Dogs We Love -- Zhari District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan

From Michael Yon Online:

Every Step Is Your Last

Bombs are planted everywhere. 
The dogs catch some, but the dogs will get blown up, too.



Task Force Spartan, 4-4 Cav
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Bonus dog words: The Labrador Doctrine.

Armed Forces Day -- Constancy and Courage

Armed Forces Day

"It is fitting and proper that we devote one day each year to paying special tribute to those whose constancy and courage constitute one of the bulwarks guarding the freedom of this nation and the peace of the free world."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953

Armed Forces Day is a good day to read some Michael Yon and look at more of his great photography from the Afghanistan.

Drilling For Water in Afghanistan -- Michael Yon

More from Yon with the real men in Afghanistan.
Yet more of Yon's great great photography.
Some American soldiers don't have a shower for more than six months.
Think about that with your Sunday brunch, and think about adding one more prayer to your daily ritual, a prayer for these guys on the drilling rigs.
One more chance to support Yon with your own cash dollars.
More from the article:

This crew’s deepest well in Afghanistan was 1,260 feet at FOB Wolverine.  TSgt. Laidlaw said they worked 45 days straight and finally got the water...

This team is stationed at Hurlburt Field, Florida.  Laidlaw said that in Florida they can drill a 120’ well in maybe a couple hours, but in Afghanistan that could take many days...

Laidlaw said there are many aquifers but RED HORSE doesn’t take from the shallow water because the Afghans tap shallow.   Nevertheless, Afghan wells can be hundreds of feet deep and are hand-dug wells that can look like shafts to Hell.

I asked Nathan if he ever struck black gold like in the Beverly Hillbillies, and Laidlaw said no, but they did find copper in RC-East.  Chinese are already here for the copper.

Read the must read water story here: Red Horse: In the Desert of Death

Michael Yon's Online Magazine here.

Michael Yon -- Queen Beatrice, Photos, Words, Dutch

Yes that's Her Royal Highness, Queen Beatrice of the Netherlands, showing up in another longish, photo-filled, Yon offering beginning in Afghanistan, then moving to the Netherlands. The Dutch do not hate Americans -- the Dutch love Americans, and their love is old and lasting, true and lasting, grateful and clear-headed, clean-hearted; and: has nothing to do with johnny-come-latelies.

Michael Yon, Soldiers Angels, Michael Yon

Two or three weeks after the injury, I was having dinner with a British Major and several Captains. The Major talked reverently about Soldiers Angels, and then about a herculean effort that the United States military extended to save a single British soldier. I had no idea about that effort. I just heard the gunshot, saw the soldier carried away into the night, and heard the helicopter roar into the darkness. I knew Soldiers’ Angels had intervened back in Germany, but the details that followed came as incredible surprise. The U.S. military had quietly moved Heaven and Earth to save a single British “Squaddie.”




Yon says please read the description, authored in part by Soldiers’ Angel MaryAnn Phillips.

Soldiers' Angels Here.

Reality

Meanwhile, back where men do what men gotta do.

Don't read Yon if you don't want to, but scroll through his photographs.







24 August 2009
Helmand Province, Afghanistan
The British soldiers of 2 Rifles had a mission: clear and hold Pharmacy Road.