CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan – From the moment I got here, it’s clear it was on people’s minds daily. The Sept. 14 attack on neighboring Camp Bastion rattled many Marines and other coalition forces on this base. While technically a separate base, the two camps share a bus route and relatively easy access. European troops frequently visit the American PX store on Leatherneck, and Americans hop the bus to visit the pizza shop, coffee shop and other amenities on Bastion. Like many other military journalists, I wrote about the attack on Bastion from my desk in D.C., relying equally on interviews,…
Browsing: Camp Bastion
CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan – Chief Warrant Officer 2 Milledge Wilson’s list of past injuries reads like a one-way trip to medical retirement. Gunshot wound to the left arm. Shrapnel wounds to the face. Grenade blast wounds to the stomach, face and left leg. He sustained all of those during a bold attack on Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, while deployed with Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 2, out of Cherry Point, N.C. As this story shows, the May 19, 2010, ambush made international headlines after more than a dozen insurgents breached the base’s wire and engaged in a five-hour firefight with…
OVER HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan – The Marine pilots peered closely at the ridgelines below, roaring through the sky in helicopters loaded with ordnance. “See that compound there?” one of them said Saturday, skimming over a desert plain in a UH-1Y Huey. “Let’s keep our eye on it.” The observation was part of a routine combat sustainment mission, which are conducted to keep the helos ready for war. They’re typically launched from the Marine flight line at Camp Bastion, a British base abutting Camp Leatherneck, the largest Marine installation in Afghanistan. A Sept. 14 attack on Bastion has brought a new…
