SUMTER - After years of staying home while wars raged in Iraq and Afghanistan, F-16 fighter squadrons at Shaw Air Force Base are getting back into the fight.
A helicopter unit from the S.C. National Guard returned home Thursday to hugs, cheers and backslaps after a historic, yearlong mission to Afghanistan.
Photo gallery
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - Although he graduated from the Air Force Academy and has a master's degree from Harvard, Brig. Gen. Steve Kwast likes to think he has a lot in common with people who live outside this sprawling base.
Seven days a week, concrete trucks rumble along the dusty perimeter road of this air base as bulldozers and backhoes reshape the rocky earth.
Staff Writer Chuck Crumbo spent 6 months in Afghanistan in 2007 covering the National Guard's 218th Brigade Combat Team. In February 2008, he returned to continue following the team.
Here you will also find videos, photo galleries, blogs and other online extras related to the war in Afghanistan.
Troops stationed in Afghanistan offer video greetings to their friends and family members back home. Videos by Chuck Crumbo.
Greetings from Gardez
Greetings from Bagram
Greetings from Herat
Greetings from Afghanistan - Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
To view this site, you need to have Flash Player 8.0 or later installed. Click here to get the latest Flash player.
South Carolina troops train in Camp Shelby, Miss., before they are deployed to Afghanistan. Videos and photos by Chuck Crumbo.
Reflexive Fire Training
Urban Ops Training
Convoy Simulation
S.C. at Camp Shelby
Download PDFs of our coverage of the Griffith family:
