Yon is an amazing American treasure.

Former Army Ranger himself, now independent reporter with our troops in Iraq and now Afghanistan.

You will want to go to the link to not just read the entire current report, but also see the many pictures of a night resupply mission in Afghanistan. Brought back many memories of my time in marine helicopters as I've done the same hundreds of times.

But be ready, you just might get a sense of a rather queasy feeling in the pit of your being as you go through the drop...

big hollywood

The roads are so littered with enemy bombs that nearly all transport and resupply to this base occurs by helicopter. The pilots roar through the darkness, swoop into small bases nestled in the saddle of enemy territory, and quickly rumble off into the night.

A witness must spend only a short time in the darkness to know we are at war. Flares arc into the night, or mortar illumination rounds drift and swing under parachutes, orange and eerily in the distance, casting long, flickering but sharply defined shadows. The worst that can happen is that you will be caught in an open field, covered by nothing and concealed only by darkness, when the illumination suddenly bathes you in light. Best is to stay low and freeze and prepare to fire, or in the case of a writer, to stay low and freeze and prepare to watch the firing.

Explosions from unknown causes rumble through the cool nights while above drifts the Milky Way, punctuated by more shooting stars than one can remember. The Afghanistan nights will grant a wish to wish upon a shooting star. And while waiting for the next meteor, the eyes are likely to catch tracer bullets.....

Thanks Michael.

XtnYoda, shalomed