Death Comes to Tombstone

Saturday afternoon, 5 PM. Hundreds of soldiers in brown camoflauge uniforms form a U-shaped formation around a large asphalt apron just to the side of the runway at Camp Bastion. Most are British with some Dutch and Danes thrown in. A handful of American soldiers round out the gathering. The Regimental Sergeant-Major calls the gathering to attention as a propeller driven C-130 appears out of the blue sky in the middle distance. The plane descends, touches down and decreases its speed quickly as it passes the formation, taxiing to a spot further down the runway.

The group is given the "Stand At Ease" command. Eight bareheaded British soldiers appear and march slowly at half step to the middle of the assembled men carrying a simple wooden coffin wrapped in the Union Jack. They place it on two stands next to the unit commander, sergeant-major, and unit chaplain who stand in the middle of the tarmac facing the gathered soldiers. Prayers are recited, comments praising the quality of the young man in the coffin are given. A statement from the man's mother is read aloud. We come to attention again. The eight bareheaded British soldiers reappear and once more lift the coffin onto their shoulders and march at half step towards the back of the C-130 which has backed into the open end of the U formation, its rear ramp open and ready to receive its new cargo. The soldiers gently place their load in the plane's hold. This is the only cargo the plane will carry on this trip. The eight soldiers depart the plane and head back to their place in formation. The plane's ramp closes and the plane turns onto the runway and takes off. We stand at attention until the plane is aloft and has circled around again to pass over our formation. It banks slowly to the right and fades into the distance as we stand silently, each wrapped in his private thoughts.

Corporal Damian Lawrence of the 2nd Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment was killed in action on 17 February, 2008. He was born in 1983 and had a three year old daughter. I didn't know him, but I did know him. He was the soldier standing next to me in formation, he was the guard at our compound gate, he was the soldier eating dinner at the dining facility a few tables in front of me. He was one of US. He was killed in a small village called Kajaki in the middle of nowhere, thousands of miles from home. Soon the granite block at the base of the two flagpoles on FOB Tombstone will have his name inscribed on the metal plaque affixed to its top. His name will be kept company by the thirteen others who departed FOB Tombstone on missions and didn't come back.

Settling In at FOB Tombstone

One good thing about Helmand Province - we're not in the mountains here so it's a lot warmer. The extreme cold weather gear I used all the time up in Kunduz I don't really need here. By mid-morning I don't even need a jacket. The flipside of that is by March it's going to be hot here and we'll see temperatures of up to 125 Fahrenheit this Summer which won't be fun in full individual body armor carrying a basic load of ammunition, water, etc. My little command consists of myself and two Corps of Engineers civilians in our very own fenced in compound a few hundred meters away from FOB Tombstone. There's a small US and British military contingent in Tombstone and the three of us across the way. Sometimes I feel like a carrot on a stick out here. I can see why the Corps of Engineers wouldn't allow these guys to be left without a soldier stationed with them. Both compounds are inside the Afghan National Army's perimeter wall, but we lock our gate every night just the same and bolt our room doors too. Lot of good it will do. The British have a firing range nearby so all you hear in the background is the constant sound of tank rounds and small arms fire at all times of the day and night. No one would even know we were under attack with the noise from all that going on.

Of course, we're also next to a brigade of the Afghan National Army but I'm not going to rely on them. Up in Herat one of the ANA soldiers came home from a month's leave during which time he was manipulated by the Taliban (most likely they threatened his family) into staging a one man jihad on the base. He killed one American, 4-5 Afghan soldiers, and wounded another 10 or 11 before his AK-47 jammed. I sleep with my pistol close by every night - I figure better safe than sorry. In the meantime one of our projects is to build ourselves a new office and living quarters inside Tombstone so that will certainly be a security improvement. Meantime I've inventoried and signed for all the military and computer equipment here and am familiarizing myself with the construction projects this office is engaged in. Next week I'll start getting out to the sites to see where we're at, most likely by helicopter as whatever direction you take from here is headed into Taliban controlled areas so I don't plan on using road convoys unless there's no other option available. The vehicle I would use, our HMMWV armored gun truck, is no good to me without at least one other soldier to man it and I'm waiting on our 240B machine gun to be delivered first anyway.

Photo One: The view outside the ANA perimeter wall - not a whole lot of cover for anyone trying to sneak up unnoticed.

Photo Two: Another load of British soldiers landing on the moon, er, I mean, at Camp Bastion..... Air is our primary means of traveling from place to place here due to the ambush and IED threats.

Photo Three: No, it's not Tombstone, Arizona. I've been there too by the way.

Reassignment

Hold all mail as I'm moving. Just got word I'm to pack my bags and relocate to a camp near Lashkar Gah in Helmand Province so my mailing address will change. That's the Southern part of Afghanistan and is currently under the control of British forces. It will take a few days to fly out of here as recent snowfall has grounded most air traffic in country. S-3 told me to make sure I wore my body armor. That's reassuring......

Just as well - it was time for a change. The Chief of Construction told me the move should not interfere with my mid-tour R&R the last 2 weeks of March as they'll send me another soldier before I depart for that. Let's hope so. Very small US contingent down there. Sounds like they found an even smaller group of US men to put me in charge of than I've got at the bridge.....and that's hard to do! We just don't have enough soldiers in our command to staff all these small outposts. I will, once again, be the only soldier on site so will be responsible for the security of the Corps of Engineer civilians there. We've got a brand new HMMWV gun truck there also. Too bad we can't use it as it takes at least 2 soldiers to man it. Well, here comes Part Two of my adventure.