Day: April 1, 2006

Ok, here is the second batch of my favorite pictures.
This next group of pictures is a SMALL sampling of pictures from my deployment to central and southwest Asia in 2003-04.
The first picture is the view from a road in Afghanistan, about 30 miles away from Kabul at Bagram Air Base. As you can see, the mountains were spectacular (20,000′ peaks near 360 degrees around). This particular location was a former Soviet base, which had been ravaged by over two decades of constant warfare. One of the reminders of that were the landmines. Afghanistan is the most heavily mined country in the world. Anytime you are on the other side of the wire (as seen in this picture), there is probably a mine very nearby.
I think that’s one of the reasons I like this picture so much. Stark natural beauty contrasted with the lethal realities of human warfare.
Ok, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

In fact, this picture really captures my experience in Afghanistan. If you’ll permit me to indulge, I’ll explain what I mean.
I see:
– A man bearing an all too common mark of the ubiquitous
landmines
– The American influence with the desert camouflage
– The traditional Afghan hats
– The common scarf
– The cold in the air
– Bicycles as a main source of transportation

More images of Afghanistan:




My team also went into 5 other countries. Two of the most unique were the former Soviet states of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Here’s one of a old Soviet era plane.

The other central Asian stop was in Pakistan. This is at a small base in central Pakistan. As you can see, we made friends with our Pakistani army escorts.

Our stops in southwest Asia included Qatar and Kuwait. Here’s the architectural icon of Kuwait City, the Kuwaiti Towers. It was designed in 1977 by a Swedish company. During the Iraq invasion of 1989, the Iraqis did their best to destroy it, but were unsuccessful and it survives today as a very nice landmark. The Tower on the right has a restaurant in the lower ball and the upper is an observation deck. The tower on the left is a water tower (nicest one I’ve seen!) and the small one in the center one lights up the other two at night.

In one of the bases there, we found remnants of the US bombing in Operation Desert Storm. These are hardened aircraft shelters built for the Kuwaitis by the French. They were purported to be indestructible. However, as you can see, they didn’t hold up too well to the US bunker buster bombs. As an interesting side note, the Kuwaitis went back to the French company and requested that they rebuild or repay since it was obviously NOT indestructible. The response was, well, we can’t warranty against the Americans. Sorry.
Here’s what they looked like over a decade later.

There were also plenty of camels just wandering around…

OK, I will stop this one here. The next entry will have Guam, Japan and Palau pictures.
–Jim