{"id":576178,"date":"2010-05-24T00:34:28","date_gmt":"2010-05-24T04:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com\/?p=19757"},"modified":"2010-05-24T00:34:28","modified_gmt":"2010-05-24T04:34:28","slug":"linking-up-with-the-1st-lar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/576178","title":{"rendered":"Linking Up with the 1st LAR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Linking Up with the 1st<\/sup> LAR<\/p>\n

Friday, May 21, 2010<\/p>\n

6:30am Camp Bastion, Afghanistan<\/p>\n

We were packed like sardines on the C-130 flights from Kabul through Kandahar to the British base in Helmand Province, Camp Bastion, last night. \u00a0In full body armor, we sat on canvas benches alongside civilian contractors and NATO troops from various countries. \u00a0Space is so tight, you have to interlock knees with the people sitting across from you, forming a zigzag zipper formation with your legs.<\/p>\n

I sat next to a Danish soldier who was returning to Afghanistan after a couple weeks of R&R in Denmark. \u00a0This is his tenth tour. Two of those tours were back to back and his decision to stay in theater destroyed his marriage. \u00a0His now ex-wife, who works in finance, wanted him to come home and get a desk job. \u00a0But he couldn’t, saying “that just isn’t me”. \u00a0He said “THIS is me.” \u00a0For many troops, serving in the Middle East for months on end during these ongoing conflicts are driving a wedge between their careers and their personal lives\u2026 another casualty of war.<\/p>\n

We arrived at Camp Bastion, which is attached to the Marine base Camp Leatherneck, at 1:30am. \u00a0We were greeted by a couple of guys from the public affairs officer’s office who told us we had an early flight and it would be best to just catch a few Z’s along side the flight line for a few hours, instead of wasting time driving to Leatherneck.\u00a0 So much for midnight chow! (I\u2019d heard Leatherneck has one of the best mess halls, and I was looking forward to it.)<\/p>\n

We were taken to a building made of plywood where various troops were sprawled out asleep on all the cots. \u00a0So we spent the night sleeping outside on wooden benches made of widely spaced 2 x 4s. Planes, choppers and Ospreys took off and landed all around us all night.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is where we slept, outside along the flight line at Camp Bastion<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Nervous that I mis-set my iPhone alarm, I woke up early. Unable to get comfortable on the 2x4s again, I looked to the ground to put on my ink stained boots.\u00a0 Yesterday, our London based photographer Mal James wrote to remind me to put my blood type and penicillin allergy on my boots, just in case something happens and I\u2019m unable to speak with a medic. Because I don\u2019t have dog tags, my name and blood type is also on my flak jacket and helmet.<\/p>\n

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Blood type and allergy warning on my boots<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s now 8:30am. Rick, Keith and I just split a breakfast of champions: a peanut butter granola bar and a coconut and chocolate candy bar.\u00a0 Today\u2019s the day we link up with the 1st<\/sup> LAR. We met many of them in March during their training at Twenty-nine Palms in California.\u00a0 I\u2019m excited to see them again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linking Up with the 1st LAR Friday, May 21, 2010 6:30am Camp Bastion, Afghanistan We were packed like sardines on the C-130 flights from Kabul through Kandahar to the British base in Helmand Province, Camp Bastion, last night. \u00a0In full body armor, we sat on canvas benches alongside civilian contractors and NATO troops from various […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4193,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-576178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}