JOHN COSTELLO / Inquirer
Pfc. Masao Vrlec
Afghanistan: The Forgotten War
Audio Interview | Pfc. Masao Vrlec
Radio operator. Lacrosse, Wis.
"It all happens so fast, that I didn't really get scared. Afterwards I thought: 'I could have just died.' But, in view of the situation, I didn't really dwell on it too much."
Audio: "Everything was happening in slow motion..."
Pfc. Masao Vrlec, 20, is the RTO - radio telephone operator -- of the 2nd Platoon, "Combat" Company. In the photograph, Vrlec is shown on a nighttime raid to recover a Taliban weapons cache.
In June, while on patrol to recover a lost unmanned surveillance aircraft in the Korengal Valley, Vrlec's squad was ambushed. With bullets crashing in the creek bed around him, he and his buddies managed to escape.
