Colonel william ostlund biography definition

WEST POINT, NY -- For more than 400 days in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan, Col. William Ostlund refused to let himself cry.

A lieutenant colonel at the time, Ostlund was the battalion commander for Task Force Rock, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade. Six hours into a 425-day tour in an area partially dubbed both the Valley of Death and the Valley of Fire, the battalion lost its first Soldier.

Hours after he assumed command of the area, Ostlund's Soldiers found themselves in a firefight where their youngest paratrooper was killed. Pvt. Timothy Vimoto, the son of the Brigade Sergeant Major, was the first of 26 Soldiers killed and 143 wounded as they faced nearly daily combat and more than 1,000 contacts with the enemy during their tour.

Through each of the phone calls to the deceased Soldiers' families, sometimes as many as five calls per Soldier, Ostlund held his emotions in check. As he made those calls