Leading Through the Impossible: Army Colonel Recounts Tragedy of Afghanistan Withdrawal
Matthew Hardman in Army Gear Among Sand
Soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division secure Hamid Karzai International Airport. Photo courtesy of LTC Ben Jackman, 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment Battalion Commander.
The “Man with 500 Questions” warned Colonel Matthew Hardman about what was ahead.
Hardman commands the 3rd Brigade of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, a storied unit that fought in the mountains of Italy in World War II and most every major U.S. engagement since. Last summer, he was headed to Afghanistan to help lead the withdrawal of U.S. troops. On a stop in Qatar, he ran into his Army mentor’s mentor, a retired colonel and, now, civilian analyst whose relentless queries earned him the eponymous nickname.
“He looked me in the eye before I left,” Hardman said in a telephone interview from Kuwait. “And he said, ‘You’re probably going to make the hardest decisions you ever make in your career.’”
https://www.davidson.edu/news/2021/11/11/leading-through-impossible-army-colonel-recounts-tragedy-afghanistan-withdrawal
