Surreal Afghanistan boardwalk fading into memory as U.S. troops withdraw

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/11/201812/surreal-afghanistan-boardwalk.html



The Kandahar Airfield Boardwalk, for a decade the surreal yet comfortingly familiar heart of the biggest NATO base in Afghanistan, is closing.

Surreal Afghanistan boardwalk fading into memory as U.S. troops withdraw
By Jay Price | McClatchy Foreign Staff
Posted on Wednesday, September 11, 2013

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — There is nothing quite like coming off a patrol, your body-armor-shaped sweat stains still drying and ears ringing from grenades, only to have the hostess at T.G.I. Friday’s tell you to wait a few. Sorry, sergeant, we’ve got to clear a table.

Or hovering over the desert for hours in a throttled-down Apache helicopter on an oh-dark-30 stakeout, disassembling half a dozen Taliban fighters with your chain gun as they plant a roadside bomb, only to get back to base and discover that the Canadian-themed donut shop is selling just coffee because insurgents blew up the latest inbound shipment of donut mix.

What’s a man gotta do to get a maple-glazed in this war?

Soon enough, he won’t be able to. The Kandahar Airfield boardwalk, for a decade the surreal yet comfortingly familiar heart of the biggest NATO base in Afghanistan, is closing down.