A Soldier From Newtown Completes A Tour In Afghanistan

First Lieutenant Rob Anders, a 1998 graduate of Newtown High School and 2002 graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, who has been serving with the US Army in Afghanistan for more than a year, is on his way home.

An infantry platoon leader with the Second Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, part of the Second Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division, he has been keeping a journal about his mission in Afghanistan and excepts were published in The Bee last year.

He has been reassigned to his home base in Hawaii and hopes to be home in Newtown for Easter.

In one of his last notes home, before he left Afghanistan recently, Lt Anders wrote:

“Things are going well out here. I’m really really busy, and we have changed over to ‘AAA Infantry’ in the last few weeks. All the dust turns to clay when it gets wet. It’s starting to get warmer, so the 2 foot+ of snowmelt has nowhere to go. [Afghan] Jingle Trucks are getting swamped and the dirt trails erode into treacherous canyonlands.

“Our HMMWVs are really the only vehicles that can handle it, but it requires a TON of work to keep vehicles from getting stuck, and then recovering ones that do (a two-hour patrol turned into nine hours yesterday, for example).

“The poor Jingle Truck drivers ..if we don’t pull them out, then they literally have to wait until spring to drive on. So we try to help as many people out as we can, to keep our own supply trains running and also to keep pumping life into this feeble economy. I’m exhausted, my feet are iced up, and I’m covered in mud.”

A few days later the division commander, Major General Eric Olson, flew in and presented Lt Anders with a Bronze Star.

In his next email home, Lt Anders said he had left Afghanistan but now was stuck in Kyrgystan.

“Of all the Stans . . . Kyrgystan certainly is better than Afghanistan, but it’s still not so much nice,” he said. “We’ve been here for about three days now and will be until our flight leaves on the 20th. Fortunately, after that, barring any unforeseen hangups, it’ll be nonstop to Hawaii (of course we’ll stop several times for fuel — but then keep trucking). Should be on the ground in Hawaii ‘bout mid- day on the 21st — happy spring.”

Lt Anders is the son of W. Scott and M. Barrett Anders of Newtown. He has received an invitation to teach at West Point, and has written six chapters for a book about Afghanistan.