After three deployments to Iraq spanning seven years, the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment deployed to Afghanistan as part of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division's first combat deployment outside Iraq. The battalion served as the advance element — ADVON — for the brigade, moving into FOB Pasab in Zhari District, Kandahar Province.
Zhari District carries particular weight in the history of the Afghanistan war. It is the area from which the Taliban movement was born in the 1990s — the pomegranate orchards and grape fields of Zhari and the neighboring Panjwai district were, for the Taliban, ancestral ground. Retaking and holding it was among the most symbolically and strategically significant tasks of the entire campaign. The terrain — a landscape of irrigation canals, dense vegetation, and compounds built for concealment — presented some of the same challenges the battalion had faced in Baqubah's palm groves, but in a different cultural and operational context.
The battalion served as Task Force Regulars throughout the deployment. The 3rd Stryker Brigade was replaced by the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in November 2012, and the final elements of the battalion returned home in 2013. The Afghanistan deployment marked the end of the battalion's sustained combat deployment era — sixteen soldiers were killed across the brigade during the Afghanistan tour.
| Name | Date | Location | Circumstances |
|---|---|---|---|
| SGT Michael E. Ristau | 13 Jul 2012 | Qalat, Zabul | Killed when his vehicle was struck by an IED. Age 25, of Rockford, IL, and Cascade, IA. Battle Company. A veteran of the 2006–07 Iraq tour. Survived by wife Elizabeth and two sons. Bronze Star, Purple Heart. |
By the time 5-20 Infantry arrived in Kandahar Province, the surge of US forces in Afghanistan was already in progress and the coalition had made significant gains in clearing the Taliban from areas they had held for years. Zhari District had been the focus of major operations including Operation Dragon Strike in 2010, which had disrupted Taliban networks throughout the district. But holding ground — the harder half of counterinsurgency — required sustained presence and continued pressure.
The battalion operated from FOB Pasab, a forward operating base in Zhari that had been established and expanded during the surge years. The Stryker's mobility and firepower, which had proved its value in Iraq's urban and semi-rural environments, was adapted to the very different terrain and enemy of southern Afghanistan.
The broader brigade context during this deployment included a significant and painful event: on March 11, 2012, Staff Sergeant Robert Bales — assigned to a sister battalion, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment — left his post at a small outpost in neighboring Panjwai District and killed 16 Afghan civilians in two villages. The Kandahar massacre, as it became known internationally, was one of the most damaging incidents of the entire Afghanistan war. It did not involve soldiers of the 5th Battalion, but it happened in the same operational area, involved soldiers from the same brigade, and shaped the final months of the deployment for everyone operating in Kandahar Province.
The battalion's own history during that period — their operations, their losses, their relationships with Afghan communities and security forces — deserves to be documented separately from the Bales incident, on its own terms. That documentation is still being built.
Between the third Iraq deployment and Afghanistan, the battalion participated in a Cooperative Spirit exercise at the Combat Maneuver Training Center in Hohenfels, Germany — representing the United States alongside British, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand forces. This multinational exercise, following three back-to-back Iraq deployments, was part of the reset period during which the battalion rebuilt readiness, integrated new soldiers, and prepared for a different operational environment.
The Hohenfels exercise is a small but notable data point in the battalion's story: after years of sustained combat in Iraq, the Regulars were also maintaining coalition interoperability and preparing for whatever came next.
If you served with 5/20th Infantry in Afghanistan between 2011 and 2013, your account of what the battalion did there is needed to complete this record. Operations, casualties, relationships with Afghan forces, moments that mattered — all of it belongs here.