My cousin, Air Force Capt. Amanda Shafer, went to Afghanistan to be an intensive care unit nurse.
She has since come back and is currently stationed in Las Vegas.
For her birthday she came back home to McPherson County, and it was good to see her and discuss what it was like in the war zone.
To see pictures of the birthday party and subsequent anniversary celebration for Capt. Shafer’s parents, click here to view my Picasa Web Gallery of the events.
However, as great as it was to see her at home, it is even cooler to see her in action.
Of course, short of signing up and heading overseas myself, how could I see what she saw on a daily basis?
I would have thought I couldn’t, but then a couple videos surfaced where she made cameo appearances.
The videos were shot by The Spartan Heroes. The videos and more coverage from this organization, which appears to be a group of military personnel documenting different aspects of the war, can be found at www.spartanheroes.com. (Don’t hold me to that, though, because I can’t find any documentation about what this project’s all about. I do know that the majority of the video content seems to be produced by Spc. Robert Ham, 4th BCT 25th ID, Combat Correspondent. Other content is produced by persons that are part of the Mobile Public Affairs Detachment and other journalism and reporting geared outfits.)
The episode Capt. Shafer appears in is broken into two parts of a look at why the Taliban target educated people in Afghanistan. The video proposes, via interviews with a former education guru for the country, the Taliban kills and destroys educators and education facilities because it thinks it can control the populace better if they aren’t educated.
It’s an interesting video, and I urge you to watch the entirety of both parts to hear what The Spartan Heroes have to report.
However, if you want to see Capt. Shafer, I will provide the time-stamps so you can skip to her parts.
As I’ve said before, I’m proud of Capt. Shafer. She is an inspiration.
So with that, here are the videos:
The Best Among Us part 1 of 2:
Capt. Shafer can be seen at 3:37 in the timeline. She is wearing military, camouflaged pants and a T-shirt. She is working on the patient.
The Best Among Us part 2 of 2:
Capt. Shafer can be seen twice in this part. First she is at 3:48 in the timeline, and then she can be seen at 4:22 in the timeline. Again, she is wearing military, camouflaged pants and a T-shirt, and she is working on the patient.
