Current lightbox. Live chat. Narrow your search:. Page 1 of 2. Next page. Recent searches:. Create a new lightbox Save. Create a lightbox Your Lightboxes will appear here when you have created some. Save to lightbox. Staff Sgt. Eric Harris U. Soldiers, center, salute during a memorial service at Shindand Air Base in Herat province, Afghanistan, July 19, Sol U. Army Col.
Mike Senters was relieved by U. Air Force Col. Larry Bowers. Chuck Walker Staff Sgt. Air Force Maj. Charles Lyon, deputy commander-air of U. Forces-Afghanistan, and commander of 9th Air and Space Expeditionary Task Force-Afghanistan, speaks to attendees at a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open the full length of the Shindand Air Base runway, Dec. The runway reconstruction project replaced a damaged runway built in by Russia.
Gary Roughead, left, travels via helicopter to visit Sailors deployed to Afghanistan Jan. Roughead met with Sailors throughout the country as part of an 8-day trip to the U. Air Force Tech. Air Force Staff Sgt. Air Force by Staff Sgt. Nadine Y. Barclay Advisors with the th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group assess a spillway that delivers water to multiple villages during a humanitarian site survey near Shindand Air Base, Afghanistan, March 22, Air Force C Hercules aircraft prepare for takeoff after a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open the full length of the runway at Shindand Air Base, Afghanistan, Dec.
Eric Harris Three U. Airmen were working with Afghan airmen in an advisory capacity. Matthew Smith U. Air Force C Hercules aircraft prepare for takeoff after a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the full leng Two U.
Hamid, left, listens to instruction from U. S Air Force Maj. The C is capable of rapid strategic and tactical delivery of troops and any cargo to main operating and forward operating bases in Afghanistan.
The aircraft can perform airlift and airdrop missions and transport ambulatory patients during aeromedical evacuations when required. Washington is a loadmaster assigned to the th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron.
Radio distribution in Shindand Radioman A-LR Shindand conducts first responder exercise F-WU Shindand tower prep for handoff A-XP Students near Shindand get new supplies, shoes A-IF Taking a load off Army Capt. Army Sgt. UH Black Hawk Warhawks dig talons into combatives A-XP Wastewater treatment plant at FOB Shindand.
The growth of the base would suggest the U. Speculation that U. Yet when talking with their Afghan counterparts, Hokaj and other U. The message of self-reliance, if a concession to the haziness of the U. The fallout after the last foreign army withdrew from the country remains visible on this base almost a quarter-century later. The Soviet military began building an airfield near the village of Shindand in and made heavy use of the base during a futile, decadelong siege of Afghanistan that ended in A few stone structures from the Soviet era still stand, among them an air traffic control tower, since converted into offices for U.
The battered husks of dozens of military aircraft litter the brown scrubland over an area the size of perhaps six or seven football fields. Camouflage-painted fighter jets lie in jagged chunks beside gray transport planes and bombers. Rebel fighters supported by the U. Neglect finished the job. The Soviets left behind an ample working fleet at Shindand, but within two years, almost none of the planes was operational.
Unable to maintain the aircraft, the Afghans stripped them for wiring and parts. Afghan officers at the base, while agreeing with the need for self-sufficiency, believe the military will require coalition support for up to another decade to avoid repeating history.
Abdul Hashim, commander of the fixed-wing training program. A former mujahedeen, he fought against the Soviet army and remembers how, after its retreat, the ragtag Afghan forces crumbled.
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