The Lost Voices of the Iraq and Afghan Wars
Hollywood and the book publishing industry have all but ensured a single storyline praising elite operators, but not your average soldier
On February 19, 2007, Private First-Class Dustin Hahn and First Lieutenant Morgan Ashworth left Camp Corregidor in southeastern Ramadi under cover of night. The commanders of the battle space had tasked the two men to take part in Operation Murfreesboro, a house-to-house clearing operation to wrest back control of the capital city of the Al Anbar province from a violent insurgency.
Things had become so hostile that a U.S. military-controlled area known as the Eagle’s Nest, commonly referred to as “the Heart of Darkness,” had water spraying into the air for two years because no one could get close enough to fix the damaged water main. The region almost worked like a demarcation zone, and American soldiers dared not venture past a certain point to fix the leak, as they’d be shot dead by enemy snipers. That night, however, coalition forces learned they would clear the area and likely sustain casualties through the contested area.
The two men started their patrol along a major thoroughfare known as Route Michigan, the main artery in a city of 300,000 residents, which also happened to be littered…
