As President Obama weighs the U.S. military's strategy in Afghanistan and whether to commit more troops to an increasingly dangerous effort, The Advertiser today presents the first of a four-part series that brings the war close to home.

The subject of our series is 1st Lt. Jonathan P. Brostrom of 'Aiea, a graduate of Damien Memorial School and the University of Hawai'i and, more specifically, part of Chosen Company's 2nd Platoon, called the "Chosen Few," and the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.

Military writer William Cole has spent four months looking at the events of July 13, 2008, when Brostrom and eight other U.S. soldiers were killed and 27 were wounded in Kunar province after being overwhelmed by 200 insurgents. As you will see over the next four days, the battle in the village of Wanat in the Waigal Valley was a self-imposed disaster that could have been avoided.

The 248-page analysis by the Army's Combat Studies Institute concluded that the command of the 173rd Airborne Brigade put its 50 soldiers in an unwinnable battle. In September, Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in the Middle East region, ordered a new review of the attack.

Two weeks before it was to depart Afghanistan, the 2nd Platoon was ordered to establish a new outpost at the base of a valley where it would be vulnerable to attack . Intelligence reports indicated that enemy forces were stockpiling weapons and moving to higher ground in anticipation of coalition forces moving in.

Once the attacks began, and Brostrom and his team mounted a "tenacious defensive fight," according to the report, it still took an hour for an Apache attack helicopter to arrive. An unmanned Predator aerial vehicle that could have spotted the enemy buildup was pulled from the mission the day before the attack, according to Brostrom's father, retired Army Col. David Brostrom.

Over the next few days, you will learn about our military policy in Afghanistan and its history, a harrowing narrative of the Wanat firefight, interviews with those who survived and an analysis of what went wrong and who is responsible. Online, you will see video footage from the battle and an interactive graphic of the attack.

You will also meet the Brostrom family and the relentless push by David Brostrom to find out what really happened to his son and Jonathan Brostrom's comrades that hot July morning.

But most of all, you will learn about the bravery of the "Chosen Few," particularly the laid-back platoon leader from Hawai'i who died a hero.