“I grew up in rural Indiana and was always surrounded by corn. Cornfields were always a sign of home until I went to Afghanistan. I was expecting a sandbox but to my surprise, Afghanistan had some large cornfields too. Looked a lot like the Midwest. Almost made it seem surreal. One of the first patrols we had in Sangin was on a 24-hour operation where we took this mud hut for our own. We were told there was some Taliban activity just across this cornfield from where we were.

Me and two other guys were sent into the middle of the cornfield to hold security. The corn was high and you couldn’t really see us and we couldn’t really see out. We heard on the radio that the Taliban were in sight. I looked at the two Marines next to me and said we should lay down.

Just a second after that we heard the machine guns firing and I watched the corn stalks getting chopped in half above my head. I yelled to the next Marine we need to communicate with the squad leader to get us out of there. The Marine was a boot, like me, and he tried to be formal in a conserved voice. I yelled at him that he needed to FU*KING YELL. It seemed to be we were getting shot at from the front and the rear. I hugged the dirt and put my ear to the ground trying to get as low as possible.

Come to find out there had been a miscommunication and the guys in support of us with machine guns thought WE were the taliban. Getting shot at by the enemy is not fun. Getting shot at by your own guys is even less fun.

It’s eerie that now, whenever I see corn, I get a warm feeling of home and a fear of the unknown at the same time.”

– Anonymous US Marine. 1/6 A Co. 2nd Platoon. Sangin Afghanistan, 2011.

This story was documented by Battles and Beers. Every soldier has a story, and every story deserves to be told.

This story, and 250 more like it will be available in my upcoming book, “What War Did To Us” which will soon be available on Amazon! Keep an eye out!