Inside the Fight by National Guardsmen to Repel a Terrorist Attack in Somalia.

 an explosion rumbled across a remote vista in Somalia, disturbing the low brush and red-brown dirt surrounding a lonely American airfield. It rattled the bolts of the decades-old base and buckled the knees of the National Guard soldiers tasked with defending it. Capt. London Nagai – the commander of the unit – and his Charlie Troopers knew the attack was coming.

A truck, up-armored and sickly yellow against its trailing dust cloud, broke off from the group. Unbeknownst to the soldiers inside the base, that truck carried one of the largest known vehicle-borne explosive devices on the African continent. And it was bound for them.

as the Global War on Terror superficially appeared to be winding down, regular troops – many of whom are police officers, fire fighters, college students, and delivery drivers in their civilian jobs – found themselves at the tip of a long spear that many Americans don’t realize is still aimed against terrorism, this battle centered in Somalia.