Published in The Flyer Newspaper: November 26, 2016
An excerpt from “Marie Corps veteran looks back on service in Afghanistan”

Lance Cpl. Frank Avila and his infantry unit arrived in Sangin, Afghanistan at the end of summer in 2011. Sangin is a drug community equipped with poppy fields, money and weapons, and American troops had been in the area for nearly a decade.

“It was the birthplace of the Taliban. There’s a lot of history there so I thought it was awesome. I just took it for what it was. I didn’t want to assume anything. I just let training kick in,” Avila said. “There were a lot of insurgents, too. They weren’t Taliban but they hated the U.S.. They were terrorists. They didn’t like the Taliban but they didn’t like us either. They were fighting just to fight.”