Kandahar Airfield
For ten months Kandahar Airfield (KAF) was home. The airfield, about five miles from Kandahar City, is a city unto itself, teeming with energy, filled with troops, dust, vehicles, machinery and civilian contractors. After I arrived at KAF in May 2004 the transformation I saw on Kandahar Airfield in those few months was tangible.
Along the perimeter road to the south, between a militia compound and a series of old bombed-out Soviet barracks, sits a fresh chain-linked fence topped neatly with a coil of razor wire. The fence wasn't there when I arrived. It pushes KAF farther south and one day will form the new perimeter after the Coalition returns the international airport terminal to the Afghans.
Behind the fence, a daily surge of construction vehicles, dump trucks, front loaders and flat beds hauling pipe and lumber work a seemingly endless task. Once nothing more than dirt and land mines, the perimeter road is now lined with gravel and chain-link, concrete-based fence posts and neatly printed warning signs every 50 meters.
After I'd been away from KAF for a week in those initial months, I realized the significant change in the camp as I drove down Screaming Eagle Boulevard past the air terminal. The once-dilapidated mosque adjacent to the terminal breathed anew.
When I arrived here, the Muslim holy place had the signature of mortar and rocket grenade blasts splashed on the outer walls. Chipped plaster inside and the crumbling walls outside have been repaired by Afghan workers. The spires, once crushed and rough, now shine smooth and bright blue against the mended white walls.
The troops, always active and bustling about camp, gave the airfield a vibrant edge. With missions as varied as their uniforms and appearances, service men and women plunged daily into the minutia of war fighting and rebuilding Afghan infrastructure. Logistics makes the combat effort possible, so, of the 5,000-plus troops on Kandahar Airfield, more than half provide support to the combatants.
As for Kandahar Airfield, it is here to stay. The funds to build the airfield and to push this piece in the global war on terror forward are sizable. The business of building bases isn't cheap, especially in southern Afghanistan. One estimate claims a billion dollars will be spent during the next five years on Kandahar Airfield and infrastructure in southern Afghanistan. The country only has 25 kilometers of railroad, so the ability to move trade goods and raw materials for construction is limited to trucks.
I would leave the airfield on operations sometimes for a week, sometimes just a couple days, escorting foreign correspondents around the southern provinces as they covered US forces.
Each time journalists arrived on the airfield wanting to cover the coalition’s efforts I gave them a tour in my issued Toyota pickup truck. I would drive them around the main loop through camp, past the stench of the burn pit and sewage pond. I’d point out the new modular metal units under construction which now house all the troops. I would show the amenities, the Post Exchange, the showers, the Internet cafe and I’d describe the various military units as we would pass each one.
My job in Afghanistan was to “facilitate media” and in that I helped them tell the stories of US forces operating from Kandahar Airfield.
Along the perimeter road to the south, between a militia compound and a series of old bombed-out Soviet barracks, sits a fresh chain-linked fence topped neatly with a coil of razor wire. The fence wasn't there when I arrived. It pushes KAF farther south and one day will form the new perimeter after the Coalition returns the international airport terminal to the Afghans.
Behind the fence, a daily surge of construction vehicles, dump trucks, front loaders and flat beds hauling pipe and lumber work a seemingly endless task. Once nothing more than dirt and land mines, the perimeter road is now lined with gravel and chain-link, concrete-based fence posts and neatly printed warning signs every 50 meters.
After I'd been away from KAF for a week in those initial months, I realized the significant change in the camp as I drove down Screaming Eagle Boulevard past the air terminal. The once-dilapidated mosque adjacent to the terminal breathed anew.
When I arrived here, the Muslim holy place had the signature of mortar and rocket grenade blasts splashed on the outer walls. Chipped plaster inside and the crumbling walls outside have been repaired by Afghan workers. The spires, once crushed and rough, now shine smooth and bright blue against the mended white walls.
The troops, always active and bustling about camp, gave the airfield a vibrant edge. With missions as varied as their uniforms and appearances, service men and women plunged daily into the minutia of war fighting and rebuilding Afghan infrastructure. Logistics makes the combat effort possible, so, of the 5,000-plus troops on Kandahar Airfield, more than half provide support to the combatants.
As for Kandahar Airfield, it is here to stay. The funds to build the airfield and to push this piece in the global war on terror forward are sizable. The business of building bases isn't cheap, especially in southern Afghanistan. One estimate claims a billion dollars will be spent during the next five years on Kandahar Airfield and infrastructure in southern Afghanistan. The country only has 25 kilometers of railroad, so the ability to move trade goods and raw materials for construction is limited to trucks.
I would leave the airfield on operations sometimes for a week, sometimes just a couple days, escorting foreign correspondents around the southern provinces as they covered US forces.
Each time journalists arrived on the airfield wanting to cover the coalition’s efforts I gave them a tour in my issued Toyota pickup truck. I would drive them around the main loop through camp, past the stench of the burn pit and sewage pond. I’d point out the new modular metal units under construction which now house all the troops. I would show the amenities, the Post Exchange, the showers, the Internet cafe and I’d describe the various military units as we would pass each one.
My job in Afghanistan was to “facilitate media” and in that I helped them tell the stories of US forces operating from Kandahar Airfield.
posted by Jeremy Andrew Clawson at 8:15 PM
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