Common Scenes & Common Thoughts - Michael Yon

Michael Yon is an author, columnist and war correspondent. Currently in Afghanistan with Riflemen from 2 RIFLES located in Sangin.

The helicopter pilot wearing night vision goggles roared in so fast it looked as though he were crashing. The four green Cylums (Americans call them Chemlights) mark the HLS. While the helicopter is above the dust cloud, it melts into the dark, but as it approaches the HLS, dust swirls high, setting the stage for an amazing light show.

The Chinook descends through the dry dust and the rotors glitter brightly, creating an eerie glow as if sparklers are attached to the rotors, which in reality appeared brighter to the eye than in the photo below. If the helicopter were not so loud, the millions of static discharges might be heard crackling and popping.

Daylight

While walking across FOB Jackson to find Nepalese Gurkhas, this air cooler caught the lens. After sprinkling water on the straw, evaporation cools the air. Construction of air coolers has been taught in military survival classes, yet like much of those classes, the field craft is just part of daily life around the world. In India, many hotels will advertise they have “air conditioners” when actually the rooms often use various sorts of air coolers which—though better than languishing and sweating through nights of Indian summers—are not the air conditioners that many people expect.

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