Military Times spoke with Afghanistan veterans about how they struggle to balance the scales of what was given and what was lost, to find what was gained. What will they choose to remember and how will they reconcile those memories as the years pass?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For some, their thoughts flit between worthwhile and futile. Some know they tried to help but see their good intentions as doomed all along. Others know they made a difference and their work will manifest itself in an Afghanistan that is one day free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For this small group of veterans, the answers to these questions don\u2019t often revolve around combat, but are rather intensely personal \u2014 the memories, the images, the discussions with Afghan individuals that they carry with them and are theirs alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mannion worked on the female engagement teams, two female Marines embedded with all-male infantry units, often accompanying Navy medical units providing care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At times, she sat with village women in a separate area while male Marines met with tribal leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Talking was often like a game of charades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe women would turn on music, they would be dancing, they would put makeup on us, they would give us all the sugar they had in the house in our tea so the teacup would literally be like half sugar with just a little tea on top,\u201d Mannion said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The women drew big red circles on her cheeks and then gathered around, erupting in laughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey were just howling,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She knew the women were putting themselves at risk through these small acts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And they\u2019d talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHow are you, is there any way we can help?\u201d she\u2019d ask. \u201cAre there ways Marines can alleviate any of those stresses? Are we doing anything to make your life more difficult?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And they responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs a matter of fact, you are,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simply by being there, they attracted the Taliban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those small slices of happy memories might be a nice treat for her, but for them only amounted to a small reprieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s hard, any good she accomplished can feel like a \u201cselfish little Band-Aid,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scott Mann, 53, is a retired Army lieutenant colonel who served nearly 23 years, with most of that time as a Green Beret. He deployed to Afghanistan three times between 2005 and 2011, founded the nonprofit The Heroes Journey<\/a> and authored the book, \u201cGame Changers: Going Local to Defeat Violent Extremists.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n More recently, he worked with a group of Afghanistan veterans, \u201cTask Force Pineapple,\u201d to get former comrades out of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On his first two deployments, the mission was hunting bad guys. There was not much of the traditional working with locals to build up a fighting force that\u2019s the core Green Beret mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the 2010 deployment, Mann was a lieutenant colonel and held the title of village stability director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The aim had shifted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The program borrowed from efforts in the highlands of Vietnam where Green Berets partnered with South Vietnamese villagers to fight off the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His teams lived in villages, wore the same garb as locals and sat on shuras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They started with six villages and grew to 113 villages across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They helped villagers solve farming and water shortage problems during the day, he said. Then they climbed to the rooftops at night to fight the Taliban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a rare moment of rest, Mann sat beneath a mulberry tree with a village elder. Mann asked him what life was like before the Soviet Union invaded in 1979.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The elder looked up at the dome of the blue mosque and started crying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou know we used to go on the grass of the mosque every Friday and have a picnic,\u201d the elder told him. \u201cThe kids would play and the elders would tell stories, and nobody was worried about getting shot, nobody was worried about something bad happening \u2014 and I can barely remember that. But that was what life was like, and one day it will be that way again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The retired soldier still holds the elder\u2019s words as a vision of a better future in Afghanistan, and the role he and others played fueled that future, even if now it seems so distant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI do think seeds have been planted, not just along the ability to fight but also to govern themselves and resolve their disputes,\u201d Mann said. \u201cAnd frankly, to get a life back that so many of them have been denied.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Airman 1st Class Ashley Dent landed in Japan in 2011 for her new duty station and was promptly told she would be headed to Afghanistan in the next rotation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Air Force veteran and former president of her student veterans organization at New York Institute of Technology remembered what she learned in the simplest of situations \u2014 getting food each day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When she saw Afghans working in the dining facilities it shocked her. She assumed U.S. workers would be serving food. The body language and cultural differences put her on edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But soon she chatted with the food workers. A young man, short with dark hair and a medium build would share his dreams of college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One day he wasn\u2019t there. She asked others about him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh yeah, he died,\u201d an Afghan man said. \u201cA motorcycle accident.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe showed me a picture of him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh yeah, that\u2019s him,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was just here yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They started laughing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The casual way they tossed off his death jarred her. Later, she understood, there was so much death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That young man, in his early twenties like her, made her see the Afghans in a new light, they were like her, wanting other things in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOf course, there are bad guys but there are guys on the base just trying to make a living for their family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She lived on Bagram Air Base when the United States killed Osama bin Laden. The mortar attacks that followed seemed endless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen we would get hit they would be running for cover just like we were,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nick Riffel, 32, served two tours in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Riffel now works as the national security policy advisor for The American Legion, which was involved with advocating for veterans and Afghan allies during the withdrawal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Heading into his first deployment he had hope. Then 6th Marine Regiment went into the massive Battle of Marjah. Forty-five Marines died, many more were injured, an estimated 70 or more Afghan soldiers perished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They did the things Marines