Afghanistan, Alone & Unafraid

the long version

From the Foreword: It is clear from the first pages of Alone and Unafraid that Lieutenant Colonel David A Benhoff uses a camera like an artist uses pastels. With this book on Afghanistan, he reprises the success he met with in the production of his previous work on Iraq, Among the People, published by Marine Corps University Press in 2008. The current book is not intended to cover all aspects of the conflict in Afghanistan. Instead, we had asked Lieutenant Colonel Benhoff to use his skill with the camera to capture the interaction of Marines with the Afghan people and the Afghan National Army (ANA). I am pleased to report that he responded brilliantly to this task. This book vividly records the stark topography of Afghanistan. The land is both magnificent and forlornly threatening. The photographs show just how closely the land and the people of Afghanistan are to being one with each other.^ The images literally jump out at you and give the impression that the people of Afghanistan are long-suffering and stoic, but also cautiously optimistic about their future. The book also touches on the interaction of U.S. Marines with Afghan people and includes some focus on the Marine advisory mission to assist the Afghan National Army (ANA) in becoming a self-sufficient military force. As the photographs demonstrate, this particular mission continues to be a difficult task. Nonetheless, like their "cautiously optimistic" counterparts in the ANA, it is also evident that the Marines believe that their mission will ultimately succeed in Afghanistan and the day will eventually come when U.S. forces can leave the region and Afghanistan will be free from the terror of a violent enemy. Lieutenant Colonel Benhoff is an intelligence officer and deployed to Afghanistan while serving with us as a field historian for the Marine Corps History Division.^ I commend his work on this project, and also that of Mr. Vincent J. Martinez, who presented the images to great effect in his design of the book.