News from Afghanistan

The moon rises over Camp Dwyer, 31 Dec 2009.

From my far-flung correspondent:

There are a LOT of Marines here who would currently fail the weight standard. We have essentially no gym, running is difficult, food is unlimited, work hours are long, and many people have ‘What are they going to do, shave my head and send me to Afghanistan?’ syndrome.

"... running is difficult":

At the close up level, the roads can be viewed as strips of wash-boarded terra cotta covered with talcum powder, then sprinkled with 1” granite tetrahedrons. In many places, loops of disused communication wire break the surface for distances of a few inches to a few feet. Then there are the broken up pallets, which usually – but not always – have been run over enough times that the nails have moved to a tire somewhere.