If it Weren’t for All the Terrorists…
This country is beautiful. Last night I went out on a call into the mountains north of Kandahar to destroy some UXOs found by Coalition Forces. The helo dropped us in the mountains and we proceeded to go to work. After disposing of the UXOs we had some time before the helo came back so I got to admire the scenery, and boy was it some scenery. I’m not sure I can adequetly describe what it is like in the Afghanistan hinterland, you kind of have to be there, but if you’ve every been out west in the high desert it’s kind of like that only more rugged. The only thing more impressive then being in the terrain is flying over and around it. When the helicopter finally returned to retrieve us it was dark out and we had to use our NODs since we were opperating in blackout conditions. It was surreal. If the terrain was spectacular in the daylight, veiwing it through the green glow of NODs at 300 feet and 150 knots was…well, let’s just say it is something that will stick with me for the rest of my life.
June 20th, 2005 at 6:41 pm
You deal with UXOs the same as IEDs? Did it make a big boom? More to the point of your post, what sort of wildlife is in the region? Do you see much of it or do you activites pretty much scare it all away?
June 20th, 2005 at 7:50 pm
How we deal with UXOs and IEDs is situation dependent. Obviously I can’t go into any details but usually the end result is loud. It’s just that it’s loud when I want it to be and not when the terrorists do. As for wildlife, we don’t see much out and about, I suspect most of the truly wild animals in these parts are mostly nocturnal. I did see a rather odd creature the other night on post. It looked like some sort of hedgehog with a more pointy snout. I didn’t get a good look because it was small and dark and scuttling away at the time. We also see the occasional camel or two, but those are domestic. If I do see any interesting critters I’ll try and get some pictures, but I imagine between our arrival on a helocopter and the subsequent detonation most critters will be long gone. More’s the pity.
June 21st, 2005 at 5:16 am
Special thanks to my loving wife who I think has positively ID’d my mystery creature as a desert hedgehog. Thank you dear!
June 28th, 2005 at 11:57 pm
Just heard about the Chinook going down.
Stay safe.
August 12th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
the way to dis arm them