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LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Musical likes are as varied as the instruments used to create the notes. For one Forward Operating Base in southern Laghman province, a group of soldiers have found a common instrument through a generous donation and now, are learning how to play music.

Music can be used for so many different things. Some people play music to relieve stress. Some use music to tell their stories about life in a warzone, how they want to go back home, or just to play for the fun of it.

Soldiers from the Oklahoma Army National Guard, recently received eight guitars for use at Forward Operating Base Gamberi to learn music and help relieve stress.

When guitar classes started at FOB Gamberi people were required to bring their own guitar, so they had to order guitars and have them sent from home.

“People were asking where they could get guitars to come to practice,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Todd Chisum, a combat adviser with the Stability Transition Team from the Oklahoma Army National Guard.

The guitars were donated by Todd Cooke with Guitar House in Tulsa, Okla., and soldiers made use of them right away.

“This is a good example of a business that supports the troops,” said Chisum. “He went above and beyond.We never asked for a donation.”

Because of the growing interest in obtaining guitars for classes, Chisum sought to find prices on four guitars through Cooke.

“I was hoping my church would help me pay for them,” said Chisum. “He [manager of the Guitar House] then did something better.”

Cooke responded back and told Chisum he would donate six new guitars to soldiers who want to learn how to play. However, Cooke donated eight guitars. Cooke decided to add two smaller guitars for soldiers who have trouble stretching their fingers.

“I did get a guitar when I got here but I can’t stretch my fingers that far,” said Sgt. Lori Smith of Norman, Okla., a network operator for Company C, 45th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 45th IBCT. “I’m thankful we are getting smaller guitars.”

Chisum’s wife, Julie, facilitated the shipping through her church. Pastor Lee Morgan of A Glorious Church in Collinsville, Okla., provided funds for shipping the guitars to Afghanistan.

When the guitars arrived they came with guitar bags, guitar picks and tuners. Chisum installed the strings, tune them up, and they were ready to play the same night.

“I started going to the classes when I got here,” said Smith. “I’ve been trying to learn how to play for years, but it wasn’t until I started these classes that I started to learn a lot more and got into playing. My office knows when its class time because I get so excited.”

Soldiers wanting to learn how to play can now learn without investing in a guitar before they know if they really want to make it a hobby.

“Its something I look forward to,” said Smith. “It keeps my motivation up, I get a little upset if I get called in during class or if something goes wrong and I can’t make it to class that day.”

During class the conference room is filled with people playing music such as Hotel California, Sweet Home Alabama, as well as many others.

Soldiers of the Oklahoma Guard aren’t the only people who attend classes. Coalition Force members and civilian contractors also attend. Everyone on the FOB is able to attend the classes.

The only request that Cooke asked is that when the 45th IBCT and other Oklahoma elements come home, the guitars stay in Afghanistan so the next group of soldiers can benefit and play as well.

LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan – More than 600 Soldiers in search of insurgent activity, weapons caches, and material used to make homemade explosives, is making another big push to secure Laghman province’s Sangar Valley.

The joint operation included Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 201st Corp, Afghan National Army and the 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

“We are trying to disrupt insurgent activities in the Sangar Valley,” said Capt. Morgan Ashworth, commander of Company C, 1st Battalion, 179 Infantry, 45th IBCT. “The ANA increases their interaction with the people, showing them that their forces can protect them and they know how to conduct large scale operations like these against their enemies.”

Crowds of men and children watched from their rooftops and lined the streets. They greeted both Afghan and American soldiers with handshakes and smiles.

In the mostly peaceful villages of Sangar, soldiers searched houses, businesses and fields. During the search, the villagers were grateful and spoke to the soldiers , even offered food as they passed through.

Villagers came out to see the soldiers during every step of their march in and out of the valley. Many of them were children cheering and holding their thumbs up as soldiers passed by.

“We are all out visiting with you,” said a local villager while talking to soldiers. “We like you guys. If we didn’t like you we would all leave.”

Afghan and U.S. soldiers did find an improvised explosive device making facility in a house within the village. Among the findings were several AK 47s, ammunition, knives and bomb-making materials.

“I am hoping this mission will help free the local population from insurgent control,” said Ashworth. “They currently have a stronghold and by showing them that the Afghan National Security Force and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan are here and willing to take an active role in their safety and security, slowly bringing them out of that insurgent control and into a positive and strong relationship with GIRoA.”

Most of the fighting took place in the mountains surrounding the Sangar Valley. Insurgents attacked outlying positions, but they had little effect on the soldiers who returned fire and called in airstrikes. No soldiers or civilians were injured during the engagement.

The commitment to ensure the safety of village members in the Sangar Valley warranted a patrol base to be built near the mouth of it; giving the population a hasty response to insurgent activity. The base is Afghan lead.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE ZEEBRUGGE, Helmand province, Afghanistan -- Howitzers recently fired over the mountains of Kajaki, striking targets they couldn't even see. United States Marines with Battery E, 2nd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, inserted themselves into an abandoned compound under the cover of night to establish Observation Post New York. The cannons rang out in support of the insertion, eliminating enemies holding positions against the Marines.

The battery is currently supporting Operation Tofan Sharq (Eastern Storm), a major offensive operation to root out the Taliban-led insurgency in the Upper Sangin Valley region of Kajaki. The unit is working to push insurgents out of the area, ultimately increasing their ability to connect with 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, moving north from Sangin, and rid the “Green Zone” along the Helmand River of insurgents.

