The chief of the National Guard Bureau came to see his troops serving in Afghanistan during a very special visit on 26 and 27 August.

One of the side effects of the shift of news media attention from Iraq towards Afghanistan seems to be that more folks back home are looking into our situation here.

Ever since the first Task Force Phoenix, we have conducted outreach efforts to help the people in the region and also show the Afghan Army and police to do it, as well. All around the country, U.S. commanders are working locally and using federal dollars to plan, support and construct projects that will help ordinary Afghans.

More than 1,000 residents of Ud Kheil village were treated by Afghan medical staff and received medicine, vitamins and personal items through a joint assistance operation on Aug. 7.

It is terrific to know that while 1,700 of us from the New York National Guard are serving here in Afghanistan, our recruiting numbers back home continue to go up.

It is both an eerie and satisfying feeling to note the increasing amount of attention being shown to Afghanistan in American news media reports these days.

Going "down range" is a euphemism for getting closer to where the enemy operates from and for where the "real work" is being done.

Several positive things have happened here at Camp Phoenix over the last week worth noting.

Despite losing 16 members of Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix in June, including 8 Marines, one Navy corpsman and seven soldiers (one active duty, one Michigan National Guard and five New York National Guard) the command was determined that the task force would celebrate the nation's birthday in style.

The tragic loss of five members of the New York National Guard during a one week period (incidents on 21 and 26 June) has properly drawn the attention of news organizations across New York State. It's also good to know that people back home have taken note of our memorial ceremonies and that we are mourning the loss of comrades. For photos from the mission discussed in this entry, check out the accompanying photo gallery, "Pictures from the Front", by clicking here.