… but you wouldn’t want to live here

There’s a certain something about the Forward Operating Base at Sharana worth mentioning. It’s nearly 7,500 feet above the level of the sea. “Big whoop”, you might opine. Then again, you might have spent your entire life under 1,100 feet, in which case you might state, “I’m nauseous, my large muscles and joints hurt like the bajesus, and my headache is one for the record books.”

Fortunately, the adverse effects fade after a day or two, just in time to head to some base at a lower altitude. After two days, the head only hurts a little bit, but I’m still easily winded.


The Company submitted a proposal recently (upon which I refused to be a part) that would have embedded a multidiscipline design team here for three to (more likely) fifteen months. Fortunately, because I know most of the team as friends, we did not get the work. FOB Sharana is perched on a swath of high ground outside of the city/town/goat cluster of Sharana, a locality where we have failed to win hearts and minds very badly – hence our need to maintain a military presence here.

The surrounding landscape is rugged, and reminds me of parts of Wyoming. At this altitude, it’s barren, nicely devoid of humidity, but of most everything else as well. What remains is brown and rocky, except the dust, which is brown and dusty, or the people, who are just dusty. The PX is understocked, the MWR tent is tiny, there’s little to no connectivity, and the chow isn’t the best. I imagine free time during a long assignment here would be spent in a CONEX hooch watching video, reading everything in sight, and hanging out at the gym. I’d image the best approach would be to work incessantly, as I makes the days pass much faster.

There’s an airfield here that we’re working to improve, provided you consider landing C-17’s on a steep uphill slope an improvement, but most of the personnel (and missions) seem to be directed with the MRAPs. There’re 25 kilopound monsters that patrol this part of the country in packs. Sort of impressive in their hugeness, but really aggressive looking.

If you were to be assigned here for a year or so, it’s likely that you’d get more than a few rides in one, as they’re probably the safest way to visit the countryside.
Other than that bit-o-fun, an extended tour here would require something from deep inside, and a lot more cash than they were offering.