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Travel with us to a military base in Southern Afghanistan. It used to be controlled by the Taliban. Now US Marines hold the fort but the Taliban are on every side. The World’s Ben Gilbert spent some time with the Marines at Patrol Base Chris in Marjah (Photo: Ben Gilbert) Download MP3

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. A bomb exploded today inside a mosque in eastern Afghanistan. The attack underscored the recent uptick in violence there. The Taliban is expected to step up its activity against international forces in the coming months. And NATO troops are soon to begin a major offensive in Kandahar. The World’s Ben Gilbert was recently embedded with US Marines in Marjah, site of the US military’s last surge six months ago.

BEN GILBERT:  Patrol Base Chris is located in a mud-walled farming compound surrounded by six foot deep canals, open fields, and bushy tree lines. This used to be a Taliban base until the end of June, when the 1^st platoon of the 3/6 Marine’s Lima Company took it over. Sgt. Edward Detchemendy says the base has been attacked just about every day since.

EDWARD DETCHEMENDY:  Yeah, we call this place la heeata del Diablo, which is the Devil’s Box, because you’re just sitting here and wait for them to attack us. Around 1700 every day, pretty much get shot at. We run out to the road, return fire. We throw everything we have at them, and they still keep attacking us. They’re relentless.

GILBERT: The basic living conditions here at Camp Chris are challenging as well. The Marines are assaulted by flies during the day and by fleas and mosquitoes at night. Their uniforms are stained with salt and dirt, their pants ripped and torn. The men hold them together with duct tape. They eat every meal out of a bag, MRE’s, or meals ready to eat. The marines are partnered with about 50 Afghan National Army soldiers, or ANA. They all live together in the compound. Even so, the training gap and cultural gap is pretty huge. Lance Corporal Johnathan Osmer says the Marines give the Afghans nicknames, mostly from movies, because they can’t pronounce their real names. There’s Toothless, Jackie Chan, Jack Sparrow, Pedro.

JOHNATHAN OSMER: We call him Pedro cause he looks Mexican. His mustache and everything. And has a unibrow. He just left yesterday, he went on leave. He was one of the best ANA soldiers we had.

GILBERT: Why was he good?

OSMER: Just tactics wise. Like he’s always looking around. We tell him to do something, he would do it. You get the 10% that’s like really, really good. And you got another 10% that they’re just – I don’t know, I think they shouldn’t even join the ANA.

GILBERT: That 10% is on display at one of the guard towers on the edge of the compound.  Corporal Matt Scott watches as two Afghan soldiers who are supposed to be scanning the perimeter for Taliban activity instead busy themselves with their cell phones.

MATT SCOTT: You can see it right now. They’re probably just chit chatting. They’re supposedly supposed to be observing their post, but right now they’re looking down. Eventually you’ll get one ANA soldier up there that’s actually going to do his job, and he’s going to observe, and then he’s going to probably tell us what he sees. And he’s going to get somebody else who is not competent, and he’s not going to be looking over the wall, he’s probably looking down at his phone.

GILBERT: The Marines just started training with these young ANA soldiers. Corporal Bryan Webb briefs an Afghan squad leader on the patrol he’s leading tonight. Six ANA soldiers will accompany the Marines on this mission. The Marines are trying to do a census of the Afghans who live in nearby villages. As the Marines walk out into the quiet fields, Corporal Webb scans the ground for IED’s, and the tree line for Taliban spotters or muzzle flashes. He stops two men walking down a path.

BRYAN WEBB: Who’s that group of people that’s sitting over there in the trees right now? The little kid with the white whatever you want to call it on. Yeah, they’re watching us. They’re seeing how far we get away from the compound before the hit it, or either hit us.

GILBERT:  But it’s quiet as the Marines continue their patrol, past stacks of dried poppy stalks, and farmers in their sunflower, bean and corn fields. There’s a bridge the Taliban blew up, and another road we inspect to make sure no one has laid IEDs on it. Webb asks every few farmers the same questions.

WEBB: When’s the last time you’ve seen the Taliban at here?

GILBERT: He gets various answers. Twenty days to one year. Since they’re not far from the Marine’s compound that gets attacked every day, Webb knows they’re lying either to cover for the Taliban, or because they’re scared, or both. The light is fading and Webb didn’t get a chance to ask any census questions or hand out any of the literature. We return to patrol base Chris without a fight, along a road pockmarked with holes from IED’s that have exploded over the last few months. Later that night, the men eat and smoke and watch movies. Lance Corporal Johnathan Osmer shows me photos from his six months in Afghanistan.

OSMER: There’s a freshly dug hole in the road right next to where this guy was farming at. And so we started questioning him about it. He said he didn’t know anything about it. We start walking, we started getting shot at by [INDISCERNABLE], I guess, and this guy, [SOUNDS LIKE] Baroni seen him go and pick up an RPG and shoot it at us. It flew right between me and you, and then it went towards the front of the patrol.

GILBERT: The Marines fall asleep in the one air conditioned tent on their base, or under the stars in the middle of the compound. Although a few shots are fired in the night, there is no attack, and it’s quiet into the next day. But the Marines get antsy. They’re bored, and they know an attack will eventually come. It does, two days later. None of 1^st platoon Marines or their Afghan partners are hurt. They hope it stays that way for the remainder of their tour, which ends in just a few short weeks. For The World, I’m Ben Gilbert at Patrol Base Chris, Marjah, Afghanistan.

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