Call to Serve

• By GEORGE MORRIS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 2, 2009 - Page: 1D

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When Dr. Cris Mandry of Baton Rouge leaves in the next week for his third National Guard tour in Afghanistan, he won’t be packing a stethoscope.

Although his primary job is as director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the LSU Earl K. Long Medical Center, Mandry’s military role is as a lieutenant colonel in Special Forces. If that seems remarkable, consider this: Mandry, 57, also is a member of the New Orleans Police Department SWAT team and was one of the first officers rescuing flood-trapped residents following Hurricane Katrina.

Going to the front lines in the global conflict with Islamic terror groups is the latest chapter in an extremely active life.

“I’ve been very, very fortunate,” Mandry said. “Basically, everything I wanted I’ve been able to achieve. So, I just feel it’s the right thing to do.”

For the next 10 months, he’ll help train an Afghan commando force in a region where attacks on American and coalition forces are increasing in size and sophistication.

“Afghanistan has sort of become the center of the war,” Mandry said. “We were able to turn the tide in Iraq … so, their focus has now shifted to Afghanistan. That’s important to them, because they have to have some kind of victory. If not, their recruitment becomes more difficult.”

Mandry also went to Afghanistan in 2003 and 2006 with Army National Guard 2nd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group. Both deployments alternated between helping Afghanistan’s people recover from the 2001 war to oust ruling Taliban and al-Qaida fighters and trying to create a competent Afghan army.

“These guys have a centuries-long tradition of being fighters, but not really organized,” Mandry said. “You’re really talking basic soldiering skills … like just getting them to show up. They would kind of wander in and wander out.”

The Afghan army has improved enough that Special Forces are training a more advanced commando group. They will focus on the border with Pakistan, a mountainous area that, because of its remoteness, has allowed Taliban and al-Quaida forces to hide and carry out attacks on civilians and coalition military forces.

Mandry will spend some time at headquarters, but also will be at remote firebases and expects to participate in operations designed to intercept and disrupt enemy forces, who no longer are relying only on hit-and-run tactics.

“They’ve built some very good bunkers,” he said. “They’re not running. They’ll have an assault force. They’ll have a quick-reaction force. They’ll have blocking positions. That has really changed in the last year. We’re anticipating we’re going to have more wounded and we’re going to lose more people. We’re going into it knowing that.”

The mission is complicated. Many civilians in that area hold more loyalty to tribal ties than to a national government that has historically had little direct impact on their lives. In addition to providing security, American military forces provide medical care, dig wells, build schools and otherwise help improve villagers’ lives.

To remind him of why he is there, Mandry keeps a photo in his Kevlar helmet of a man falling from the burning World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.