2012-2013: Leatherneck, Bastion, Shorabak

If there's a sign a war is ending, closing a mega FOB is it. The LNK. Camp Pleasure-neck. 



Camp Leatherneck and Camp Bastion are gone. The nerve centers for the counterinsurgency in Helmand have been handed over to the Afghans. At the height of the war nearly 40,000 troopers and civilians lived and operated out of those camps. Out in the middle of the desert, it was austere but comfortable. I liked it. Maybe because I wasn't stuck there like most. I got out. Spent maybe half my time outside the wire in Lashkar Gah, or Now  Zad or Khanisan. I always returned to my hooch on The LNK, as the Brits called it. To my room. With the slower-than-dial up wifi. The coffee places. The decent PX (sorry, Marines, I'll never call it an "exchange"). Sorry, gang, I turned into a POG. 

Like I said, life was comfortable. I enjoyed my time there. But there was always this sense of ending. Like when Kilgore just randomly says "someday this war's gonna end" and walks away. That "someday" wasn't in the distant future. The good times were ending. Units were headed home without replacement. Units like mine were getting cut. Lines in the mess halls were getting longer because they were consolidating. The air and momentum were getting sucked out of the place. Or at it least it felt that way to me. 

Now, that someday is here. Bastion and Leatherneck are gone. I feel a bit melancholy. It was my home. I made some tremendously strong friendships. I learned a lot about myself. The place and my time there had a great impact on me. 

I have no idea if this is a sign of anything but progress. Nothing positive. Nothing negative. The closure and handover and donation of kit is just progress. Whether that's good or bad progress is entirely up to the Afghans. Here's to hoping the ANA's 215th Maiwand Corps can hack it. 

Safety in extreme environments vs. working to death.

This is a tragedy. I'd read Matt's work from time to time and thought it great. I've also met other scribblers and snappers like him, always on the go go go. Eventually, as we learned in his case, it can kill you. For what? Why did he have to die? Why didn't he (or couldn't he) take a couple of days to acclimate? Was it about money? 

When Don and I were heading to Paktika the summer of 2010 we purposely built in a fairly long lead time. Once we arrived in Afghanistan it took us about five days of traveling and waiting with stops at KAIA, Salerno, Orgun-E and finally Bermel. Altitude increased at every stop, save one at Salerno where it went down from roughly 5,200 feet at KAIA to 3,800 feet there. The highest elevation en route was at Orgun-E, which, I think was at 7,800 feet. Bermel was a bit lower at around 7,500 feet. 

We spent three days at Salerno diddy bopping around trying to acclimate to higher altitudes. I was coming from The WDC, Don from Fort Worth. By the time we got to Bermel and Abu Company we were sort of used to the altitude. I mean sort of in a very generous context. Because of the issues associated with higher elevations we declined to go on an op. There was just no way in hell it would have been safe for anyone if we'd gone up there so shortly after arriving. 

Eventually we acclimated and we went out. Our deadline was also incredibly liberal. So loose, in fact, most of my stills folio was shot on film. I imagine Matt was working under similar deadlines as a magazine writer. 

My point is this is about safety. For everyone. Is safety worth the money his editors potentially saved because he rushed out there? Nope. Not to me. But then again, maybe that's why those Go Go Go Scibblers and Snappers are generally more successful than me. I'll take my long-term health and life though.

"Effect" of war

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook and I wanted to share this here.

Lalage Snow has spent quite a bit of time in Afghanistan. In some really, really nutty places. But the work she brought out is great. It really captures the place, that vibe.

The BBC has a series of her portraits up on their site, and I'm quite taken with them. They're of British Army soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland shot before during and after the deployment to Helmand province, Afghanistan. To me, as someone who has been around the rodeo a bit, the effects of that place on these soldiers are quite pronounced. Simple photos of their faces. Not a lot of lighting. Just them in turns staring confidently and nervous, then tired and scared, then finally exhausted and relieved.

The effects of war is on people is something I've pursued the last few years. It started with the white-background portrait series on my Website, and continued in 2010 with my series on Abu Company shot on Kodachrome. I'll continue it for sometime, possibely the rest of my life. The effects of it all are probably more important than the actual event.

Good on ya, Lalage. First beer is on me.