Here is a short portion of the article:<p>When some 400 Taliban prisoners rebelled inside a fortress near Mazar-i-Sharif in late November, one of the first troops to rush to the scene was a 26-year-old Air Force combat controller, a staff sergeant named Mike. <p>An eight-year veteran from Oxford, Conn., the sergeant said he had pinpointed enemy positions and radioed for airstrikes by Navy F/A-18's carrying 2,000-pound bombs. It took them just 15 minutes to respond.<p>One of the satellite-guided bombs exploded only 70 feet from his position, hurling him into the air and wounding four other American troops. "Everything went black, and I thought I was dead," he said in an interview at the Hurlburt Field headquarters, where he is recovering from punctured ear drums, flash burns on his face and scratched corneas. <p>He was one of about 100 combat controllers, weathermen and search-and-rescue specialists then operating in Afghanistan, officials said. Trained to scout targets and spot them with laser range-finders, combat controllers advise pilots on what kind of bomb to drop and how best to fly to the target. They also identify landing zones for troops and drop zones for parachuted supplies.<p>Each of them carries 150 pounds of gear, including radio and navigation equipment and, of course, a rifle. The steep mountain trails of Afghanistan presented challenges, Mike recalled. "I've trained for a lot, but this was the first time I ever rode horseback," he said.<p>The entire article can be read at: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/21/international/asia/21FORC.html