Fayetteville Observer

Kevin Maurer, for the Pulitzer Center
Khost, Afghanistan

Lt. Col. Scottie Custer is an 82nd Airborne Division artillery officer in a place where the big guns he's trained to use are worthless.

Navy Cmdr. David Adams is a former submarine driver leading a team of Fort Bragg-trained sailors in a landlocked country.

And Arsala Jamal — a man schooled in accounting who once kept the books for the University of Nebraska's education center in Pakistan — is the appointed governor of a war-torn province in Afghanistan.

The slideshow can be viewed at: http://photos.fayobserver.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=391387&Category....