Posted on 05/07/2009 3:22:20 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan - A huge U.S. military camp is taking shape in the baking heat of southern Afghanistan for thousands of extra U.S. troops charged with defeating a resurgent Taliban.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Camp Leatherneck, with concrete blast walls and semi-cylinder sand-colored tents, on Thursday as he surveyed preparations for what will be the biggest wave yet in a year that is seeing U.S. troop numbers doubled.
The camp is being constructed in Helmand province next to a British base, Camp Bastion, as Marines and other forces dramatically expand their presence in the most violent area of Afghanistan and heartland of the Taliban movement.
Construction workers clambered on the wooden frame of a new headquarters building as Gates spoke at the camp, where the majority of more than 8,000 marines now flowing into southern Afghanistan are expected be based.
"This place was desert at the end of January. I mean: nothing, said Navy Captain Jeff Borowy," the top U.S. military engineer in southern Afghanistan.
"Now you've got a 443-acre secure facility," he told reporters traveling with Gates.
ATLANTIC WAY
Miles of sand walls topped with coils of barbed wire line the roads at the camp, linked to its British neighbor by a street nicknamed Atlantic Way.
If placed end to end in the United States, the sand walls at Leatherneck and eight other sites being built for the troop influx in southern Afghanistan would stretch for a distance of 175 km (110 miles).
The marines at Camp Leatherneck are also building a giant parking area for helicopters and airplanes by laying down a mat of metal alloy on the desert floor.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Wait...no Germans or French?! /sarc
Hope they have a lot of air conditioners.
The summer cooling design temperature in that part of the world in 110 F!!!
(kind of nice in the winter though)
THAT SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN ......major/sarc!!!
Ping!
Gates is a lapdog of Bush 41. A true politician who doesn’t understand the reasons for a total defeat.
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They're at the Kabul airport, guarding the Starbucks and the Shnitzel Shed.
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