THE LONGEST WAITING GAME
Camp Shorab is the small base that serves as headquarters for the approximately 300 U.S. Marines who returned to Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2017 in response to the rapidly deteriorating security situation there. "It was emotional coming back as Marines,“ says USMC Colonel Matthew Reid. “I don’t think I expected to come back." Over a third of the Marines stationed back in Helmand are veterans of the province and could echo that sentiment: we didn’t expect to come back.
November 2017
"It is probably not overstated: the significance of the Marines coming back," said USMC Colonel Matthew Reid.
We were sitting in his cramped office on Camp Shorab, the small base that serves as headquarters for the approximately 300 U.S. Marines who returned to Helmand province in response to the rapidly deteriorating security situation there. It was my first time in country. But not Reid’s. He served two tours in Iraq and now two in Afghanistan, this time as deputy commander for the task force’s first rotation of Marines.
"It was almost a tearful reunion,” he said, “meeting some of our old friends -- guys we had met in 2010, 2011, 2012. They never expected to see us again."
Today, America’s “Forever War” is 16 years and counting. It has spanned three presidencies and seen at least eight top commanders over the last 10 years claim “turning points,” “game-changers,” and “pathways to victory“ that have yet to prove conclusive. For those on the ground, it can feel like America's longest waiting game. More than 2,200 U.S. service members have come home in coffins. Approximately 350 of those were Marines who served in Helmand, where some of the most brutal fighting occured to secure territory that is now largely back under Taliban control.
"It was emotional coming back as Marines,“ Reid said. “I don’t think I expected to come back …”
Over a third of the Marines stationed back in Helmand are veterans of the province and could echo that sentiment: we didn’t expect to come back. Marine Captain Richard Laszok, who was first deployed to Helmand in September 2012, recalled flying out of the province in April 2013 and saying aloud, “This is the last time I’m ever going through Leatherneck.”
“The bigger lesson learned,” Laszok said now, “is never say never.”
As for me, I think of the numbers scribbled in marker on the stall in the women’s bathroom on Camp Shorab, counting down the number of days left in deployment. I wonder if, like the veterans before her, the writer does not expect to ever be back.
Whether she will or not remains to be seen. For his part, Laszok said that when he boarded the flight home from Helmand this time when Taskforce Southwest returned home January 2018, he did not voice those 2013 sentiments of never returning.
“If I learned anything about history: it repeats itself. I’m not going to eat those words again.”
"It is probably not overstated: the significance of the Marines coming back," said USMC Colonel Matthew Reid.
We were sitting in his cramped office on Camp Shorab, the small base that serves as headquarters for the approximately 300 U.S. Marines who returned to Helmand province in response to the rapidly deteriorating security situation there. It was my first time in country. But not Reid’s. He served two tours in Iraq and now two in Afghanistan, this time as deputy commander for the task force’s first rotation of Marines.
"It was almost a tearful reunion,” he said, “meeting some of our old friends -- guys we had met in 2010, 2011, 2012. They never expected to see us again."
Today, America’s “Forever War” is 16 years and counting. It has spanned three presidencies and seen at least eight top commanders over the last 10 years claim “turning points,” “game-changers,” and “pathways to victory“ that have yet to prove conclusive. For those on the ground, it can feel like America's longest waiting game. More than 2,200 U.S. service members have come home in coffins. Approximately 350 of those were Marines who served in Helmand, where some of the most brutal fighting occured to secure territory that is now largely back under Taliban control.
"It was emotional coming back as Marines,“ Reid said. “I don’t think I expected to come back …”
Over a third of the Marines stationed back in Helmand are veterans of the province and could echo that sentiment: we didn’t expect to come back. Marine Captain Richard Laszok, who was first deployed to Helmand in September 2012, recalled flying out of the province in April 2013 and saying aloud, “This is the last time I’m ever going through Leatherneck.”
“The bigger lesson learned,” Laszok said now, “is never say never.”
As for me, I think of the numbers scribbled in marker on the stall in the women’s bathroom on Camp Shorab, counting down the number of days left in deployment. I wonder if, like the veterans before her, the writer does not expect to ever be back.
Whether she will or not remains to be seen. For his part, Laszok said that when he boarded the flight home from Helmand this time when Taskforce Southwest returned home January 2018, he did not voice those 2013 sentiments of never returning.
“If I learned anything about history: it repeats itself. I’m not going to eat those words again.”