, tea and beans onto a Chinook helicopter at Bagram Airfi eld. Photo: Se-nior Airman Christine Collier/August 2007

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Far left: Spc. Christian Rataczak, Bra-vo Company, 1/285th Attack Recon-naissance Battalion Apache crew chief, pushes a rotor blade into place for maintenance. Apache crew chiefs per-form track and balance checks every 125 fl ight hours. These checks and ad-justments ensure all four blades spin in line with one another. A blade as little as one-half inch out of line can cause vi-brations and, ultimately, damage to the aircraft. Photo: Air Force Staff Sgt. Daniel Bellis/August 2007

Left: Surgical team members Air Force Maj. (Dr.) Christopher Dress, Maj. (Dr.) Dmitry Tuder and Airman 1st Class An-gelia Sneed perform a free-fl ap opera-tion on a 9-year-old girl suffering from a badly mangled leg. The procedure was the team’s fi rst free-fl ap operation per-formed at the Craig Joint Theater Hos-pital at Bagram Airfi eld. Courtesy photo/June 2007

Below: A Soldier from Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infan-try Regiment, uses a biometrics system to take a picture of a local resident’s iris. The system is currently being used throughout Afghanistan. Photo: Army Staff Sgt. Justin Hollely/September 2007

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Provincial Reconstruction Team members living on and working out of Forward Operating Base Mehtar Lam in Laghman Province host a volleyball game for high-school students invited from the province’s fi ve districts. The weekly volleyball games are designed to give the students a chance to meet and interact with military members in a friendly atmosphere. Photo: Air Force Master Sgt. Jim Varhegyi/August 2007

Air Force Staff Sgt. Tony Plyer, American Forces Network-Af-ghanistan, interviews Bill O’Reilly, host of ‘The O’Reilly Fac-tor” television show, in the AFN-A studio at Bagram Airfi eld. Mr. O’Reilly visited Bagram to sign autographs and personally thank servicemembers in Afghanistan for their service. Photo: Senior Airman Christine Collier/November 2007

Navy Cmdr. Adrienne Simmons, Khost Provincial Reconstruction Team medical provider, distrib-utes medical supplies to medical staff members at the public-health clinic in Mando Zayi. Photo: Senior Airman Christine Collier/August 2007

Top: Representing both the most senior and most junior Airmen in attendance, Air Force Maj. Gen. Kevin Kennedy, di-rector of the Air Component Coordina-tion Element, Kabul, and Airman Thomas Hawthorne, 455th Expeditionary Secu-rity Forces Squadron, cut the cake dur-ing the Air Force 60th anniversary din-ner at Bagram Airfield. Photo: Air Force Staff Sgt. Craig Seals/September 2007Left: A helicopter hovers over a bundle of airdropped supplies where 782nd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division Paratroopers wait to transport it to nearby Bandar command observation post in Paktika Province. Photo: Spc. Mi-cah E. Clare/October 2007Below: The Dallas Cowboys cheerlead-ers dance for servicemembers as part of the Sergeant Major of the Army’s USO 2007 “Hope and Freedom” tour at Bagram Airfield. Photo: Army Sgt. Timo-thy Dinneen/December 2007

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Afghan National Auxiliary Police trainees respond to riot-control commands from Afghan National Police Capt. Muhammad Ishaq (right) during a training session. The trainees attended a two-week ANAP sustainment course held on Forward Operating Base Mehtar Lam in Laghman Province. The course was taught for the fi rst time en-tirely by Afghan National police instructors. Photo: Air Force Master Sgt. Jim Varhegyi/September 2007

Air Force Staff Sgt. Rebec-ca Cook, 755th Expedition-ary Civil Engineer Squadron engineering technician and eastern expansion project manager, performs a fence- tie inspection at the east-ern expansion project site at Bagram Airfi eld. Photo: Air Force Staff Sgt. Oshawn Jeffer-son/June 2007

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A window leading to Ahmed Shah Massoud’s tomb in Panjshir catches the refl ection of Alex Tiersky, director of the Defense and Security Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Tiersky visited Afghanistan to assess Coalition progress. Photo: Air Force Staff Sgt. Daniel Bellis/September 2007

Above: Students at a school in Mest in Paktika Province take a break from class to show off their new toys. Members from Task Force Rugged visited the school to inspect the progress of a new eight-room schoolhouse and distribute toys and can-dy. Photo: Air Force Staff Sgt. Sarah Gregory/November 2007Left: Pararescueman Air Force Staff Sgt. Joseph Piccoli, 306th Rescue Squadron, rappels off the rock wall at Kandahar Air-fi eld, during a training exercise. Photo: Senior Airman Andrea Wright/March 2007

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Top: An F-15E from the 336th Fighter Squadron, Bagram Airfi eld, fl ies through the morning sky over eastern Afghanistan. From October to December the 336th FS fl ew more than 1,000 combat sorties, 4,000 fl ight hours, and dropped more than 150,000 pounds of precision-guided ordnance in support of U.S and Coalition forces. The F-15E is the U.S. Air Force’s premier strike fi ghter. Photo: Air Force Lt. Col. James Gunn/December 2007Center: Spc. Matt Vanleeuwen, a Chinook mechanic with Company D, 3-82nd General Support Aviation Battalion, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, removes the vertical hinges from the blades of his helicop-ter. Photo: Sgt. 1st Class Krishna Gamble/June 2007Right: Two Afghan women walk down a path lead-ing to the Egyptian Field Hospital on Bagram Air-fi eld. The hospital has its own entry control point, manned by Egyptian, Afghan National Army and U.S. Soldiers. Photo: Air Force Staff Sgt. Daniel Bel-lis/November 2007

Air Force Staff Sgt. Josh Green, 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evaluation Flight medical technician, monitors a patient’s heartbeat during an aeromedical evacuation out of Afghanistan. The 455th EAEF team uses C-130 Hercules’ aircraft to provide quick-evacuation response to injured Coalition forces and Afghan combatants and civil-ians. Photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Joshua Jasper/September 2007

Senior Master Sgt. Roy Self cleans the ramp area after eight bundles of supplies were airdropped from a C-130 Hercules to troops in the fi eld by the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron from Bagram Airfi eld. Photo: Senior Master Sgt. Kim Allain/August 2007

A helmet, rifl e, ID tags, boots and pho-to are displayed in memory of Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Blaskowski during a memorial ceremony Sept. 28 at Camp Blessing, Kunar Province. Blaskowski died in combat. Photo: Sgt. 1st Class Jacob Caldwell/September 2007

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