ARTICLE: “G.I.’s in Remote Afghan Post Have Weary Job, Drawing Fire,” by C.J. Chivers, New York Times, 10 November 2008.
Seriously, cue something, because these guys are subsisting on little down time and no amenities typically afforded our troops in battlezones.
The storyline comes right out of some Alamo-like remembrance of fights past:
The small stone castle, sandbagged and bristling with weapons and American soldiers, rises from a rock spur beside the Landai River. Mountains lean overhead.
Once a hunting lodge for Mohammad Zahir Shah, Afghanistan’s last king, the castle is home for a year for an American cavalry troop, an Afghan infantry company, a Navy corpsman and two American marines.
Naturally, they are nearly surrounded by insurgents hiding in caves and local villages. One soldier says their mission is to serve as “bullet sponge.”
Injun country indeed.