Saturday December 22 10:34 AM ET
By Peter Graff
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Bearded and clad in the ragged battle dress of Afghan Mujahideen, U.S. special forces lurking at the frontlines directed the U.S. bombs that crushed the Taliban regime.
Trained to blend in with the hardy Afghan population, they shared trenches and rations of goat meat and rice with their Northern Alliance comrades, who knew victory over the Islamic militia depended on U.S. firepower.
For the first time, U.S. special forces have stepped out of the shadows to describe their role in the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan that began on October 7 and the close bonds they formed with their Afghan brothers in arms.
The U.S. military made no secret that special forces worked on the ground throughout the conflict, but previously gave scant details of their operations.
That changed on Friday, when several came forward to bury a piece of the destroyed World Trade Center at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul with a group of New York City police and firefighters who brought aid to an Afghan orphanage.
``Our job is to keep those 18- and 19-year-old infantrymen safe,'' said one bearded special forces soldier who gave his name only as John.
``Go somewhere and let the host nation do their job, better. And to keep that infantry home and safe,'' said John, wearing a traditional Afghan woolen hat, green army trousers, knitted sweater, brown photographer's vest and white checked scarf.
TIPPING THE BALANCE
Another Special Forces soldier named Steve, also in local dress, described directing air strikes by radio with pilots along the front, which ran just a few thousand meters (yards) from the airbase now guarded by U.S. and British troops.
During the first days of the U.S.-led bombing campaign, warplanes avoided targets on the front, and the Taliban gave virtually no ground. But that changed.
``Around the middle of October, when you started seeing the front line get hit, that's when we were here,'' said Steve.
The frontline bombing tipped the balance in a standoff that had lasted five years on the Shomali plain north of the capital, and on the night of November 12, the Taliban pulled out of Kabul.
``We bombed them day. We bombed them night. They lost the will to fight,'' said John. ``The Northern Alliance had the morale.''
BROTHERS IN ARMS
The Special Forces soldiers described a tight relationship with Northern Alliance leaders, suggesting Washington was dealing more closely with the anti-Taliban forces than was apparent in the campaign's early days.
``We had the same goal, to get rid of the Taliban,'' said John.
``All of the Northern Alliance leadership took care of us, because they knew we were their key to air strikes,'' said Steve.
In the field, the Alliance troops became their ``brothers in arms,'' both men said.
``One time, we were getting incoming fire and a Northern Alliance general lay down in front of us,'' Steve said.
``You know when someone is willing to put himself in the way of hostile incoming fire, that really means a lot.''
CHARADES
Living in the field means living like the locals. Adapting to Afghanistan went fairly smoothly for the special troops trained for such missions, said John.
``I think the altitude was the most difficult for us. I think we all got winded at first,'' said John.
``We deploy all over and it's not uncommon to eat a lot of goat and rice. We got some pretty good medics to take care of us when we get a little bad piece of goat.''
Language was a problem. The special forces troops had been trained mainly for the Middle East, and were taught to speak Arabic, not the Persian spoken in much of northern Afghanistan. They hired interpreters, and sometimes got by without them.
``One time, we were at a forward position and we started taking a little fire, and our translator was like: 'Mr Steve, I have to go pray. Right now. Zoom','' recalled Steve.
``So it was just myself and another soldier and six Northern Alliance soldiers. And there are some things that just translate across the battle lines. Hand-arm signals. Charades. Whatever it takes.''