CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — Three weeks after flying out of Washington, D.C., photographer James Lee and I have reached a milestone midway on our assignment in Helmand province. We arrived today on this forward operating base from Kajaki district, marking the conclusion of our media embed with 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. I’d personally like to thank all the Marines in the unit who shared their world with us, from battalion commander Lt. Col. Kevin Trimble right on down to the many lance corporals we trailed outside the wire on patrols. If you’ve been following this…
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PATROL BASE SHEHEBAN, Afghanistan –- I can say it from experience now: patrolling through the poppy fields of Helmand province is every bit as distracting as I had been warned. The beautiful poppy blossoms leap out at anyone passing. The flowers — ranging in color from white and pink to a deep, rich rose — stand nearly waist high, and will likely remain in bloom for at least another week. As the blossoms shrivel, farmers will score the remaining bulbs and collect the fluid oozing out. The product is developed into heroin and other opium-based drugs — something that isn’t…
PATROL BASE SHEHEBAN, Afghanistan –- I can say it from experience now: patrolling through the poppy fields of Helmand province is every bit as distracting as I had been warned. The beautiful poppy blossoms leap out at anyone passing. The flowers — ranging in color from white and pink to a deep, rich rose — stand nearly waist high, and will likely remain in bloom for at least another week. As the blossoms shrivel, farmers will score the remaining bulbs and collect the fluid oozing out. The product is developed into heroin and other opium-based drugs — something that isn’t…
KAJAKI, Afghanistan – Second Lt. Jeff Lenar is a long way from the bright lights of college football at the U.S. Naval Academy, and it took serious discipline to get there. The infantry officer with 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, leads 2nd Platoon, Alpha Company, overseeing Marines in combat who patrol near the landmark Kajaki Dam in Helmand province. Since deploying early this year, he has led his platoon in raids into Taliban-held area and overseen surveillance missions used to collect information about insurgents. His trip there was complicated: to join his fellow Marines, Lenar shed dozens of pounds from his…
FORWARD OPERATING BASE ZEEBRUGGE, Afghanistan – The job was called in like many others: “We’ve got a mortar mission now!” yelled Staff Sgt. Gregory Sanders, the platoon sergeant for the fires team here. With that, a handful of Marines with Golf Battery, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marines, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., scrambled through the darkness Sunday night to an 81mm mortar tube on this mountainside base in Kajaki district, Afghanistan. A small group overseen by Cpl. Wesley Neville, a squad leader, launched a series of illumination rounds over a rocky ridgeline and lit up the sky. The rounds exploded in…
FORWARD OPERATING BASE ZEEBRUGGE, Afghanistan — After three nights visiting Marines at Observation Post Shrine, photographer James Lee and I have returned to this base overlooking the scenic Kajaki Dam. How scenic, you ask? Four nights ago, we took Polaris Ranger all-terrain vehicles with two Marines to the summit of Zeebrugge. Observation Post Athens is on top, providing Marines with a breathtaking view of the surrounding area — and a good chance of seeing any insurgent activity from on high. I hopped in an ATV with Staff Sgt. Gregory Sanders, a platoon sergeant with Golf Battery, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marines, which has…
[HTML1]In this week’s Marine Corps Times, you may have read with disgust the story of a man who lied his way into a circle of trust in Canada by posing as a Marine with PTSD. Behind the story about the unscrupulous faker was the story of the REAL infantryman who became his victim. He is Cpl Chris Dupee, a GRUNT with eight years in the 3rd Royal Canadian Regiment who actually has PTSD. He is a combat vet and is on a mission to help others deal with it, too. His organization is called Military Minds and his Facebook page…
KAJAKI, Afghanistan – It’s time to make a confession: I’ve been wearing a diaper in combat. Not because I can’t handle being in Afghanistan, mind you. Bad things can happen here, but you have to make peace with that before you step on the plane. No, I’m wearing an armored “diaper” because it has become a requirement for many Marines in theater. When I asked Lt. Col. Kevin Trimble, commander of 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., about the new gear fielded to protect Marines’ groins from blast injuries, he issued the armor to photographer James Lee…
KAJAKI, Afghanistan – It’s time to make a confession: I’ve been wearing a diaper in combat. Not because I can’t handle being in Afghanistan, mind you. Bad things can happen here, but you have to make peace with that before you step on the plane. No, I’m wearing an armored “diaper” because it has become a requirement for many Marines in theater. When I asked Lt. Col. Kevin Trimble, commander of 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., about the new gear fielded to protect Marines’ groins from blast injuries, he issued the armor to photographer James Lee…
By now it’s no news that the military is facing serious cuts. The Marine Corps alone will drop 20,000 over the next five years. But just how leaders will make those cuts has been a mystery — until now. To get the lowdown on how the Marine Corps will drawdown by 2016, and what the plan means for you, check out this week’s edition of Marine Corps Times. For our cover story, we traveled to Camp Lejeune, N.C., to sit in on a briefing by the drawdown’s architects who are now on an eight-week tour of the fleet. In it,…
