U.S. Supersizes Afghan Mega-Base as Withdrawal Date Looms

[unhappycamper]

U.S. Supersizes Afghan Mega-Base as Withdrawal Date Looms
By Spencer Ackerman Email Author
August 9, 2010 | 12:00 am |

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — Anyone who thinks the United States is really going to withdraw from Afghanistan in July 2011 needs to come to this giant air base an hour away from Kabul. There’s construction everywhere. It’s exactly what you wouldn’t expect from a transient presence.

Step off a C-17 cargo plane, as I did very early Friday morning, and you see a flight line packed with planes. When I was last here two years ago, helicopters crowded the runways and fixed-wing aircraft were –- well, if not rare, still a notable sight. Today you’ve got C-17s, Predators, F-16s, F-15s, MC-12 passenger planes … I didn’t see any of the huge C-130 cargo haulers, but they’re here somewhere.

More notable than the overstuffed runways is the over-driven road. Disney Drive, the main thoroughfare that rings the 8-square-mile base, used to feature pedestrians with reflective sashes over their PT uniforms carrying Styrofoam boxes of leftovers out of the mess halls. And those guys are still there.

But now the western part of Disney is a two-lane parking lot of Humvees, flamboyant cargo big-rigs from Pakistan known as jingle trucks, yellow DHL shipping vans, contractor vehicles and mud-caked flatbeds. If the Navy could figure out a way to bring a littoral-combat ship to a landlocked country, it would idle on Disney.

Expect to wait an eternity if you want to pull out onto the road. Cross the street at your own risk.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Its only your "tax money"

so maybe just look upon it that you're all joint owners. :sarcasm:

[beam me up scottie]

2. Wow, what a great opportunity that turned out to be.

:sarcasm:

[ixion]

3. this kind of thing makes me ill..

really.

[Statistical]

4. Author has his planes confused.

"C-17s, Predators, F-16s, F-15s, MC-12 passenger planes … I didn’t see any of the huge C-130 cargo haulers, but they’re here somewhere."

He sees C-17s but doesn't see the "huge" C-130s?

C-130


C-17


Errors like that are annoying to an ex military man.

[unhappycamper]

5. C-17 & C-130 side by side:

(I noticed that also.) :hi:

[Statistical]

6. Nice compartive pic.

I flew out of Iraq in both of them.

The C-17 converted to personnel transport looked *almost* like an airliner on the inside. Almost .... The 9 across seating, noise, and exposed fuselage gave it away.

Still it was downright luxurious compared to the C-130 with its cargo net seats, and a bucket on the tail ramp as a bathroom. :)

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. This isn't too different from the billion+ dollar military hospital being built in Germany, not

to be completed until 2018.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/07/army_ramstein_071710w/

If we are getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan, why do we need it?

[blindpig]

8. k&r

Facts on the ground speak louder than any rhetoric.