"A couple days after September 11, 2001," said Major Roger Crombie, at the time commander of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, part of 10th Mountain Division, "we had an idea that we needed to be ready and that something was going to happen." As it turned out, that something was his company's October deployment to Uzbekistan where, initially, they were tasked with airfield security. Eventually making it to Bagram, Afghanistan, Crombie's company was alerted shortly before the kickoff of what became Operation Anaconda that they were going to be conducting an air assault, then blocking exfiltration routes out of the Shah-e-Kot Valley and also possibly dealing with large numbers of non-combatants. "I know we were confident going into it," he said, "but I think even at my level there was an underestimation of what was in that valley. But at the same time, the intel estimates would change every day and it would range anywhere from there being 20 enemy in that valley to there being over 1,000. We were pretty confident we could handle it going in there, though, because we thought we had the element of surprise." Positive about their training, Crombie nonetheless recalled that, "When someone says a high number and then it's contradicted to be much lower, in the back of your mind you're thinking, 'Well, how many are there really?'" Discussing the full range of his company's role in this operation, he details a number of challenges. Among these were the limited availability of lift assets, a variety of logistical problems, the fact that no units were "mutually supporting," not being able early on to get bombs dropped when they needed them, and not having his 60 millimeter mortar - hence the resulting inability to kill up to a dozen enemy fighters who were taking cover behind a piece of terrain. Crombie also, however, praises the special operations team alpha (SOT-A) attached to him, his Air Force enlisted tactical air controller, and the battlefield heroics of several of his soldiers. "On D-Day," he said, "I watched my machine gunner at 900 meters with a 200-meter elevation difference put his third burst right into a guy - a single target at that distance." In addition, Crombie recounts a torturous seven-mile, mid-battle movement on foot over "ungodly" terrain and thoughtfully discusses the responsibilities of leaders in combat.

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