KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A post-mission After Action Review (AAR) has left Capt. Mitch Anderson, the commander of Alpha Company, 1-38 Infantry Regiment, struggling to come up with positive observations. The AAR followed a savage gunfight that sources say resulted in no less than four possible war-crime charges.
“Alright guys, listen up. We’ve got about nine pages of improves here, so let’s try and highlight what we did right,” Anderson told his soldiers during the third hour of the review, according to sources.
Anderson spoke first: “We … ummm. Well. Oh yeah, Sgt. Higgins wore his eye-pro when he blindly threw a frag [grenade] into the uncleared house filled with women and children,” Anderson suggested, but then 1st Sgt. Cunningham reminded him that Higgins was actually wearing them on his forehead and had to report to the aid station for fragmentation injuries.