Last night I was sitting in a staff meeting, when a gentleman walks up and says to me - you are going to Camp Leatherneck tomorrow - be at the helicopter ramp at 0730 hours. Just like that, I'm going to Camp Leatherneck which is a sprawling US Marine Corps Base attached to a British Air Force Base called Camp Bastion. These two bases happen to be in Helmand Province, right next to the Helmand River - poppy growing capital of the world, and Taliban Stronghold. WooHoo...
So - I show up at the helicopter ramp at the appointed time, and await the arrival of others going to this meeting at Camp Leatherneck with the Marine Corps commanders in the southern Helmand Province - where we are in the process of beginning construction on 4 Marine Corps Expeditionary Battalion Forward Operating Bases (FOBs). While standing there, the Deputy Program Manager arrives (former 1 Star General), and walks up to me and asks "where are you going?", to which I foolishly reply - "with you sir - to your meeting". Foolish Lad....
"Who asked you to come" says he, and I reply in kind.....
"Hmpfff" is his only reply as he shrugs his shoulders and ambles off.. Oh boy - I'm in for fun now.
The helicopters arrive - Soviet Era - Mi-8's and we board (yes, there's Irony in riding on a Russian Helicopter in Afghanistan), and alas we are off - for a 1 hour flight to Camp Leatherneck.
Seeing Afghanistan from the air - well, lets just say, there isn't much out there in terms of either quantity or quality of structure. It's pretty clear that not much has changed in the last 200 years down there. I didn't see one structure in the entire flight that wasn't made from mud - or I guess Adobe we'd say in the states.
Leatherneck was a sprawling complex that is growing, and growing - with plans for having as many as 18,000 personnel on the base. It was an interesting visit, the flights were uneventful and all went well. I didn't actually attend the meeting - as I was instructed to solve some other outstanding issue - I guess I know what "Hmpfff" means now...
I'm tired.
Well Dave, I just had to go to Google Earth and see where you are and where you're headed. I've gotta say.......not much to see. Kandahar looks interesting....perhaps in a few select spots, though I don't know if you will ever get off the base to see anything. Swung over to take a look at the Helmand river valley. More cities of mud huts for sure, but oases of greenness here and there. Large dam upriver. I see some irrigation is still intact there. I have heard that the "russian war" destroyed much of the irrigation infrastructure throughout the country that has never been rebuilt.
ReplyDeleteThe countryside is very interesting. Dry riverbeds everywhere. Not just like we see here, but some appear to be humongous rivers that are nothing but sand. Perhaps just at spring runoff.......or perhaps dry now from ages past when they were actively running rivers. It's neat that googleEarth viewers have tagged locations with pictures here and there. Kind of fun to look at it all.