When Michael was in Afghanistan the first time ...

The surrounding scenery is a little more mountainous than Google Earth showed, but the mountains aren't too close.

The hillsides glitter in the afternoon. Legend has it the Soviets spread lots of broken glass around as an area denial plan. I guess that's cheaper than land mines, but harder to remove. Except for the blowing up part.

Our MiG pile is really more of a Sukhoi pile. There are a whole bunch of SU-17s, and the sweep wing planes that I think are SU-19s or -21s, quite a few IL-28s, and a few MI-8s. All busted and broken.

There were hangars and other buildings here, but they were burned at some time in the past. The heat was so hot when they burned that the steel beams are twisted and collapsed.

On one of the motorcycle forums I read, people post their pictures of trips to India, Mongolia, and places like that. I always look at the giant valleys and tall mountains and think, "It'd be really great to ride there".

The other day, I was walking the mile to work and I noticed that I'm there. The mountains, the valley. Just without the motorcycle. And in uniform, with a rifle.