The "other" Major; 'He had the ability to do anything'

[douglas9]

The raid took place after dark in a remote corner of northwestern Afghanistan. The target: a drug and weapons bazaar, where the proceeds from selling opium help fund the Taliban insurgency.

Two military helicopters carrying several dozen American soldiers and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents swooped down near the village of Darrey-ye Bum. Among those on board was special agent Michael Weston, a 37-year-old Harvard Law School graduate who'd already been deployed to Iraq as a Marine three times.

Gunfire erupted. After an hourlong firefight, the Americans boarded their helicopters at 3:30 a.m. to depart, according to the DEA and the International Security Assistance Force. But the takeoff stirred up thick dust, and the pilots of one helicopter couldn't see. They tried to correct but instead hit a structure and crashed. Seven soldiers and three DEA agents, including Weston, were killed on Oct. 26.

"He had the ability to do anything," said his wife of just five months, Cynthia Tidler, who like Weston earned her JD from Harvard in 1997. "He'd seen the worst parts of the world and the worst parts of human nature, but he tried to do the right thing all the time. He examined his words and his actions and the reasons behind them constantly."

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