Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Entry 43596
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2025/07/09 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
7/9     

2006/7/8-10 [Reference/Military, Politics/Foreign/Asia/India] UID:43596 Activity:nil 80%like:43593
7/8     Afghidan
        http://afghanidan.blogspot.com/                        -jblack
        \_ Wow, nice photoblog.
        \_ "A young man's strange, erotic journey from Milan to Minsk."
           ...erotic?
        \_ Good link, thank you.  -John
2025/07/09 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
7/9     

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afghanidan.blogspot.com
AfghaniDan A young man's strange, erotic journey from Milan to Minsk. About Me Name:Capt Dan Location:Khost, Afghanistan The details of my life are quite inconsequential... Powered by Blogger Tuesday, July 04, 2006 Happy 4th of July! I'll get those backlogged photos up at a later date, but felt the need to first show proof to my family that the flags I'll bring back were proudly flown over this FOB in Khost on Independence Day 2006. Sgt Tim Sander is the young journalist (constantly reminding me that I've got at least a decade on many of the warriors out here) helping me raise the flag outside our operations center the other day. Saluting Old Glory, the Marine Corps, and a job well done. I've been particularly enjoying the fact that every vehicle or runner who comes up the road sees this Marine flag, designating the location of the only one on this base. There was a constant pace of activity as Marines and soldiers (even the occasional sailor or airman), supplies and weapons, building materials and everything else were shuttled to points throughout the mountains of Kunar in support of the massive operation... And man, did they rearrange the dirt of the place every time they did! Morning sun created a daily haze over the valley, which would then burn off. It was already heating up significantly over the first few days of the operation, which still featured some bitter cold nights. Afghan workers were signed up for each day's work, which in this case meant retrieving contents of an aerial resupply drop. It was quite an event - the drop, that is - though organizing locals was always an event as well. Drifting to the earth (nowhere near the giant zone marked by green smoke and orange tarps) were the bundles, bringing needed supplies for the planned MEDCAP and humanitarian aid distribution. No cows were harmed in the conduct of this aerial resupply. So goes the motto of our trusty payments officer, Al the Sicilian. He had a ton of great stories, including golfing with every recent Commandant of the Marine Corps and lots of other top brass. Which is funny, because it really is fair to say that he's "connected." Tim Kelly offers to show some young Afghans the photo he took of them, to no avail. though they trusted in Allah much more for protection than we did, eschewing the double layer of blast wall. Much to my amusement, one unit brought along a little friend. Unfortunately, the hairy biter was deemed a bit of a health hazard and had to be sold to the Afghan soldiers... So here he is getting a bite to eat with his new friends, outside the wire this time. Monkeys actually seem to be everywhere in this country, though they're not employed as trained killers as often as I imagined. Far more common, and far less entertaining, were the cows that wandered through the outpost. 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Morning shines its light on the strangest outpost in Afghanistan, as Afghan soldiers perched on top of one lumber pile look out. which was more like cats being tortured as a rythm-less class takes drum lessons. The command post, now properly adorned with the battalion shield, was the center of activity as local elders began to arrive by the dozens for a large shura, or what we would later call the SuperShura. Though it definitely be cheesy, I thought I'd pose with the backdrop of the heart of the valley, whose villages were represented at the large gathering of leaders. I later showed this photo to Mike, the interpreter in sweatshirt and ballcap, and he said, "Yeah, that colonel likes to shake hands a lot." A couple hundred gents wound up attending this meeting, dressed in all variations of manjammies and beard/hair dye (red is clearly the most popular). for the governor was taking his sweet time getting to the helicopter that would take him here, I later learned. 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