COMBAT OUTPOST REILLY, Afghanistan — There’s nothing like a combat zone gymnasium to make you feel like a doughy, wimpy scrub. At least that’s the experience I had after checking out the gym here today. I’m a gym rat myself and a veteran of Washington, D.C.’s summer softball leagues, but with the air temperature soaring well above 100 degrees, I was surprised to see Lance Cpl. Joseph Roncolato and Cpl. Mikah Rust, both assigned to Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, pumping iron as though they were in the air-conditioning at their neighborhood Gold’s Gym. The gym is a sight…
Browsing: Afghanistan
COMBAT OUTPOST REILLY, Afghanistan – It’s a relatively slow day here with Kilo Company, so I wanted to touch on a subject that really grinds my gears: sandstorms. If you haven’t experienced one yet, you don’t know what you’re missing. The sand pelts you hard enough that it’s painful to keep your eyes open, and the storms come out of the blue so quickly, it can be difficult to prepare for them. Photographer Tom Brown and I experienced our first sandstorm on this trip during the infamous night aboard a CH-53 helicopter, but it wasn’t the last one. Last week,…
COMBAT OUTPOST REILLY, Afghanistan — Marine Corps Times was “Oscar Mike” again yesterday, moving by convoy from the headquarters of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, at Camp Hanson to this outpost, where Kilo Company 3/6 is based. The outpost is similar to Yazzie and several other patrol bases we’ve seen recently. Marines sleep mostly in air-conditioned tents, but there is no running water or an indoor chow hall, and few ways to know what is going on in the world outside Afghanistan. We are told that Kilo Company’s area of operations isn’t nearly as hot as India Company’s right now, but…
CAMP HANSON, Afghanistan — Today, Tom Brown and I said goodbye to the Yellow Schoolhouse, a former school in Marjah where two squads of Marines from India Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, now patrol from and live. I’m now at Camp Hanson, home to 3/6’s headquarters, and awaiting for potential transportation to another 3/6 company of Marines. In the meantime, however, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on my time at the schoolhouse, which more closely resembles the Marine Corps I hoped and expected to see downrange than anything else to date. To say it’s hard living at…
MARJAH, Afghanistan — Some of you may have read that Marine Corps Times was caught in the middle of a firefight here yesterday afternoon. Well, here’s footage to match, courtesy of Tom Brown, who whipped out his video camera after diving next to me into a Marjah canal: [HTML1] Again: Everyone came out of this safe and sound, and five men were later detained. Sometimes, good luck can be found in Afghanistan.
MARJAH, Afghanistan — It has been a busy day or three here in Afghanistan, but I wanted to take a minute to share Tom Brown’s video footage of the aftermath of an improvised explosive device attack Saturday on a Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected All-Terrain Vehicle in our convoy. As you can see, the vehicle sustained significant damage. We were trailing the hit vehicle by about the length of a city block, but could see smoke, dust and small pieces of metal rocket into the air: [HTML1] Important footnote: All five Marines in this vehicle survived, and only one experienced concussion symptoms.
MARJAH, Afghanistan — The bullets snapped overhead angrily, and all I could feel were the insects crawling up and down my legs and the sludgy water seeping into my boots. That’s how I’ll remember an ambush on a Marine patrol today, in which I saw my first warzone firefight. It began at about 12:30 p.m., as 10 members of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, and six Afghan National Army soldiers pushed east on a dirt trail splitting two agricultural canals in central Marjah. The sky was clear and the air temperature had crept into the 90s, as the hot Afghan sun…
MARJAH, Afghanistan — It’s day three for Tom Brown and I today at the Yellow Schoolhouse, a school built by the U.S. in Afghanistan in the 1950s. We went on a patrol with Marines on Sunday, and while it was uneventful, it was clear just how active the Taliban has been recently in this area. The patrol took us through several areas where Marines have been ambushed recently, including one Thursday in which eight to 10 insurgents opened fire on a group of Marines from India Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines. An Afghan National Army soldier was killed in the…
MARJAH, AFGHANISTAN — Hello from the ‘stan, friends. Tom and I have made another move, leaving Patrol Base Yazzie yesterday to spend some time with the Marines of the Yellow Schoolhouse, a deserted Afghan school for which Marine Corps leadership has high hopes. Third Platoon from India Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines rotates squads through here on a revolving basis. As you can see, the school is rather, uh, rustic. There are no windows, numerous holes in the roof and a variety of birds and insects sharing the building with the Marines deployed there. I’ll have substantially more to a…
PATROL BASE YAZZIE, Afghanistan — As I mentioned earlier this week, it isn’t hard to find marijuana while traveling with Marine fire teams based here to patrol Marjah. Tom Brown captured just how easily this morning with this eye-opening photograph. For some of Tom’s work that doesn’t appear on Battle Rattle, check out the Military Times Line of Sight blog. All the fans of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, will probably get a kick out of this photo.
