Pat Dollard

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An assault breaching vehicle with 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion fires a line charge to clear Improvised Explosive Devices in and around the Ladar Bazaar in Shukvani, Helmand province, Afghanistan. The charge is comprised of 1,750 pounds of C4 explosive and is spread along a 350-foot rope. (Cpl. Jeff Drew/USMC)

An explosion rocks the ground in the Ladar Bazaar in Shukvani, Helmand province, Afghanistan, after a line charge is detonated. Second Combat Engineer Battalion leveled the marketplace to clear it of Improvised Explosive Devices and make the area a safer place for local residents. (Cpl. Jeff Drew/USMC)

Spc. Adam Supino, M249 squad automatic weapon gunner attached to Laghman Provincial Reconstruction Team, takes a break while on a security halt during a multi-day operation on August 21, 2011, in Alingar District, Laghman province. The PRT, combined with assets from the 45th Infantry Brigade, conducted a cordon and search in a village thought to be home to IED makers and Taliban fighters. (Staff Sgt. Ryan Crane/Provincial Reconstruction Team Laghman)

An Afghan girl greets a joint patrol of US troops from the Charlie Company, 2-87 Infantry, 3rd Brigade Combat Team and Afghan National Army soldiers at Kandalay village in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, on August 8, 2011. (Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images)

US soldiers from the 3rd Platoon, Charlie Company, 2-87 Infantry, 3d Brigade Combat Team keep guard while troops seal off a canal running through Highway 1 in the outskirts of Kandalay village in Kandahar province, on August 6, 2011. According to Captain Max Ferguson commander of Charlie Co., a member of the Taliban was killed while trying to place an IED some 800 meters from the area where soldiers were sealing off the road culvert with iron grids and barbed wire. (Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images)