GIs Battle 'Ghosts' in Afghanistan

Smith, 43, a 24-year veteran, could be the sergeant major in any Hollywood war movie: gruff, gleefully profane, politically incorrect, and yet the young boys he shouts at revere him as a father figure. And just like the young soldiers, he was disappointed not to find an enemy to engage.

"We watched 'Black Hawk Down' before we came and that's what we expected," said Staff Sgt. Michael Young, 26, a squad leader from Washington. Now, if he talked with friends shipping out, "I'd tell them not to expect any major battles because that's pretty much done. To me, it seems more like a peacekeeping mission to keep what we have."

The two roadblocks the first night turned up a few weapons but not much else. Overnight sentries reported eight to 10 rounds fired in their general direction at 1:30 a.m. but not close enough to pose a serious threat. The three suspicious men at the objective area designated Oregon got away, and nothing much was found in the Kansas objective area either.

On Sunday, Fetterman tried a different tactic, joining Special Forces at a local school where the 400 students meet outside every day because they have no building. The soldiers strung up three old parachutes to provide a shaded class area, and donated pens, pencils, notebooks and ground mats.

"It's good work," Fetterman told the Special Forces commander, "even if it's not what we came here to do."

"You're probably doing more today to go home soon than humping around all the mountains around here," answered the Special Forces commander, a major who gave his name as Jon M.B. "They see you doing this one day and the next they come to you and say, 'You're the guys looking for caves, right? I know one with weapons the Taliban left there.' "

Uncovering such caves, however, can be easier than destroying them. The four found in the Texas area the day before refused to collapse. Lt. Jason Bartlett first threw a grenade in one, to no effect. Then his team of engineers tried four more times, loading the largest cave up with more than 50 pounds of C4 explosives and 63 mortar rounds and even firing rocket-propelled grenades to set them off.

The result?

"We made it bigger for them," Bartlett sighed. "Now you know why they beat the Soviets."

'Like Vietnam'

The sound of an explosion cut through the silence at 3:40 a.m. on Monday. Most of the soldiers were asleep on the ground, but Smith, the sergeant major, was up in an instant.

"Is that an explosion?" he called out into the darkness.

"Yes, Sergeant Major," answered Spec. Brian Buss, the radio man.

Within moments, information came over the radio. Another rocket had been fired at the U.S. base at Khost -- this time landing just 400 yards from the target, closer than before. With the CIA's unmanned Predator and other reconnaissance airplanes overhead, it did not take long to pinpoint where the rocket came from -- about five miles to the west, well outside the Crocodile operation area.

"They felt pressure from us here so they launched from somewhere else," Smith said. "Can't stop a three-man team from running around. All they did is move further west. . . . How do you stop that?"