Life In Afghanistan: War By The Numbers

[unhappycamper]

In this Sept. 28, 2010 photograph, U.S. Marine Cpl. Chuck Martin, 24, of Middletown, R.I. speaks on a radio during a firefight in the district of Marjah in southern Afghanistan. Since arriving in mid-July, troops from the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines' Echo Company have spread out across 13 small, spartan outposts in northern Marjah, a vast patch of fields and ancient hardened mud homes without running water or electricity.


Life In Afghanistan: War By The Numbers
TODD PITMAN | 10/25/10 12:01 AM | AP

MARJAH, Afghanistan — In the first two months of a seven-month tour, U.S. Marine Cpl. Chuck Martin has been in 16 firefights.

He's done laundry twice, mailed five letters and received two. He's spent 378 hours on post and 256 hours on patrol. He's crossed 140 miles (230 kilometers) of thorny bomb-laced farmland and waist-high trenches of water on foot.

Along the way, he's ripped eight pairs of pants, ruined two pairs of boots, and downed 1,350 half-liter bottles of water. His platoon has killed at least eight militants in battle and nine farm animals in crossfire. The rugged outposts he's lived in have been shot at 46 times.

"Tiring would be the best word to describe it," the lanky 24-year-old native of Middletown, R.I., said, summarizing his time in the insurgent-plagued southern Afghan district of Marjah so far. "There's no downtime. It's a constant gruel."

Martin's list, stored on spreadsheet on his laptop, offers a snapshot of American military life in this rural battlezone, where a new generation of young troops are growing up thousands of miles from home.




unhappycamper comment: Vietnam and Afghanistan are life-changing experiences - many kids of my generation grew up in Vietnam, as Martin has in Afghanistan.

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

Iraq, too. (life-changing experiences)

[unhappycamper]

2. Yea, war is not good for people and other living things. n/t