Shurab City, Afghanistan – They said it was 120 degrees as the patrol came to the wire and the big berm at one of the main gates to the sprawling Camp Leatherneck base in central Helmand province.
The Marines thought it was hotter but no matter. They locked and loaded, and nine of them plus their interpreter, Sami, climbed back aboard the two lumbering anti-mine vehicles mounted with 50-caliber machine guns and rumbled into a desert wasteland that stretched to the horizon.
The wasteland turned curiously green in spots. The Marines from Weapons Co., 1st Battalion, 23rd Regiment of reserves out of Houston, Texas, said it was from the base sewage that the locals use for irrigation of their illicit crops. The poppy harvest was over last month, so the new patch of green would be turned into hashish.