or the patient support in the implementation of this book, I thank my friend Jana Wochnik-Sachtleben, who has lectured the text, and recorded my audio book, as well as Ms. Miriam Hadji for the design of the impressive book cover, and the translators Maren Krüger, Kerry S and Alexander Langer.

I warmly thank my comrade and friend Nabil Azizi for the translation into Dari language.

I also especially thank my partner, "Thessi", for her constant support the whole time.

I would also like to thank the following former senior officers and civilians as well as all my former comrades who dealt with me directly and indirectly in the missions:

Brigadier A., Airborne Brigade 25,

Colonel B., former company commander paratrooper battalion 253, Nagold,

Brigadier General R., former commander of the Center for Operational Information in Mayen,

Peter Scholl-Latour, German-French journalist and publicist from Bad Honnef,

Batuz, an American artist, philosopher and cultural activist,

and my closest comrades in the time of the missions (2005, 2010, 2011), Rainer M., Thomas K., Tino M., Marcel G., Soraya A., Sultan A., Nabil A., Alexander B., Marc -Andre S., Tobias M., Stephan M., Christian W.

Pretext:

These words are mine, a report from a staff sergeant of the reserve, who retired from active service in the German Army in 1990, but after a six-year break decided to live a life in uniform again and volunteered as a reservist for three missions in Afghanistan.

Previously, I had been soldier for eight years, but what I had learned those days was nothing to put into practice at that time, because back then there was no mandate for foreign missions for the Bundeswehr.

Then, after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, USA, on September 11, 2001, the circumstances changed.

From this point on, the Bundeswehr also participated in the foreign missions of the NATO troops. In December 2014, the ISAF mission ended in Afghanistan and a new advisory and training mission began.

During the period from 2001 to the end of 2014, a total of 3,687 soldiers, including 54 German soldiers, lost their lives. All were comrades, some of them were my friends.

This is my - and their - story.

Prologue

eptember 11 2001 I sat at a desk of a logistics company I was employed at as fire warden and coordinator for medical assistance since I left the Bundeswehr from active duty. I was responsible for the preventive fire security and all related aspects within the company. I liked my job. Being the one responsible for the security of my colleagues and having the possibility to be proactive always gave me a good feeling. Since I am a challenge loving person I was really satisfied with my tasks.

This morning though, my whole well settled life was about change in a dramatic way. A change that effected many more people around the globe.

A colleague of mine shouted over to me, I should open the website of CNN. Something about a plane had hit a sky scraper. Moments later I was following the live broadcast from the accident site staring at the horrific inferno of what once used to be the World Trade Center. I could not beliving my own eyes when the second jet flew into the other tower of the WTC.

In the first moment everything looked so staged. Like it was just not real. Like a really really bad movie. But it was real. And the consequences of this new reality were about to affect not only the world in general but also my very own personal life. I was about to face the terror from eye to eye. Not in the states but in Afghanistan.

I rejoined the Bundeswehr and became a soldier once again.

Ein Bild, das Text, Karte enthält. Automatisch generierte Beschreibung

Map of Afghanistan

1 January 2005

th of January 2005 I received a call from the company sergeant ("Spieß") of my former unit, the 294th Mechanized Infantry

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