Royal Marines call Afghanistan's Helmand Province "Camp Alamo"
"BLOODTHIRSTY drugs gangs, al-Qaeda suicide bombers, floods, flesh-eating scorpions — and no allies for 100 miles.
Welcome to “Camp Alamo”, the most dangerous place in the world.
The Sun yesterday became the first British newspaper to visit Our Boys’ desolate new base in Afghanistan’s lawless Helmand Province. It is where 3,300 troops led by Paras will mount a highly dangerous mission to tame the Taliban’s heartlands.
The base is officially named Camp Bastion. But 150 Royal Marines guarding Royal Engineers building it have nicknamed it the Alamo — after the legendary 1836 last stand in Texas. With the nearest Coalition forces up to 12 hours’ drive away in Kandahar, our troops too are surrounded on all sides by danger.
Even locals call the barren plateau without roads or vegetation the Desert of Death.
Wild criminal gangs roam at will, a renewed insurgency kills Afghan and US troops almost daily and drugs warlords use nomadic trails to smuggle opium consignments. Nature at Camp Alamo is just as cruel. Temperatures sink to minus 20°C in winter and soar to 50°C in summer.
The 150 Marines from Juliet Company, 42 Commando, arrived just a week ago.
But the men, who also fought in Iraq, vowed to tough out anything thrown at them. Cpl Carwyn Lewis, 32, from Plymouth, said: “They’re welcome to have a go at us — we’re ready for them.”
His company commander Major Steve Lee, 36, added: “I’d be a fool to suggest the bad guys aren’t watching us.
“I hope they are — so they can see how professional we are and the sort of tools we have brought to the party”."
You show 'em! More of the article at the link.
Please God they'll stay safe.
Please don't hate me. you've been tagged.
Posted by: Pat | February 26, 2006 at 11:08 AM