More than 15 years ago, Danish platoon commander Martin Tamm Andersen was leading his countrymen and U.S. Marines through the heat and sand of southern Afghanistan after a Taliban attack.
As Andersen’s vehicle moved at the rear of the column, everything was normal — until in one instant the world turned sand-colored. His body shook violently.
“I had no idea what was going on,” he recalled. He ran his hands over his arms and legs to make sure they were still there.
When the dust settled, he saw one of his soldiers bleeding heavily from his face. Another had been hurled from the turret and lay on the ground, groaning in pain, his back broken in two places. The blast had torn the vehicle apart.
Andersen called in help from the U.S. Marines, who halted a firefight with the Taliban, returned to secure the site, treated the wounded and helped prepare them for evacuation.
At the time, American and Danish troops were comrades in arms who risked their lives for each other in common cause.
Andersen can barely believe what has come of the U.S.-Danish alliance today as President Donald Trump escalates his threats to seize Greenland, a semiautonomous territory belonging to Denmark. Trump has repeatedly said the United States must take control of the strategically located and mineral-rich island, and views force as one way to get it.
“When America needed us after 9/11 we were there,” the 46-year-old veteran said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“As a veteran and as a Dane, you know, you feel sad and very surprised that the U.S. wants to take over part of the Kingdom of Denmark,” he said. “It’s a betrayal of the loyalty of our nation to the U.S. and to our common alliance, NATO.”
He spoke from the Danish War Museum in Copenhagen, where his armored personnel carrier that hit the improvised explosive device in 2010 in Helmand Province is on display.
Before his deployment to Afghanistan, Andersen had also served in Iraq. Good friends were killed and wounded in both wars. He believed his service in the U.S. wars served the cause of freedom and democracy.
‘It feels surreal’
As the U.S. intensifies its threats to seize Greenland, that initial shock felt by many across Europe has evolved into a profound sense of sadness, betrayal and fear of what such a move could mean for Europe’s security at a time of Russian aggression. Denmark’s prime minster has said it would mean the end of NATO.
For Danish veterans, it feels profoundly personal.
A NATO member since 1949, Denmark has been a stalwart ally to America. Forty-four Danish soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, the highest per capita death toll among coalition forces. Eight more died in Iraq.
“It feels surreal. It feels like it’s a bad joke somehow,” Andersen said. ” I mean, you can’t really fathom that this is actually something that is being said out loud. It just seems too crazy.”
Packing away a medal and a U.S. flag
Søren Knudsen, a Danish veteran who served twice in Afghanistan, was watching television last year when he heard U.S. Vice President JD Vance say on Fox News that Denmark was “not being a good ally.”
Vance was making Trump’s argument that the United States needed to take more ”territorial interest” in Greenland for the sake of U.S. security, and accusing Denmark of “not doing its job.”
He could not believe it. In his Copenhagen home, the 65-year-old Knudsen keeps a photo of himself flanked by children in the Afghan city of Qalat.
The mission, as Knudsen understood it at the time, was to help the Americans safeguard the future of Afghanistan’s youth. At the end of his second tour, U.S. service members gave him an American flag as a parting gift.
For years he proudly displayed the framed flag and a U.S. Bronze Star honoring his service in Afghanistan alongside other medals from his military service.
He recently removed the medal and the flag in anguish and packed them away.
He told his wife that he will take them out of storage only when the U.S.-Danish alliance is restored.
Knudsen, who is the deputy president of the Danish Veterans Association, said he hears daily from other veterans who express sorrow and hurt at how the U.S. administration has turned against Denmark.
“Many veterans who have wounds, whether on their souls or their body, certainly feel this as a an offense straight to their heart,” he said.
Understanding U.S. security needs
Danish veterans are furious at how the White House rhetoric disregards the right to self-determination of Greenland and Denmark.
They also strongly object to Trump’s claim that Denmark, after fighting alongside U.S. forces in wartime, is incapable of protecting the West’s security interests in the Arctic.
Both Andersen and Knudsen say they understand concerns about security in the region but are convinced that Denmark is ready to continue doing whatever it takes within the NATO alliance to defend the region.
Both men describe maintaining a bond and friendship with American troops they served with.
Knudsen’s wife is American-born, and his brother-in-law is a U.S. Marine. They are convinced that their onetime comrades do not share Trump’s views about the Danes.
Danes often note that the U.S. already has access to Greenland under a 1951 defense agreement, and northwestern Greenland already houses the U.S. Pituffik military base that falls under the Pentagon’s Space Force.
It is the U.S. that has chosen to reduce its military footprint in Greenland in the past years — and Denmark and Greenland say they would accommodate a beefed up American military presence.
But Trump told the The New York Times last week that “ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document.”
Knudsen says a U.S. invasion of Greenland “would probably bring me to tears.”
“I would be very sorry if it happened, because I would also see this as the final moments of the NATO alliance,” he said. “And I would probably see it as the final moment of my admiration and love of what has been the American experiment for 250 years.”
Associated Press writers Vanessa Gera and Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw, Poland, Stefanie Dazio in Berlin and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
