Afghanistan from the air

This picture is of an unidentified Afghan village taken from the gunner's window on a Chinook helicopter. One of the advantages of being the "MI guy" was that you and your interpreter were the first two guys on the chopper. We were cargo, the infantry got on after us so they could get off before us to secure the landing zone. This of course always put me right next to the side door gunner so I could take pictures out the window while we were enroute. It was a priveledge I used constantly.

In the picture you can notice the characteristic fortress style of Afghan architecture. Walled compounds were the norm in many parts of the country and entire extended families would live inside the compound. About the only places I didn't see walled compounds was in the cities or towns (and often houses in Kabul would still have walls.)and in the mountains where there just wasn't enough flat ground to build walls.