U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM)'s photostream  

U.S. Marine Lance Cpls. Ryan Snyder, a 21-year-old team leader from Kapolei, Hawaii, and David Lambert, a 21-year-old mortarman from Granbury, Texas, assigned to the 81mm Mortar Platoon, Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, talk while providing security from their defensive position as the sun sets during Operation Shahem Tofan (Eagle Storm) here, Feb. 11. After arriving in the desert on helicopters and an armored convoy, Afghan Border Police and the Weapons Marines scoured dusty highways for smugglers and insurgents moving across the eastern desert into Helmand province, Feb. 10-13. The mission was a shift from the ABP’s current assignment in Garmsir district, where they keep watch over its southern population centers. Under the coalition mentorship, they are returning to their core capability of interdicting insurgent activity across Helmand’s border.

Pvt. Anthony McCarthy, from Hollywood, Fla., keeps watch outside an Afghan Local Police checkpoint in Marzak village. Marzak has stood as a safe haven for insurgent fighters for over a decade until the public execution of a local man at the hands of foreign fighters convinced local elders to more closely align themselves with the government in Kabul and welcome the establishment of a local defense force.

STRAIT OF HORMUZ (Feb. 14, 2012) An MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the Saberhawks of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 77, embarked aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), flies patrol as the ship transits the Strait of Hormuz. Abraham Lincoln is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility conducting maritime security operations, theater security cooperation efforts and support missions as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. (U.S. Navy photo by Cmdr. Daniel J. Walford/Released)

SRE KALA, Helmand province, Afghanistan – U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Brandon Mann, a dog handler with Alpha Company, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, and native of Arlington, Texas, helps Sgt. Guillermo Floresmartines, an assistant squad leader with Alpha Co., 1st LAR, and 25-year-old native of Menifee, Calif., out of a canal during a patrol here, Feb. 16. Marines and sailors with 1st LAR and India Co., 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, conducted clearing and disrupting operations in and around the villages of Sre Kala and Paygel during Operation Highland Thunder. Marines with 1st LAR led the operation on foot, sweeping for enemy weapons and drug caches through 324 square kilometers of rough, previously unoccupied desert and marshland terrain. Mobile units with1st LAR set up blocking positions and vehicle check points while India Co., 3/3 conducted helicopter inserts to disrupt insurgent freedom of movement.