Marines Leave Afghan Air Base

Associated Press Writer

The two Afghan men tug and yank at a live warhead lying on the mountainside, marveling at its worth as a weapon, or as scrap. U.S. Marines watching on the slopes just above shake their heads.

"Me, I'm going to be on the other side of the hill when these guys set it off," says Sgt. Michael Gattis of Tampa, Fla. He turns on his heel and heads downhill to get the cord and the C-4 explosive to do the job.

Minutes later, the valley between Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar and its U.S.-held airport erupts with noise _ first an explosion, then the shock waves, then the crack of the blast echoing off the adjoining hills _ as Gattis and the rest of the Marine explosives team destroys the warhead.

Daily Marine patrols such as Thursday's are winding down. Marines who came to Kandahar more than a month ago hand off control of the southern base to the U.S. Army on Friday, wrapping up the Kandahar phase of the Marine expeditionary unit's furthest inland deployment in history.

Ask Lt. William Lennon, leader of the patrol on Thursday, what the Marines accomplished, and the answer is straightforward: Secured the airport for military and humanitarian operations, and blew up arms caches the local people wanted to be rid of.

"There were villages where people had fled, and they're coming home to find this ordnance in there that the Taliban and al-Qaida had stashed here," said Lennon of Walpole, Mass.

The Marines and allied Afghan forces seized Kandahar under fire in December, routing the Taliban and al-Qaida from what had been their southern headquarters.

Three Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit were injured Thursday when an unknown item exploded in a burn pit while the Marines were burning trash at their base camp in Kandahar. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., said in a brief statement that the injuries were not life-threatening.

The Marines were evaluated and treated at the base and are expected to be transported to another facility for follow-on medical care. No other details were provided.

Soldiers of the Army's 101st Airborne, flying in by the hundreds now, are taking over the base more permanently _ aiding relief operations and performing whatever other tasks Washington decrees.

Some Marines will leave the Kandahar base without ever having been in the city itself or talking to an Afghan. Commanders, worried about security, have kept them in check.

In that regard, patrols like Lennon's are lucky.

Humvees and light armored vehicles have rumbled out the base on patrol almost every morning and night, loaded with Marines, bristling with M-16s and spewing tobacco juice.

The Marines used to throw out candy in each village but said they tired of big kids beating up little ones for the treat.

Now, they just wave. Lennon takes this goodwill gesture seriously, waving at nearly every silhouette in every far-off field.

Children with bare feet and dust-caked hair wave back and run after the convoy.

"They always seem happy to see us," says Lance Cpl. Deron Topel of Minneapolis. Topel, 25, left home just weeks after his first son was born in October.

Some grown Afghans also smile and wave. Others make begging motions for food. Others just stand and stare, wrapped in scarves in front of the remains of their homes _ crumbled walls and arches that once formed doors.

Lennon stops in each village to ask residents if they know of any caches of arms or ammunition. In some villages, the men are already pointing out stockpiles before the American convoy rolls to a stop.

Thursday's mission leads uphill to the high rock outcropping that overlooks the Kandahar airport. U.S. bombs earlier destroyed a Taliban surface-to-air missile site there.

Anti-Taliban soldiers found unexploded U.S. bombs there last week. One went off as they inspected it. It disemboweled and killed one Afghan soldier and wounded two others. Local military leader Nemaath al-Anujan summoned the Marines to deal with rest.

Marines note that the bombs _ yellow and about the size of a paperback _ cause trouble because Afghan children sometimes confuse them with the yellow, plastic-wrapped food rations dropped by the United States.

Gattis and Staff Sgt. William A. Scott of Aurora, Colo., crunch down the slope carrying sticks of C-4 to deal with the bomb. While they splice fuses, the waiting Marines muse:

What U.S. state does this arid landscape, with its looming rock hills, most remind them of? Wyoming? Arizona?

They point to the only green in the landscape over Kandahar _ trees outside the home and mosque that Osama bin Laden had built for Mullah Mohammed Omar.

During the day, the Marines blow up four small U.S. bombs. They also blow up old Soviet warheads _ disappointing the Afghan soldiers, who may have wanted them as weapons or for the metal, the Marines say.

"This is how local people kill themselves," Gattis says of scavengers.

Eventually the Marine patrol runs out of detonating gear for the day, though Afghans continue to point at yellow bombs in the fields.

The Marines know their work in the anti-terror campaign may not be finished, and speculate about going to Somalia, the Philippines or elsewhere. But they leave Afghanistan with a sense of accomplishment.

"To be honest, six months ago I couldn't have pointed to Afghanistan on a map," Lennon says. "To see these people live without being afraid, that gives some satisfaction."