U.S. Marines from Okinawa mentor Afghan troops at mountain checkpoint near Pakistan

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U.S. Marines from Okinawa mentor Afghan troops at mountain checkpoint near Pakistan
By Helen Hu, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, January 10, 2008

Two Marines are using their mountain- climbing skills while training an Afghan army platoon at a checkpoint at the Pakistan border.

Sgt. Seth E. Lewis and Lance Cpl. Michael J. Subu, both based in Okinawa, Japan, are the sole embedded training-team mentors for the Afghan soldiers near Bari Kot village in eastern Kunar province.

The checkpoint is a post of the Afghan border police. An Afghan National Army post is 500 meters up a mountain across the Kunar River from Pakistan, according to a news release issued Tuesday by Combined Security Transition Command–Afghanistan.

Lewis, 29, of Chattanooga, Tenn., estimates he has climbed up the mountain to the observation post at least 50 times.

Most of the ANA soldiers they mentor work and sleep at the top of the mountain, and part of the Americans’ job is to help the Afghan army build up and secure the observation post.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51518