@Olivier5,
Quote:Oh nice. I've been to Kandahar briefly, in 2003. Pretty hot place. Loved the young US soldiers at the airport, behemoths packed up like mules and courteously smilling under the sun... Maybe you were one of them. :-)
Sorry, I wasn't. I didn't get there until 2006. We were early deployed to Pakistan at the end of 2005 after the earthquake in the Kashmir region and then did the rest of 06' in Afghanistan.
Quote:I travelled all over Nuristan and Kunar as a development worker end 80s early 90s, based in Peshawar, Pakistan. Those were the days.
Since you had been there in the 80's and 90's, how much did the area's you were familiar with, change?
Forward Operating Base. I was at FOB Salerno, I just looked it up, and it was in the Khost, it was the first place I had seen rain in 6 months of being in country. I saw no rain from March until Sept, I used to joke, "You would be as mad as they are if you lived in that ******* heat." Phoenix and Death Valley couldn't hold a candle to the heat I felt in Kandahar. To this day, I can't stand to getting cold. I can handle the heat, but cold is an issue. I'll never forget the sight of Dust Devils that were the size of tornadoes that moved slowly across the plains in front of the mountains. It was an impressive site.