Battle Company Is Out There

1. Does the writer hold your attention through a long article? If she does, how did she do it? If not, why?

Honestly, the article didn’t hold much of my attention. I found myself just scanning through it the first time, and then forcing myself to read it in its entirety the second time only because it needs to be read in its entirety to properly answer the second and third questions. I find the subject of Afghanistan and the insurgence old news and in my point of view this article doesn’t really give us any new information about what’s happening over there and as to why the Americans are still trying to "smoke 'em out of their caves".
Also, being highly opposed to the war (to any war) reading this made me cringe. It is written with a very western point of view (“And by the way, hadn’t the boy noticed that the bad guys always start shooting first?”) somehow championing what the American government is doing, making them look like the “good guys”. This made me lose not just my interest, but my appetite as well.

2. Quote the most vivid and vigorous sentences in this feature.

A sudden wail pierced the night sky. It was Slasher, an AC-130 gunship, firing bullets the size of Coke bottles. Flaming shapes ricocheted all around the village. Kearney was in overdrive. The soldiers back at the KOP were radioing in that the drone was tracking 10 men near the tree line. Yarnell was picking up insurgent radio traffic. “They’re talking about getting ready to hit us,” someone said. The pilot could see five men, one entering a house, then, no, some were in the trees, some inside, and then, multiple houses. He wanted confirmation — were all these targets hostile? Did Kearney have any collateral-damage concerns? Cursing, Kearney told them to engage the men outside but not to hit the house. The pilots radioed back that men had just run inside. No doubt there would be a family. Caroon reminded Kearney that Slasher had only enough fuel to stay in position for 10 more minutes.

3. Write this feature as straight news, 100 words maximum.

Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, led by Capt. Dan Kearney, is in war with Korengalists in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan.

As reported by the Human Rights Watch, NATO has killed 350 civilians as of last year via air bombings, compared with the insurgents’ 438, resulting to Korengalists siding with the insurgents. American soldiers are building schools and bridges in hopes to gain the much needed support from Korengalists to find insurgents in the Korengal Valley, who they consider “ghosts”, specializing in ambush attacks.