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Posting date: 11 March 2004 Copied from: The Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News 3 part story, linked from the War On Terrorism section. February 29, 2004 First of three parts At 2 a.m. on Oct. 24, 2001, two blacked-out Chinook helicopters carrying Laconia native Master Sgt. John Bolduc and nine other Green Berets dropped from a star-packed sky into northeastern Afghanistan. The men carried six months of supplies and simple orders: Link up with the Northern Alliance and deliver the vengeance of America. In many ways, their secret mission represented the aspirations of all Americans reeling from the previous month’s terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington. The nation stood united. Patriotism soared. An angered nation spoiled for revenge. Now, here stood soldiers from the Army’s 5th Special Forces Group ready to inflict some of the first and most significant blows against those who dared strike at the United States. (Continue) Full article from The Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News
March 1, 2004 Second of three parts Midmorning on Oct. 26, 2001, Laconia native John Bolduc and his best buddy Kevin Morehead stood in a forward observation post in northeastern Afghanistan and looked in the distance at a 5-kilometer stretch of trenches and bunkers held by the Taliban. The repressive Islamic regime with close ties to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden rose to power amid the anarchy that followed the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989. By late 2001, the Taliban, led by Mullah Omar, controlled most of the country, aside from a few Northern Alliance strongholds primarily in the northeast. Less than 36 hours before, Bolduc and nine other Green Berets had landed by helicopter in one of those strongholds. The soldiers were some of the first U.S. combat troops deployed in the war against terrorism. Next to them stood Gen. Atiqallah Baryalai Khan, the Northern Alliance’s deputy defense minister. He claimed to command an 80-mile front with his 5,000 fighters. When they’d met the day before, Bolduc found it hard to believe this was the man he was expected to assist in the coming battle. Most Afghan men wore light billowy pants, knee-length shirts, poor-fitting plastic boots or sandals on their bare feet and carried a tattered blanket to protect them from the cold. (Continue) Full article from The Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News
March 2, 2004 Third of three parts Customers at the Western Auto store in Waynesboro, Miss., would probably never suspect that the thin, balding, soft-spoken man behind the counter is one of America’s foremost Taliban killers. Once the leader of an elite 10-man Special Forces team, John Bolduc, 39, a Laconia native retired from the Army in December 2002 and moved to a subdivision of stately homes with wide sloping lawns and swimming pools. His days no longer revolve around dangerous military assignments in places such as Afghanistan but on helping run the family business downtown. Halfway around the world in Iraq, his friends on the team carried on with the war on terrorism. They had deployed again in January 2003, had taken part in the fall of Baghdad and then had gone on the hunt for Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. Bolduc followed their progress as best he could by e-mail. He’d watched as the nation’s focus wandered from Afghanistan and as polls showed Americans growing more disenchanted with the ongoing conflict. He’d noticed that the patriotism that had recently burned so strong seemed to have cooled. Americans no longer stood riveted to their televisions as they had in the days, weeks and months that followed the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. (Continue) Full article from The Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News
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