Also: Supreme Court rules in favor of gun rights.
10th Mountain Division soldiers in the third brigade combat team return home to Fort Drum from Afghanistan on Dec. 26. Fort Drum's First Battalion, 87th Infantry of the 10th Mountain Division is deploying to Afghanistan for a year.From The New York Times:
Sgt. Tamara Sullivan pulled out her cellphone charger and braced for a night of tears. She called her children in North Carolina, ages 3 and 1, and told them she would soon be going to work in a place called Afghanistan. For a year. She reminded her husband to send her their artwork. She cried, hung up, called him back and cried some more.
“I asked for him to mail me those pictures, those little sloppy ones,” she said. “I want to see what my children’s hands touched, because I won’t be able to touch them.”
These are the faces of the new American surge in Afghanistan. For the next year, the First Battalion, 87th Infantry of the 10th Mountain Division from Fort Drum, N.Y., will be living, working and fighting in the fertile northern plains of Afghanistan, part of the additional 30,000 troops who will make up the backbone of President Obama’s plan for ending the nine-year war.
» Read the full story: A year at war: One battalion’s wrenching deployment to Afghanistan [The New York Times]
» Hear the soldiers' voices [The New York Times]
In other news:
» Supreme Court justices extend gun owner rights nationwide [The Associated Press]
» Supreme Court to hear Arizona immigration law challenge [Reuters]
» Vice President Joe Biden caught on video calling custard shop manager a 'smarta--' after taxes quip [New York Daily News]