do \u2014 root out the enemy and fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When he returned to Helmand province a year later as a corporal <\/b>and infantry team leader, \u201cthe whole vibe was different,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The deployment was more about security for humanitarian efforts. This included a school where interpreters assigned to his unit taught reading, writing and math to children ages six to 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTwo out of three times we\u2019d get shot at, we\u2019d get lit up in that position and it was directly related to the Taliban not wanting the children to have, especially, a Western-style education,\u201d Riffel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Riffel saw wide cultural gaps. In America, educating the young is paramount. In farming-centric rural Afghanistan, another body doing farm work made a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fathers would ask him, why do you put my child in school? They wanted the young ones working the fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut the kids liked it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He\u2019s heard echoes of his own experience since then among Vietnam War veterans, saying local Vietnamese villagers told them the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before he finished his second tour, Riffel was shot up so badly he had to be medically evacuated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI wanted to do right by kids, I wanted to do right by them in my Western way of thinking and everything like that, but if someone had to put me on the spot and say, \u2018Did this happen? Did this help?\u2019 I would say probably not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Memories of Mannion\u2019s two deployments linger, more than a decade after the first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She still smells the bazaar \u2014 burning trash, burlap sack, dust, and food cooking in oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On one trip, Navy medical personnel treated a child with burns on his feet from a cooking fire. That small task, one that would be an easy fix in the United States, could result in infection and death in rural regions of Afghanistan. On others, giving simple things like Motrin to a dying, elderly woman helped to ease her pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2019This isn\u2019t sustainable, they\u2019re going to run out of the medicine,\u2019\u201d she told herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, she also saw that, if only for a moment or two, they were able relieve small sufferings, let women vent their problems, connect and play with the children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her team worked to get foot-pump sewing machines and fabric. They got the grunts to ask village men if their wives knew how to sew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She laughs at the memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know you guys were stuck in a firefight this morning but I need you to help me assemble this big iron sewing machine,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Todd Hunter, 38, carried a weapon like any other Marine as he traversed Afghanistan. But he also carried a video camera. The combat correspondent joined the Corps in 2005 and was deployed to Afghanistan a few years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hunter now works as a spokesman for Disabled American Veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During his 2008 Afghanistan deployment, the corporal saw villagers gather in a corner of the rural countryside to see the flicker of modernity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On one of his trips shooting videos of military and humanitarian projects, troops and workers had gotten an old electricity plant running again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI just remember people wanting to see electricity. Wanting to see a light bulb turn on, things we take for granted, the kind of joy it brought them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His job meant moving from one forward operating base to another, but what his travels lacked in time, they made up for in variety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every few months, a local businessman who printed materials for coalition forces, delivered a delicious buffet of Afghan food \u2014 rice, lamb curry, flatbread and a creamy dipping sauce with a mound of brown sugar \u2014 \u201cwhich was just amazing when you added that to it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were many instances of small and large efforts, kindnesses even. Now they blur together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But even the good could hurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two distinct experiences remain fixed in his memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On one trip Marines began handing out toys to children, first the younger girls and boys, then to older children. But they ran out. Not all of the older boys got toys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As they drove away, he watched a girl, maybe 6 years old, walking with a pink bunny rabbit she\u2019d received. Then he saw a teenage boy walk up, sucker punch her and snatch the toy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s one of the images I\u2019ll never forget,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there\u2019s another connection he made, however brief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the area of Afghanistan where he was that day in 2008, women who were sent to prison often took their children with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Parwan provincial prison a boy, perhaps 4 years old, was there with his mother. Hunter tried to carry candy with him when he traveled. That day when he saw the boy he had one piece left in his pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He handed it to the boy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd he lit up when I gave him that candy,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then he patted the child on the head and walked away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Editor\u2019s note: Due to an editing mistake, this story has been changed to correct numbers on the costs of the war.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Afghanistan veterans grapple with what their service meant after the end of the 20-year war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":52817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":70,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","veterans","left-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"4":{"categories":["your-air-force","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","veterans","left-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"},"6":{"categories":["your-marine-corps","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","flashpoints","veterans","left-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-marine-corps"},"7":{"categories":["your-navy","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","veterans","left-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-navy"}}},"categories":[100,23,92,12,25,19,70],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3366],"class_list":["post-24844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-veterans","category-your-army"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"GE4BOFGBPJCDZKKOFPTGCO3B7Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2021\/09\/29\/afghanistan-veterans-are-reframing-their-service-after-the-wars-end\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Kate-Mannion-makeup.png.png\")
Seeds planted<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/scott-mann-theatre-photo.jpg.jpg\")
A foreign land, but people like me<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ashley-Dent-inside-helo.jpg.jpg\")
Protecting schools, did it help?<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Nick-Riffel-Mosque-Marjah-April-2010.png.png\")
Medicine, sewing machines and laughter<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Navy-corpsman-Kate-Mannion-burned-feet.jpg.jpg\")
Electricity, feasts and candy<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Showing-ANP-how-to-snap-fingers.jpg.jpg\")