[From Max] Message from the JDOC: There will be a controlled detonation to the southeast of KAF in five minutes . . . I say again . . . Five minutes . . . End of message. The big voice echoes through the compound.  It happens periodically – followed by a  distant TH-WUMP!  Yesterday...

[Dispatch from Max.] It was dark when we stepped off the C-17.  Everything was covered in dust. The pilot pulled us right up to the terminal, an old hajji building made of mud and brick.  The walls inside were riddled with bullet holes.  After a bit of admin finger-fuck, we collected our...

[First in a series of dispatches from Max, who is currently on a "long backpacking excursion." ]   I stepped off for Afghanistan on the first.  Getting out the door turned into a frantic nightmare.  I got a last-minute phone call the night before, informing me that I needed to report...

It was something like two in the morning and we were walking down a stretch of suburban road. Max and the cab driver had agreed to disagree about the best route back from O’Malley’s. I looked over my shoulder and saw a man cleaning spit off his passenger window. A night out drinking with...