Afghanistan is one of the world’s toughest battlefields, and few areas of that country are tougher than the eastern provinces of Kunar, Nuristan and Nangarhar, Army Col. Richard Kim said at a homecoming ceremony Friday for nearly 4,000 Schofield Barracks soldiers.
Combat Outpost Honaker Miracle was one of the few remaining U.S. footholds in the deadly Pech River Valley of Kunar province. The base, about two football fields in size, was manned by a company of Hawaii soldiers.
The low-lying base took mortar, rocket and heavy machine gun fire nearly every day last summer from the mountainsides that surrounded it.
"Pretty stressful," said Spc. Robert Shafer, 23, an infantryman from Texas.
In mid-October the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry "Wolfhounds" out of Schofield waged a battle more than a week long against repeated attempts by an enemy determined to overrun a small outpost, Observation Post Shal, in Kunar province.
Taliban casualties were estimated between 120 and 200 fighters. Four Schofield soldiers who took part in the defense will receive Silver Stars for bravery, officials said.
About 2,000 of the 4,000 3rd Brigade Combat Team soldiers who had deployed were arrayed in formation on Weyand Field at Schofield on Friday in the ceremony marking their return to Hawaii.
Kim, a University of Hawaii graduate and the first Korean-born brigade commander in the U.S. Army, welcomed the soldiers back home and noted the progress they made in training Afghan security forces to take control of their country.
"We know our (Afghan) partners were truly in the lead because Afghans were regularly targeted by the insurgents and received more casualties than us," Kim said. "While every casualty, American or Afghan, is a tragedy, it is only appropriate that they are out front when it comes to securing their own country."
The 3rd "Bronco" Brigade also paid a heavy price, with 20 soldiers killed and 260 wounded in action. Eighty-seven soldiers were awarded Purple Hearts for wounds received in battle.
Some of those wounded soldiers — a few walking with canes and one in a wheelchair — were recognized on Weyand Field on Friday and given a round of applause from more than 1,000 family members, friends and fellow soldiers.
The 3rd Brigade deployed in March and April 2011. The last flight back to Hawaii returned April 8. On Friday the unit "uncased" its battle flags, symbolizing its return home.
With a troop drawdown under way in Afghanistan and the end of combat operations expected at the end of 2014, it’s unclear whether the 3rd Brigade could make a return to the country after at least a year of "reset" back home.
"We’ll see," Kim said. "We’ll see what the future holds. Just like any unit, our job is, after we get home, to get reset, reconnect with our families (and) again train to get ready."
That future — and whether it includes Afghanistan — is on the minds of many.
Audrey Zeldin watched the ceremony from the shade of a tree with her 2-year-old son, Matthew, in a stroller next to her. Her husband, Capt. Joshua Zeldin, served as a medical planner during the deployment.
"I think it’s the end (of Afghanistan deployments) for him," Audrey Zeldin said.
The family is moving to Texas, where Matthew is going back to school.
"I’m glad he’s not going back (to Afghanistan) because it’s a dangerous place," Audrey Zeldin said. "I wish they (the 3rd Brigade) wouldn’t have to go back."
Sgt. Joseph Ferguson, 24, who wrote orders for the brigade in Afghanistan for the past year, won’t be deploying back to the war zone, either. He’s getting out of the Army in November.
"I’m glad I’m not going back. I’m done," the Los Angeles man said.
