'Professor' pays a heavy price in Afghanistan

Final mission
The near side of Sabari District lies less than 10 miles from FOB Salerno. But by Humvee, the journey took Bhatia and Garcia four hours, rumbling over the rough tracks that pass for roads and into volatile territory.

Sabari had a reputation as one of Afghanistan's most dangerous hotspots for improvised explosive devices. Less than two months earlier, insurgents had detonated a vehicle packed with explosives in Sabari's district center, killing two U.S. soldiers. This was to be Bhatia and Garcia's first stop.

The two planned a weeklong mission, enough time for at least a half-dozen outings with soldiers from the 101st to interview villagers around the district, home to a tense mix of tribes on Khost Province's northern edge.

The other members of the team remained on base, but Bhatia and Garcia checked in by cell phone. On Tuesday night, May 6, Bhatia got Cusick on the line. He and Garcia had reached Zambar, a distant village built of mud bricks, and met with a group of about 20 tribal elders.

"Michael was very psyched," Cusick said. Bhatia and Garcia were unearthing details of a long dispute between tribes over which had rights to the timber covering a nearby mountainside.

They readied to investigate further the next morning, the last full day of the mission. When this was over, Bhatia told Garcia, he'd brought along a cigar for each of them.

At 11 a.m., they joined a patrol from the 101st — the two Human Terrain teammates and an interpreter, together with 17 soldiers in four up-armored Humvees.

As the HTT's mission leader, Garcia had been traveling in the lead Humvee, together with the convoy commander. But the lieutenant called Garcia over. Could Bhatia ride up front today?

"Are you comfortable with that?" Garcia asked.

"Yeah, no problem," Bhatia replied.

'I've got to find my brother'
The convoy set out for a bazaar called Makhtab, less than two miles east. Five months earlier, a combined force led by Afghan commandos had raided the same site, capturing insurgents blamed for a string of bombings.

The vehicles threaded down a hard, chalky river bed, the closest thing to a road. Makhtab came into sight and the patrol swung out of the river bed to enter by a rear portal.

They were 300 yards away. The day was hot, the Humvee's engine emitted a numbing drone, and Garcia was feeling drowsy.

A deafening thump jolted him wide awake. A whoosh of air shot down the Humvee's turret.

Garcia squinted ahead into a roiling cloud of smoke and dirt.

Soldiers spilled from their vehicles. Garcia grabbed his M-4 and bolted into the smoke.

As he ran, the dust began to settle, revealing Bhatia's Humvee, spun around 90 degrees by the bomb's force. Its doors were blown off and the charred cab was empty.

The body of Spc. Jeremy Gullet, a 22-year-old father from Greenup, Ky., lay in the dirt, well clear of the wreckage. Staff Sgt. Kevin Roberts, 25, of Farmington, N.M. lay dead nearby.

Garcia, a former emergency medical technician, reached the convoy leader first. The lieutenant was alive but gravely injured. Garcia began applying tourniquets, staying with him until the patrol's medic could take over.

"I've got to find my brother," Garcia said.

He ran to the other side of the Humvee, where he knew his partner must be.

When he found Bhatia, the academic's bearded face was frozen in a smile.

Garcia crouched down in the dirt beside his friend and colleague as rain began to fall. He placed the palm of his hand over the dead man's still-open eyes and smoothed the lids closed. He brushed the dirt off of Bhatia's uniform.

"It should've been me," the veteran soldier told the veteran scholar, as rescue helicopters beat toward the scene.

"I'm going to take you home."

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