Taliban commanders and weapons move through Korengal Valley on their way into Afghanistan from Pakistan; most of this activity passes through the small town of Yaka Chine. At KOP, Captain Kearney briefs his Battle Company platoons on a plan to interdict those supplies. The plan is called Rock Avalanche in honor of their battalion, the Rock, a name it’s held since World War II. This will be the men’s largest deployment; Kearney expects the fighting will be some of the fiercest they’ve faced.

The men will shoulder heavy equipment loads, some of them 120 pounds. Platoons will approach Yaka Chine from different sides, enter the town, and search a warehouse and a lumber yard, which Kearney believes serve as armories. After Yaka Chine, the men will be airlifted onto the valley’s high eastern slopes at a ridge called Abas Ghar, where they’ll search for caves housing weapons caches. Kearney’s HQ team will be on the ridge from the start.

Other battalion companies will station themselves farther east, hoping to block enemy escape routes. Overhead will be bombers, fighter jets, AC-130 and A-10 gunships, and Apache helicopters. Even without enemy fire, such an effort in steeply mountainous territory will be difficult and dangerous.