Afghanistan

On paper, Lisa Scottoline is a little intimidating. She's got more than 30 million copies in print of her books, including 20 best-selling novels. She writes a weekly column, with her daughter, for The Philadelphia Inquirer. She's a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and taught a class at the latter called "Justice and Fiction. " But ask her about any connections she might have to Baltimore, where she'll be visiting May 20 as a featured author in the Baltimore Sun Book Club, and you'll quickly discover her self-deprecating sense of humor.

U.S. Army Capt. Sara M. Knutson-Cullen, a former Eldersburg resident who died in a helicopter crash in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on March 11, will be among the honorees at the May 27 Memorial Day service at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium. Knutson-Cullen, 27, was a 2003 graduate of Liberty High School and a 2007 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. She was assigned to Headquarters Company, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia, and had previously served at Fort Wainwright in Alaska.

As a woman in the Army, Staff Sgt. Jennifer Hunt is barred from serving in the infantry. But that didn't stop commanders in Afghanistan from tapping her when they needed a female soldier to accompany men on their door-kicking missions. Hunt's job on those house-to-house raids was to search any women and girls they came across. Not having trained with the teams, she says, made the work more dangerous. "The infantry operates together," she said. "Then I get kind of dropped in on them, and I don't know what their operating procedures are. If 'X' happens, what is their reaction to it?"

Seventh-graders at Harford Friends School have a new opportunity to let their voices be heard as far away as Afghanistan. The only school in Maryland selected to participate in an interactive program entitled "Afghanistan Hearts and Minds," Harford Friends incorporated the program into the seventh-grade social studies curriculum, taught by teacher Lauren Redding. The "Afghanistan Hearts and Minds" adventure is a unique experience for students. Developed by Dina Fesler of the Children's Culture Connection, it takes participants inside Dina's life as a reporter who works to make a difference in an IDP (internally displaced persons)

It is being speculated that the American soldier who shot so many children and Afghan civilians recently probably suffered from battle fatigue and post traumatic stress disorder ("The killings in Kandahar," March 13). The Taliban has responded to these killings, as expected, in an opportunistic fashion, getting political mileage out of the tragic episode for itself and stirring up hatred against the Americans and nationalistic fervor across Afghanistan. Interestingly, the Taliban hit the right chord when it commented that an American trial declaring the perpetrator of the killings as a mad man, who acted under the duress of a mental breakdown, would only show the world that the U.S. is sending lunatics to Afghanistan.

During the campaign summer of 2008, candidate Obama said of Afghanistan, "This is a war that we have to win. " Yet now, although progress is being made the job is still very much unfinished, we find Obama as president extracting our resources from Afghanistan. Gen. David Petraeus, placed in charge of the Afghan mission by President Obama, opposes this troop reduction, as does outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is described as having "reluctantly accepted it. " The timetable Mr. Obama established a year and a half ago for a summer 2011 pullout, with no recommendation from any of our military leaders, never should have been set. In a football game would you tell the opponent in the second quarter that you plan to send in your third string to play the fourth quarter?

Nearly a decade after the American invasion of Afghanistan, there are still 250,000 foreign forces there — 100,000 U.S. troops, 50,000 NATO troops and 100,000 Pentagon-paid mercenaries. Unfortunately, in the president's speech Wednesday, he only talked about the U.S. military forces, and his plan is to continue the war until 2014. Regardless of this massive, long-term presence, the U.S. military will not reform Afghanistan. But it will spend billions of taxpayer dollars — and to what effect?

The Department of Defense says a Maryland soldier has died in Afghanistan. Spc. Anthony A. Paci, 30, of Rockville died Thursday from injuries suffered during a vehicle rollover. Paci was assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. Paci enlisted in October 2004. He deployed to Iraq from December 2005 to November 2006. Afghanistan was his second deployment. — Associated Press

Seventh-graders at Harford Friends School have a new opportunity to let their voices be heard as far away as Afghanistan. The only school in Maryland selected to participate in an interactive program entitled "Afghanistan Hearts and Minds," Harford Friends incorporated the program into the seventh-grade social studies curriculum, taught by teacher Lauren Redding. The "Afghanistan Hearts and Minds" adventure is a unique experience for students. Developed by Dina Fesler of the Children's Culture Connection, it takes participants inside Dina's life as a reporter who works to make a difference in an IDP (internally displaced persons)

Regarding your recent report that more than 250 members of the Maryland National Guard are being deployed to Afghanistan ("More Md. Guard units headed to Afghanistan," Aug. 15): Over the past 10 years hundreds of American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, including 34 this year alone. Yet neither presidential candidate says a word about this lunacy. The presidential dialogue does include charges that Mitt Romney is "deranged" and President Barack Obama is a "liar. " That's hardly the talk of serious statesmen.