"To put it into perspective, Kajaki is kind of split into two parts," explained 1st Lt. Daniel Ealy, an artillery officer and Moundsville, W.Va., native with the unit. "Kajaki north is called Olya, and Kajaki south is Sofla. All the insurgents are in Sofla. We went down to where the border of Oyla and Sofla are, and we set in there. We essentially blocked them off from [the north]."

The Marines are blocking off the insurgent presence along Route 611, which is a north-south route from Sangin along the Helmand River, where the U.S. Marines, Afghan National Army, and Afghan Uniformed Police maintain a commanding presence.

In this area, Route 611 is a winding, dirt road, pock-marked with craters where improvised explosive devices have detonated. It is the width of a standard two-lane street, but the only place safe to walk along the road is a narrow path of no more than two feet wide, mainly identifiable by the unmistakable path created by the heavy foot traffic moving unwaveringly down the slim path. This is a stark contrast to the Route 611 south of the Sangin Bazaar, where it is paved and includes distinctly marked lanes and even the occasional billboard.

The few civilians traveling Route 611 tend to stick to the poorly outlined path, aware of the hazards in a misplaced footstep. Civilians still occasionally travel the path, but the area is nearly completely deserted of its residents.

"The insurgents had forced everybody out of the area a long time ago," said Ealy, a 2004 West Liberty University graduate. "The only thing [citizens] were allowed to do was come up during the daytime and farm, but not stay there at night. That's one of the things we're trying to do, allow them to come back into their areas, their residences. We're doing this so they can try to start a normal life again on their properties."

The Battery E Marines met heavy resistance shortly after securing PB New York. The insurgents responded to the Marines with mortar strikes, rocket-propelled grenades, and machine gun and sniper rifle fire. The Marines swiftly responded with two High Mobility Artillery Rocket System strikes, two requests for fire support from the howitzer cannons, and an air strike.

The operation has been successful thus far for the battery.

"Everything [is going] smoothly," said Cpl. Sean Fullaway, the lead IED sweeper with the battery and Denver native. "Just by looking at it, you can tell this is a strategic location to have, and if it's strategic to us, it is strategic for the [insurgents] to have as well."

The new observation post was attacked for two consecutive days after the initial insertion of forces. The Marines and ANA soldiers worked in shifts performing a constant cycle of patrols through the area and guarding the base from potential attacks.

Suppressing the insurgent presence in the area provides the Marines and soldiers with the ability to clear the road of threats and clear a path from the Kajaki District Center to FOB Zeebrugge. This allows the Marines to work with the area’s district governor to make it safe for the local population to return to the Kajaki area.

"Our intentions are for the population’s good," said Fullaway, a McClain High School graduate. "We are trying to return their land that they rightfully own back to them and take the [insurgents] out of the area. One of the greatest moments for me was going through Sharp’s Alley."

Sharp’s Alley is a stretch of heavily vegetated land that has been used to store weapons and contraband inside abandoned compounds for use against the Marines. The stretch of land was a hot spot for insurgent activity to any Marine presence before the insertion.

The Marines are currently holding the area and blocking it from further insurgent activity while 1st Battalion clears Route 611 so it can, in time, become a safe road for travel.

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan - As the Marines and coalition and Afghan forces in the southwestern regional command of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force patrol the Helmand River valley, they do so knowing an overwhelming advantage is behind them.

With air assets led by 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward), the coalition can strike the enemy at will, move troops around the battlespace safely and quickly, and medically evacuate service members or Afghans in need.

The coordination and communication driving that advantage, however, is a hefty task for a team of 64 Marines.

They are the Marines of the direct air support center and they make their home in the combat operations center on the headquarters compound at Camp Leatherneck, where an array of monitors and maps allow the Marines to seamlessly integrate aviations assets with ground combat forces across the region.

“We fall under the Wing, but coexist with the ground element,” said Capt. Andrea Goeman, a native of Byron Center, Mich., and the officer-in-charge of the Marine Air Support Squadron 1 detachment, which runs the center.

The center monitors all of 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward)’s helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and remotely piloted drones, in addition to all other air assets operating in Helmand or Nimruz provinces. If it flies in southwestern Afghanistan, the center’s Marines are watching it.

“The airspace here is some of the busiest in the world,” Goeman said.

The center is responsible for processing immediate air support requests from ground forces, integrating aviation with ground fires, and procedurally controlling aircraft.

On hectic days the Marines can be responsible for as many as 20 aircraft at a time, according to 1st Lt. David Roodhouse, a senior air director for the center and a native of Cincinnati.

The secret to success lies in the center’s ability to communicate, Roodhouse said.

The Marines not only communicate with each other, but also with infantry battalions, other government agencies, and the center’s own air support liaison teams that work with the ground combat forces in Afghanistan.

They then relay requests to 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward)’s tactical air command center, which approves and assigns aircraft for assaults and medevacs.

The direct air support center communicates with forces across the region by way of instant messaging, allowing the Marines to process a large amount of information from several sources at once.

“[Chat rooms provide] our primary means of communicating with everyone who isn’t flying,” said Goeman. “The most challenging part of our job is prioritizing all the information we have. The individual tasks themselves aren’t difficult, but once you put them together, it turns into managing chaos.

“Most people don’t realize how complex it is to coordinate an airstrike or a medevac,” said Goeman. “The Marines in [this center] really get to make a difference. The better we do our job, the quicker the ground forces get the support they need.”