I know. I try not to, but every now and then when I think of my son deploying to Afghanistan, I get the heebie-jeebies. I try to never let him know. I keep my game face on, but I haven’t like the smell of this new front for whatever reason. It’s just a down day, I guess.
Well, this MAY improve your day.....
Just another day in Afghanistan The article below is useful because it describes a typical day in Afghanistan, this time for a platoon of the 10th Mountain Division new to the area and setting up to assert itself.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KC27Df01.htm
The article has a minor patronizing tone which is programmed into the typical Brit before s/he is born. We are unsure, for example, why the Brit mediaperson chooses to call the platoon “motley”. Is he referring to the soldiers not presenting a uniform racial face as is the case with the British Army? If so, he has to understand America is not Britain. Is he calling the platoon motley because its men are from different backgrounds? Well, isn’t the same true of the British Army. Is he referring to the less than stellar personal histories of some of the troops? Well, isn’t the same thing true of the Brits? More to the point, perhaps he needs to appreciate that men with less than the best backgrounds make very good soldiers if they are properly trained and controlled, for the simple reason they know their violence and they know how to survive.
The Editor’s father, who was no fan of the US Army for many reasons, in the 1960s would caution other foreigners who thought Americans were too soft to make good soldiers. He’d say the bulk of the American infantry was drafted from the urban ghettos or from rural areas where most males learned to hunt and kill before they reached puberty. Such men, he would say, were very tough and shouldn’t be underestimated.
But that said, the article is a fair and informative account of life on the ground.