The last thing the wet-behind-the-ears Army specialist wanted to hear was nothing.

On this summer scorcher in the Afghanistan desert, he was part of a handful of American soldiers embedded with 62 Afghan troops in the Kapisa Province in Eastern Afghanistan. They were looking for a better vantage point.

Instead, they were the ones being watched.

Their vehicles wandered into a low, dried-up patch usually filled with water runoff. But before they could leave the ditch, armed Taliban, who had the higher ground, surrounded them.

They were sitting ducks.

The college-aged American frantically called for help on the closest frequencies.

Silence.

He tried again.

Nothing.

On what very well could have been his last day, a response finally came.

The voice belonged to Capt. Andrew Scott, an Air Force ROTC professor at the University.

It was just his second day as senior battle captain of the Tactical Operations Center – not that he mentioned this to the panicked soldier.

“What are you seeing now?” Scott asked, trying to mask his own adrenaline. “What can you tell me? Has their position changed?”

Thanks to Scott, the embattled troops relayed what they needed within a half-hour, which led to an air strike that killed 15 Taliban and added three prisoners.

There were no friendly casualties.

Calming the nerves of a 20-something staring down the barrel of a gun wasn’t the expected orientation.

Sitting inside his office at Hardman Hall, where he teaches senior cadets about national security affairs and active duty preparedness, Scott recalled his predecessor at the center calling the scene quiet and predicting, “he shouldn’t have much trouble.”

“That guy definitely wasn’t a prophet,” Scott quipped.

Scott was awarded the Bronze Star at Hardman Hall last month, in part for his role in July 2007′s Operation New Year Hail, where he was responsible for saving nearly 70 lives, according to the narrative for the award.

The Bronze Star is the fourth highest combat award.

But Scott would trade it for the moment he shared with the Army specialist, who he wanted to remain unnamed because of the intimacy of the encounter.

The soldier, who Scott said couldn’t have been a “day over 21,” tracked him down weeks later and gave him his Combat Infantryman Badge.

With glistening eyes, Scott remembers, the grateful soldier said, “I wouldn’t have lived to get this badge if it wasn’t for you.”

Road to Bronze

If his family background were any indication, Scott never anticipated teaching future Air Force officers nor monitoring all military maneuvering within a 35,000 square foot mile radius centered in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Aside from an uncle or two, nobody in his family was in the military.

He enlisted at 19, due to a swing in patriotism from 1990′s Operation Desert Shield.

“I didn’t even get in the door before combat operations were over,” he said of the brief conflict with former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

His next stop was even further away from the action, as he was stationed in Minot, N.D., where the closest thing to an insurgent was the minus 45 degree temperatures – without wind chill.

He had no plans to be an Air Force officer, which required a college degree.

But things change, and in 2000, halfway to the Air Force’s 20-year requirement for retirement benefits, he enlisted in officer training school. The move set off stays in San Antonio, Texas, and in an acknowledged bit of weather karma, Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii in January 2003.

In the summer of 2006 he came to Athens. The man who entered the service with nothing more than a high school degree, who took full-time college night classes to qualify for officer training school, wanted to teach college students.

But this endeavor would have to take a back seat. In October 2006, he was “hot to deploy” and a few months later was off to Afghanistan.

It used to be rare for ROTC instructors to be deployed, Scott said, but with operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq undermanned, he wasn’t shocked about his uprooting.

Unlike Operation Desert Shield, which prompted him to enlist more than 15 years earlier, Scott would have no problem getting “in the door.”

And as the state of the Afghan occupation is these days, you go wherever you’re needed, military branch be damned, he explained.

So Scott reported in June 2007 to the Army. While not as dramatic as Tim Tebow donning red and black, heading to the Army was a bit surreal for the Air Force man. But before he could get used to the Army way, he was hot potatoed to a Marine base, only to be transferred later to the Tactical Operations Center in Kabul.

At the operations center, Scott and his team were responsible for addressing security concerns and providing aid throughout the region surrounding the capital.

On his first day, while his predecessor was packing, a vehicle hit a roadside bomb. No one was seriously hurt, but it provided Scott with a crash course on the vast repercussions of his new gig.

The next day, he helped save the nearly 70 troops surrounded by the Taliban.

In essence, he was the 911 operator for troops, covering 35,000 square miles in Eastern Afghanistan, responding to the densely populated Kabul region and more rural neighboring areas.

Scott was never in direct combat during the stint, but each day his airwaves were paraded with gunfire and pleas for help, an odd phenomena where he could hear the carnage but not see it.

Through it all, Scott was forced to provide a stable foundation.

“Chaos is contagious,” he said. “If one person loses their mind, it’s pretty certain a lot of people will lose their bearings.”

With relief, Scott said he never felt directly responsible for any deaths under his watch.

An easier day job

Scott’s pressures aren’t as intense now.

This reporter dropped in on Scott’s Aerospace Studies 4002 last week during what Scott called a “slow day.” Teaching nuggets included how to address an airman with popcorn in his mustache or insurmountable body odor.

Silly examples, but the message was clear: little things matter.

“You have to be precisely clear in what you want, when you want it and how it should be done,” Scott said after class.

Coming from Scott, responsible for thousands of lives during his stint, the message had instant credibility with the 13 senior cadets.

Air Force ROTC Cadet Colonel Matt Suber summed up his feelings in three words: “He gets it.”

“First, he makes his expectations clear from the start, and he gets the people-person aspect of leadership,” Suber said later.

Problematic for this newspaper’s circulation, there were no Sudoku or crossword puzzles in class. There was no place to hide, either. Scott peppered the cadets with questions, whether they wanted to be called on or not.

When one cadet said typing above 70 words per minute would be a clear goal for a leader to set, Scott asked why he didn’t include an assessment for errors in typing.

Although Scott realized these requests might seem elementary, he said the details are essential for survival in combat.

“That’s all we do, folks,” he told the class. “Get ready for war or wage war.”

Junior Steven McCord served last semester as commander of the Arnold Air Society, the ROTC’s service organization on which Scott is an adviser.

“He’s a great guy,” he said. “He might be soft spoken, but when he talks, everybody listens.”

‘Understand the sacrifices’

Scott’s wife Sarah videotaped him reading to their infant son, Peyton, before he deployed to Afghanistan.

Now nearly 2, his youngest son was just a month old when his dad left their Watkinsville home. Scott did not return until Christmas, half a year later.

“I absolutely believe he knew that I was somebody special … I do believe he recognized me. He immediately took to me.”

This is an expected burden for military members, but it does not make it any easier, Scott said, adding he expects to leave Sarah, Peyton and his oldest son, Heath, 12, this fall for redeployment.

He does not know where, but President Barack Obama repeatedly has stated plans to draw down forces in Iraq and double the U.S. troops in Afghanistan from 30,000 to at least 60,000.

Regardless, the former 19-year-old who didn’t even sniff Desert Shield certainly will be back in the stink.

He has one request for the Bulldog Nation.

“You don’t have to support it,” Scott said. “But at least understand the sacrifices we’re making in an unstable world.”