I wish to express how delighted I am that the Maryland National Guard is seeing its final deployment to Afghanistan ("Md. Guard preparing for Afghanistan, and after," May 10). Now, let's bring all of them home from the all the other hellholes. (Kosovo, perhaps?) Along with many others, I believe the Maryland Guard is a state resource, and from the beginning of America's ill-advised adventures into Afghanistan and Iraq, I've resented these members of our state's preparedness team being poached for wars halfway around the planet.

For Capt. Martin Noorsalu, deploying to Afghanistan with the Maryland National Guard last year was an unusual opportunity. Noorsalu is one of only a dozen helicopter pilots in the Estonian Air Force. The sole air defense service of the former Soviet republic numbers some 400 personnel. They fly four helicopters. But from September to December, Noorsalu and fellow Estonian Air Force Capt. Rene Kallis flew medical evacuation missions in Afghanistan with Maryland National Guard members in the 1st General Support Aviation Battalion of the 169th Aviation Regiment.

On paper, Lisa Scottoline is a little intimidating. She's got more than 30 million copies in print of her books, including 20 best-selling novels. She writes a weekly column, with her daughter, for The Philadelphia Inquirer. She's a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and taught a class at the latter called "Justice and Fiction. " But ask her about any connections she might have to Baltimore, where she'll be visiting May 20 as a featured author in the Baltimore Sun Book Club, and you'll quickly discover her self-deprecating sense of humor.

As the Maryland National Guard prepares for what could be its final deployment to Afghanistan, its commander sees a "pivotal point" in the nation's history. More than a decade of deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq and other battlegrounds since Sept. 11, 2001, has produced a highly skilled and deeply experienced generation of warriors. But with the United States out of Iraq and planning to leave Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. James Adkins sees a new challenge. "Many of the soldiers that are serving now have known only war," he said Thursday from Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, where members of the 244 t h Engineer Co. are training for a deployment starting later this year.

The Books For Kids Day event has a touching twist this year: It's being dedicated to Anne Smedinghoff, the 25-year-old Johns Hopkins University alum who was killed in a bombing while delivering textbooks to school children in Afghanistan. Smedinghoff, who worked in the public diplomacy section of the State Department, was killed along with three U.S. soldiers and a civilian employee of the Defense Department, according to reports in The Baltimore Sun. Those who knew her said the work illustrated her drive to help others.

Friends and former classmates gathered Saturday at Johns Hopkins University to remember Anne Smedinghoff, a Foreign Service officer who was killed in a bombing in Afghanistan earlier this month, sharing stories of a too-short life marked by adventure. As photographs of Smedinghoff in front of monuments and ruins around the world flashed by on projector screens, friends recalled her various escapades, including a coast-to-coast cycling trip, which saw the young woman eat a live bug to fulfill an item on a scavenger hunt list.

Two weeks after Beverly Poyer married her husband in 2007, he was deployed to Afghanistan. When he came home a year later, she was thrust into a role she hadn't expected: caregiver. Army Spc. Max Poyer, exposed to frequent mortar blasts in Afghanistan, suffered brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. Now the life the Southern Maryland couple had planned - to finish college, buy a house and have more children - had to be redefined. That's when Beverly Poyer, 32, found a new calling: helping military families overcome emotional battle scars and transition back to civilian life.

Mr. Thompson, I noticed you led your article with your credentials as a Naval Reserve Officer during WWII and Korea. For that I thank you for your service. I too served in the military. My service includes 20-plus years as an active duty Air Force officer and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. During my time on active duty, I was a KC-135 and C-17 pilot, where I carried many of the fallen and wounded back from the combat zone, flying over 568 combat sorties in Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan.