This is a souvenir which was brought back from Afghanistan early on in the War Against Terror, and has an interesting story so here goes. Not long after British and American forces entered Afghanistan the Americans had a surveillance post situated near the Afghan Pakistan border. Early on in the campaign at around 12 midnight the American team at the watch post noticed six armed men coming through mountains on the border with Afghanistan. What these guys didnt know is that the Americans could see them as clear as day as they were using high tech night surveillance equipment to monitor activity in this sector of the border. Within seconds the watch post radioed the US Fire Base tasked to them and requested that High Explosive be dropped on these guys. In the event the fire base sent in 13 high explosive 105-mm artillery shells in and around the grid these guys were in. No more movement was seen in that sector that night! Early next morning a patrol of US Airborne troops was sent out to check for any wounded al qaeda. As one can imagine all six were quite dead with not much left of them, photographs of the bodies were taken and one of the US soldiers pulled this piece of shrapnel out the side of one of the shell craters and put it on his jacket pocket. On return to the USA he gave it to my cousin who lives there and is a friend of the soldier along with some very gruesome body-count photographs. As my cousin isnt really a collector he sent the shrapnel to me here in Blighty! I wonder how many more such items have found their way across the pond? Regards, Tim.
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