[From Max] I spent a week in limbo.  The transient tent was a windowless time warp cluttered with metal bunks and duffle bags.  The other occupants were a motley group; there was a line squad, a couple of interpreters, and a team of Guardsmen from rural Alabama. The night I arrived we were...

[From Max]  I kicked rocks around the FOB for a few days.  I had no job.  No hard times to meet.  I was an Army of One.  I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. I decided to do nothing. I went to chow.  I went to the gym.  It was a makeshift little building stuffed with ropes...

[From Max]  It was freezing when I stepped off the back of the chopper.  There was no snow, but mountains loomed in every direction.  If it was cold when we left, an few thousand more feet weren’t helping. It took two trips to move my gear through an ancient looking gate in a...

[From Max] The Chinooks staged on the hammerhead in a staggered pair.  My guys piled their gear to one side as we waited to manifest.  People scurried in every direction.  Air crew.  Ground crew.  Soldiers. I checked my kit one last time and counted off my guys by touching each of them on...