After graduating from West Point , Amerine volunteered for Ranger duty and then for Special Forces Assessment and Selection ( SFAS ) and thereafter headed up Texas 12 , the codename for Operational Detachment Alpha 574 of the Army 's 3rd Battalion , 5th Special Forces Group . When training Kazakh paratroops in Kazakhstan , he received news of the September 11 attacks . He was assigned to help Afghan freedom fighters overthrow the Taliban rule in Afghanistan . He joined forces with local tribal leader Hamid Karzai , who assisted the US invasion via his own guerrilla war . In Uruzgan , Amerine with his Americans and Karzai with his freedom fighters both defended the town of Tarin Kowt from a Taliban attack . Next , the leaders marched on a campaign along the Arghandab River , fighting the Taliban at Shawali Kowt and Sayyd Alma Kalay . Both were US-Afghan victories , eventually leading to the capture of Kandahar , an Islamic spiritual center . Shortly after Karzai was elected to be interim leader of Afghanistan , Amerine was hit by friendly fire from a bomber . He lost three of his friends in the explosion , and learned three days later ( in a hospital in Germany ) that Kandahar had finally fallen to end the war . After recovering , he completed a master 's degree in international affairs with an emphasis in national security at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University then taught at West Point as a Social Sciences , and later , an Arabic Language teacher
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Jason Amerine