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Thursday, April 4, 2002
American soldiers return from Afghanistan

By Michelle Boorstein
Associated Press
   10th Mountain infantry will bring home Afghan hats, Qurans stolen off of bodies
   BAGRAM, Afghanistan - The first major unit of American soldiers heading home from Afghanistan packed their bags Wednesday with everything from Qurans swiped from the bodies of dead al-Qaeda fighters to Afghan hats traded for cigarettes.
   The 10th Mountain soldiers, making up the allies' main fighting force in the Afghan campaign, began heading home Tuesday from Bagram, a former Soviet base about an hour north of Kabul. More troops were heading out Thursday, and nearly all 1,000 from the division should be gone by mid-April, stopping in Germany before arriving home to Fort Drum, N.Y.
   But the infantry soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division also take home some more complicated baggage - new ideas about war and politics and, for some, the memory of what it feels like to kill.
   "I didn't feel anything. I didn't feel hate, sad, happy - I just killed him," said Spc. Andrew Spurlock, of Apopka, Fla., remembering the enemy fighter he found hiding near a cave.
   "I didn't feel anything," the 23-year-old repeated.
   Spurlock, among departing U.S. soldiers hanging out Wednesday at Bagram air base, playing football, napping and doing some last-minute packing, said he won't be like others "who might go crazy or get depressed" by what they witnessed.
   "It'll always be there, but I didn't change any," he said.
   Looking out at the mountain of stuffed duffel bags laid out at Bagram's camp, soldiers described the few souvenirs they had packed: traditional Afghan hats, blankets, scarves and dress uniforms traded with soldiers from other countries.
   Some described their colleagues stealing keepsakes from dead enemy fighters, including pocket Qurans and Pakistani currency.

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