AFGHANISTAN. Pech Valley, Kunar. 2007. Usually the stray dogs hanging around Patrol Base California were welcomed by the soldiers. But
I was told that a few weeks earlier when one of the dogs urinated on a soldier’s cot he and his
buddies taped a grenade to the dog’s jaw and pulled the pin.
During the tour of the 1st Battalion, 32nd Regiment, 3rd Brigade of the U.S. Army’s 10th
Mountain Division, California was attacked over eighty times. The patrol base was situated on
a dirt road that skirted the winding and fast moving Pech River. It was small and crowded. The
soldiers lived in sandbagged bunkers. Gas generators rattled in the trench line. The soldiers ate
prepackaged food, MREs. There was no running water, showers or phones. When not on patrol,
they passed the days playing cards and video games, and watching movies. A few times a week,
trucks brought fresh food and every two weeks a squad would spend twenty-four hours at a larger
base down the road, cleaning up and calling home. Three Humvees with heavy weapons were
parked along the perimeter and constantly manned, scanning the ridgeline across the river. At
dusk some soldiers would slip away to the Afghan bunkers to smoke hash. Two had already been
caught, sent home and dismissed from the Army.