Daily Life of a Marine in Afghanistan Research Papers

Marines on military bases are considerably better off than those on patrol in surrounding villages. Where downtime on the base consists of listening to music and watching movies, enjoying brief satellite phone calls with family, and playing video games on laptop computers, soldiers in the field are not as lucky. Playing cards or tossing around a ball occupies much of their free time.

Despite ongoing combat with the Taliban and other insurgency groups Afghanistan, many field platoons lack sufficient weaponry to drive out these guerrillas from local villages. As a result, an average day for field soldiers typically consists of watching and waiting for potential attacks. This hyper-vigilance can be both emotionally and physically draining particularly when much of the time very little is happening. Of primary importance is to ensure a good relationship with local villagers and many soldiers tend to be quite young and immature and fail to embrace the full significance of eliciting support and trust from them. The unbearable heat and lack of amenities increases tensions with soldiers finding themselves sleeping in small dug-out bunkers when not on watch as a precautionary measure against potential ambush. Compounding the issue are the omnipresent media who frequently fail to utilize common decency and good judgment when reporting on events.

The sad fact is that bombings and fatalities are, once again, on the rise and show very little signs of slowing in the near future. Many experts assert that the violence will increase before it begins to subside and these soldiers live everyday with the possibility of death hanging over their heads in defense of not only the US but innocents in the Middle East as well.