All photo’s and Website © 2012 JimSpiri.com, All Rights Reserved
Ten Years Later
#19 "Go…!"
March 25, 2012…Forward Operating Base Edinburgh, Helmand
province, Afghanistan…One minute, you can be in the MWR
catching up on a phone call and the next minute you're running
to the helicopter because you heard the words over the radio,
"medevac, medevac, medevac." That is exactly how it happens.
No matter what you are doing or where you are, the call comes
to get to the helicopter and get on it and fly to a place where
the helicopter is needed. I never spend any time figuring out
where we are going, what it is we're picking up or what the
extent of the injuries are. Soon enough I will find out. Whatever
I need to know, the crew will tell me in due time. Other than
that I just watch and take photos.
Watch. Look. Listen.
I was headed out today but had a sense to stay back a couple
days. It's all the logistics thing of getting from point A to point
B. I will get to where I need to be when the time comes. It will
be soon, but not yet. It is not so easy to leave a place where
the work never stops. I'm not done yet. But I will be soon.
There is today, and one never knows what today or any day
brings. That is how I pretty much have been approaching most
everything in my life lately over the course of time the last
decade or so. Too many things to explain. Better to just take it
all one day at a time. It is what my wife has been telling me for
nearly 38-years now. I am good at watching and looking.
Listening is not one of my great skill sets. I can hear, but I
don't listen often. Once in a while, however, I do.
I heard the call for medevac. I was listening for it. The crew
and I all converged on "first up" and buckled in. We headed out
over the FOB and came to the river. The water looked blue and
enticing. The fields around are really beginning to green up.
As we approached, it looked as though we were going to land
very close to the water. The red smoke marking the LZ came
into view out my window. We were on the ground quickly.
The door was opened and I saw a familiar site. Marines in
position. I knew what they were doing. Something had been
happening. The look. I know this look. Where we were is in a
rural area where houses and farms all blend. Apparently a
Marine patrol base was close by. Something had happened that
made the Marines react accordingly. They do not mess around,
which is exactly why I choose to hang around them. A patrol
base is very remote and exposed. It is usually the front of the
front lines. The Marines in these places are always on top of
their game. No one ever gets complacent. One's life depends
on it.
I looked and saw a scene that just screamed 1968. It was
green. Marines were all around and bringing us a person that
had been shot. Turns out this guy may have been the particular
problem that caused the Marines to take action. The now
"patient" was brought to the aircraft. As he was brought to us, I
kept looking and watching what the scene was. Here it is once
again. Another place in Afghanistan near a river where
something was going on. Somebody got shot and the medevac
came in and picked up the patient. Marines kept an eye on
things. It is not friendly territory. There is always something
going on. And the Marines are always busy taking care of
business. It apparently has been this way here, near this river,
for ten years now.
The patient was now on the deck of the helicopter. Sgt. Papp
began working on him as Spc. Martinez kept a close eye out his
window as the helicopter began to ascend. It is the crew chief's
responsibility to watch and look. If there is something out of
the ordinary it then is his job to "sing out' so to speak.
Everyone has a job and everyone does their job. Everyone
listens to one another. This is the way things are done.
It works well.
As we departed the LZ, I looked out the window and saw the
scene disappearing before my eyes. Yet, not before I took
photos of the vanishing sites below. The Marines took their
positions. They went back to business. We climbed and
skimmed the now hilly terrain as we headed for the medical
facility that would patch up the "patient". Deep inside, I wanted
to go back and be there with the Marines. I feel sometimes that
I'm supposed to be there telling their story too. It would not
happen though today. I would tell their story via a few photos
only. That will be enough. But I wanted much to be there at
that patrol base. It is where it is at, also. I am thankful that
Dustoff took me there today.
This is a good journey.
The Helmand river area is a place that the USA has been dealing
with since the latter 1950's. In those days, we were building up
an irrigation scheme around here to counter the then Soviet
domination of the region. Somewhere along the line some
brainiac came up with the idea that we would win lots of hearts
and minds here in Afghanistan and turn them into a big
headache for the Soviets. I don't know where that guy is now or
if he is even alive anymore. But, if he is still around I would
give him a free ride to the patrol base I was at yesterday and let
him stay there a while. Is a matter of fact, I would send him
outside the patrol base all by himself and see how many hearts
and minds he could win today.
The day ended with a few new faces coming around the FOB.
Some folks came to work on the generators. It's always good to
strike up fresh conversation with new kids on the block. Being
nice to the folks that make sure there is power here is easy.
One of the guys is a NY Yankees fan which is always a friend to
me. As long as there are no Red Sox fans, things will be fine.
It was a good day today.
I'm glad I listened for the call. When it came, I heard it. As I
watched today's scenes unfold I find myself still looking at the
photos.
