I'm always flipping through the latest photos coming out of the different AORs where US troops are deployed and yesterday I ran across a couple really compelling shots I thought I'd share with Kit Up! readers.
As many of you who've been there know, Afghanistan is just such a photogenic place. The varied terrain, incredible mountains, deep valleys and rust-colored deserts are just visually stunning.
One thing I've never seen in Afghanistan, however, is a beach. When I saw this photo I thought, holy crap! there actually is a beach in Afghanistan. Then I looked very closely at it blown up in full resolution. If you look carefully you can see trucks and vehicles parked un the middle of the pic and that jetty looking thing? That's a bridge. Damn, no surf in The Stan...
Spc. Nicholas Francioso, armored crewman, assigned to 2nd Squad, 3rd Platoon, Company C., 1st Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, kneels atop a cliff overlooking the Arghandab River Valley, Afghanistan, Jan. 31, to provide security for his squad as they climb up the cliff from the valley below. Francioso, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, was conducting a foot patrol with his squad to search orchards throughout the district and interact with the local population. During their foot patrols, 2nd squad must maneuver their way through the Arghandab‘s many obstacles, including: farmer-built mud walls, irrigation canals, densely populated orchards, foot-wide pathways through long stretches of boggy flats and even a 30-foot-tall wall they must climb during their patrol.
Then I saw this one...I've never seen an airdrop and by the looks of it, the winter has forced the military to increasingly airdrop supplies into FOBs where snow choked roads keep the jingle trucks from making their deliveries. It's simply a stunning photo...
Soldiers with Task Force Currahee, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, watch as bundles of fuel and supply are dropped into their landing zone. The supplies were delivered to them by the 101st Sustainment Brigade and the U.S. Air Force.
