When the US military cargo jet last flew out of Afghanistan in August, marking the end of the longest US war, it also signifies most of the neglected achievements.
For the first time in the history of the state, the large conflict ended without the US military leaving the troops behind: Nothing lost in the action behind the enemy line, and no boneless and unknown bones buried in unknown graves.
This was an amazing change from the previous war which ended with thousands of troops forever lost, their families went to wonder what happened to them.
Christopher Vanek, a retired Colonel who ordered the 75th Army Ranger Resimen, spent 6 1/2 years combined deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, and participated in a number of searchand-rescue operations.
He said the rescue became a priority.
Even for low-ranking troops with a few strategic interests, he said, the military did not try to find missing.
When two naval sailors were lost in 2010 in Logar Province, South Kabul, “All battle operations stop screwing,” Vanek recalled.
“We have 150 aircraft trying to find them.
We focus on our efforts to fight and kill al-Qaida to restore these people.” The dead body of the sailor was and taken a few days later.
There are several reasons that no one behind this time.
In Afghanistan, burning battles are more often than light up, and do not have a large-scale chaos that causes many losses in the past.
Modern DNA analysis can identify any service members from the sample only a few fragments of bone.
And unlike Vietnamese forests or Tarawa Atoll beaches, it is comparable to forgetting friends in dry and open terrain in Afghanistan.
But the drive factor, said experts, is a military culture that has changed significantly since the design ends in the 1970s.
The culture now makes the recovery of troops – die or live – one of the main military priorities.
“It must be seen as a commitment that is almost sacred from the nation to those who serve,” Vanek said.
“It’s hard to overestimate the amount of resources committed to finding someone who gets lost.” “Direct rescue is very difficult because the enemy holds all the cards,” Jimmy Hatch said.
World War II left 79,000 Americans countless.
Korean war, 8,000 others.
Vietnam, 2,500 more.
In Korea and Vietnam, rescue efforts are some and many US troops were wasted in prison, facing torture.
However, after Vietnam, the nation’s attitude began to change, according to Mark Stephensen, whose father was a combat pilot who was shot down in Vietnam in 1967.
Stephensen Wass12 when his father’s jet fell, and his family was given a little information.
Desperate for resolution, the family is equipped with other people to form a family of Pow / Mia National League, lobby politicians and Butingholing General in the Capitol hall to demand action.
Over time, they make them cause bipartisan problems that must be supported.
“Before that, the people who were lost in action were not priorities,” said Stephensen, who is now the vice president of the group.
Changes also came from within the military, said Leonard Wong, a researcher of retired military war researchers who learned the increasingence of the importance that military places did not leave anyone behind.
When the military became a voluntary power in the 1970s, he said, conventional forces adopted many professional values ​​of elite troops such as green berets, including lines from Creed Ranger: “I will never leave friends who fall into fall into the hands of the enemy.”