Sept. 30, 2012, marked the 4,000th day the Rangers of the 75th Ranger Regiment have been continuously deployed in combat against terrorists and insurgents in the War on Terror. On October 19, 2001, Rangers from 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, conducted a daring, low level airborne assault onto an airfield in Kandahar, Afghanistan, spearheading the ground operations against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. I was embedded with a platoon of Rangers back in 1999, and wrote this piece titled Painted Demons for POV magazine about the experience and still have the coin presented to me for allowing them to drag me through the dirt and mud for a training mission while I attempted to keep pace. RLTW! And read this for a laugh...