Jim Spiri
jimspiri@yahoo.com
province, Afghanistan…One minute, you can be in the MWR
catching up on a phone call and the next minute you're running
to the helicopter because you heard the words over the radio,
"medevac, medevac, medevac." That is exactly how it happens.
No matter what you are doing or where you are, the call comes
to get to the helicopter and get on it and fly to a place where
the helicopter is needed. I never spend any time figuring out
where we are going, what it is we're picking up or what the
extent of the injuries are. Soon enough I will find out. Whatever
I need to know, the crew will tell me in due time. Other than
that I just watch and take photos.
Watch. Look. Listen.
I was headed out today but had a sense to stay back a couple
days. It's all the logistics thing of getting from point A to point
B. I will get to where I need to be when the time comes. It will
be soon, but not yet. It is not so easy to leave a place where
the work never stops. I'm not done yet. But I will be soon.
There is today, and one never knows what today or any day
brings. That is how I pretty much have been approaching most
everything in my life lately over the course of time the last
decade or so. Too many things to explain. Better to just take it
all one day at a time. It is what my wife has been telling me for
nearly 38-years now. I am good at watching and looking.
Listening is not one of my great skill sets. I can hear, but I
don't listen often. Once in a while, however, I do.
I heard the call for medevac. I was listening for it. The crew
and I all converged on "first up" and buckled in. We headed out
over the FOB and came to the river. The water looked blue and
enticing. The fields around are really beginning to green up.
As we approached, it looked as though we were going to land
very close to the water. The red smoke marking the LZ came
into view out my window. We were on the ground quickly.
The door was opened and I saw a familiar site. Marines in
position. I knew what they were doing. Something had been
happening. The look. I know this look. Where we were is in a
rural area where houses and farms all blend. Apparently a
Marine patrol base was close by. Something had happened that
made the Marines react accordingly. They do not mess around,
which is exactly why I choose to hang around them. A patrol
base is very remote and exposed. It is usually the front of the
front lines. The Marines in these places are always on top of
their game. No one ever gets complacent. One's life depends
on it.
I looked and saw a scene that just screamed 1968. It was
green. Marines were all around and bringing us a person that
had been shot. Turns out this guy may have been the particular
problem that caused the Marines to take action. The now
"patient" was brought to the aircraft. As he was brought to us, I
kept looking and watching what the scene was. Here it is once
again. Another place in Afghanistan near a river where
something was going on. Somebody got shot and the medevac
came in and picked up the patient. Marines kept an eye on
things. It is not friendly territory. There is always something
going on. And the Marines are always busy taking care of
business. It apparently has been this way here, near this river,
for ten years now.
The patient was now on the deck of the helicopter. Sgt. Papp
began working on him as Spc. Martinez kept a close eye out his
window as the helicopter began to ascend. It is the crew chief's
responsibility to watch and look. If there is something out of
the ordinary it then is his job to "sing out' so to speak.
Everyone has a job and everyone does their job. Everyone
listens to one another. This is the way things are done.
It works well.
As we departed the LZ, I looked out the window and saw the
scene disappearing before my eyes. Yet, not before I took
photos of the vanishing sites below. The Marines took their
positions. They went back to business. We climbed and
skimmed the now hilly terrain as we headed for the medical
facility that would patch up the "patient". Deep inside, I wanted
to go back and be there with the Marines. I feel sometimes that
I'm supposed to be there telling their story too. It would not
happen though today. I would tell their story via a few photos
only. That will be enough. But I wanted much to be there at
that patrol base. It is where it is at, also. I am thankful that
Dustoff took me there today.
This is a good journey.
The Helmand river area is a place that the USA has been dealing
with since the latter 1950's. In those days, we were building up
an irrigation scheme around here to counter the then Soviet
domination of the region. Somewhere along the line some
brainiac came up with the idea that we would win lots of hearts
and minds here in Afghanistan and turn them into a big
headache for the Soviets. I don't know where that guy is now or
if he is even alive anymore. But, if he is still around I would
give him a free ride to the patrol base I was at yesterday and let
him stay there a while. Is a matter of fact, I would send him
outside the patrol base all by himself and see how many hearts
and minds he could win today.
The day ended with a few new faces coming around the FOB.
Some folks came to work on the generators. It's always good to
strike up fresh conversation with new kids on the block. Being
nice to the folks that make sure there is power here is easy.
One of the guys is a NY Yankees fan which is always a friend to
me. As long as there are no Red Sox fans, things will be fine.
It was a good day today.
I'm glad I listened for the call. When it came, I heard it. As I
watched today's scenes unfold I find myself still looking at the
photos.
Jim Spiri
jimspiri@yahoo.com
What the LZ looked like as we began to prepare to leave
The LZ scene
Having lifted off, the Marines begin to disappear from
view of the helicopter.
Final view I saw of the Marines as I left
A better view of the compound
