CBS NEWS
(CBS News) KILLEEN, Texas — The war in Afghanistan is winding down, but Americans are still fighting and dying there. Four were killed on the very day last month that the U.S. handed control of the country’s security to the Afghan army and police. Among them: Ember Alt.
Charles Alt was in Afghanistan working as a civilian contractor when he got the call about his daughter, 21-year-old Army Spc. Ember Alt. She was stationed in Afghanistan, too, just a couple of hours away from him.
“They took me to the mortuary, and I viewed the body, and I didn’t want to believe what I saw,” he remembers. “They told me she was killed from a rocket attack. … They told me she didn’t suffer at all, which was a big relief.”
Spc. Alt had worked as a mechanic at Bagram Air Base.
“She told me a couple of times that it is scary out there, but she also said she knew what her job was,” Charles Alt says. “And she had to do her job to the best of her ability.”
There was a special tribute to Alt by her fellow soldiers at Bagram before her father accompanied her home.
“Felt like the longest flight of my life,” he says. “But I am thankful that I was over there to be able to escort her home. To bring my little girl home.”
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