"The light, the light" (The horror, the horror)

I met Gary during my recent stay at Alamo and we enjoyed a few good chuckles over the US Republican primary race as well as a shared enjoyment of the late Bill Hicks. Gary, himself an American, went to school with Both Joyce DeWitt and David Letterman and so the quiet humour with which he delivered the following tale has a good pedigree.

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A while back an award-winning AP Photographer came to Camp Alamo. He was taken around to see all the usual destinations: The Soviet tank park, the acre upon acre of ANA recruits, the massive amount of infrastructure investment as well as the views from the surrounding hills. As Gary tells it, the photographer was wont to stare up at the sun – doing its usual battle with the polluted haze – and laconically bemoan, “the light, the light… I can’t work with this.”

After his time at Alamo and, assumedly, other camps around Kabul, he went down south the the fighting. After some time down that way and trundling along with US soldiers in a HUMV he proclaimed that this was the most boring assignment he had ever been on. Shortly thereafter his leg was blown off by an IED.

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It should be emphasized that I'm not mocking the photographer and the tragedy that befell him. I'm here with a similar goal (if lesser stature) so if anything I recount the tale with a sense of black humour, and caution and empathy.

While I hold a similar desire to head south (as, I suspect, do most of the fighting troops in Kabul) I’m quite fond of the hazy landscapes of Kabul, even if my pores and my camera are not. I also still have almost 2 weeks here, and like both my legs.