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Tennessee: Escalating violence in Afghanistan hits home

By: Lauren Gregory
(Contact)

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Chantel Bradley

Air Force Staff Sgt. Nick Bradley survived a tour of duty in Kuwait and another in Iraq, so his wife, Chantel, felt OK about sending him off to Afghanistan in March.

American troops, aiming to topple the Taliban, entered Afghanistan more than a year before going into Iraq, which shifted the focus of the fighting. But combat has continued in Afghanistan, and violence in that country has escalated in recent months.

The Tennessee Valley has not been immune, something Mrs. Bradley, of Scottsboro, Ala., learned firsthand last week.

The Air Force called the 23-year-old wife and mother on Aug. 3 to tell her that her 25-year-old husband had suffered grave wounds from an improvised explosive device.

“I immediately thought the worst,” Mrs. Bradley recalled. “The only thing (the military spokesman) got out was ‘involved in an attack,’ and that’s all I could hear. Once they got me calmed down, he was able to tell me that (my husband) was OK, that he was in surgery.”

Mrs. Bradley has been by her husband’s bedside at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. since he arrived on Aug. 15. She said via telephone that he is doing well, having survived a nine-hour facial surgery Monday — his third so far.

Over the past few months, Afghanistan has taken center stage in the War on Terror as violence has escalated, and political leaders have discussed shifting more of the military’s resources there. In June, the number of monthly deaths in Operation Enduring Freedom — which focuses on Afghanistan — surpassed the number of monthly deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom for the first time. Last month, there were 16 deaths in the Afghan combat theater and eight in Iraq, according to the Department of Defense.

The explosion that injured Staff Sgt. Bradley occurred while he was driving one of three vehicles in a convoy to a training center in Kabul, where he was stationed with the 96th Wing’s security forces detail, according to his mother-in-law, Roxanne Dawe of Scottsboro.

He was the driver, she said. His passenger did not survive, though family members aren’t sure if Staff Sgt. Bradley knows that yet.

The couple’s 2-year-old daughter, Khaila, still is in Scottsboro with Mrs. Dawe, where she’ll remain until her father is a little less scary looking.

Right now he is conscious, Mrs. Bradley said, but a maze of tubes covers much of his face. His left index finger and right pinkie are gone. He’ll need a couple more surgeries on his arm, which suffered three fractures, she said, and his foot, hip and thumbs also are broken.

He is in a lot of pain, she said.

The couple was planning to settle in Scottsboro after Staff Sgt. Bradley’s term of service out of Eglin Air Force Base in Florida ends in December 2009. Their family’s future is more uncertain now because they don’t know how long he will take to recover at Walter Reed. But Mrs. Bradley said it’s all been worth it.

“I don’t regret anything,” she said. “I know he’s proud of what he’s done ... and I’m very proud of him. He’s always been my hero.”

She said she’s extremely appreciative that both the Air Force community and civilians in the Scottsboro area have opened their arms — and wallets — to her without a second thought after she had to take leave from work to stay in Washington with her husband.

“It was real exciting to see how many people respect him without even knowing him,” Mrs. Bradley said.

Scottsboro businessman Larry Johns said he isn’t surprised at all to see an outpouring of support for Staff Sgt. Bradley. Mr. Johns, a Vietnam veteran, started the Nick Bradley Fund at his local Regions Bank branch because, he said, “the Tennessee Valley is very patriotic.”

“We’ve got to support the troops,” he continued. “It doesn’t matter how long (the war) drags on. We’ve got to give back, because they’re out there sacrificing.”

Bob Swansbrough, a political science professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, noted that, unfortunately, there’s a good chance the community will see another such tragedy in the near future.

“Afghanistan is growing as a problem ... and we’re basically at the tip of the spear,” Dr. Swansbrough said. “We’ve had some of our allies in central modes, too, but they’ve been very reluctant to provide orders putting them in direct combat.”

Though public and government focus largely has been centered on Iraq since an American-led invasion toppled the Taliban in 2001, ongoing talks about setting a timeline for troop withdrawal from Iraq could mean that resources and interest will shift back to Afghanistan to help reverse the trend there, he said.

“We have great power, and we’re capable (of reducing violence in Afghanistan),” he said, “but it’s a question of priorities.”

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