More Photos of US/NATO Troops Patrolling Opium Poppy Fields in Afghanistan
April 26, 2011 in Headline
The following photos were released by the DoD and NATO over the last month. See also:
U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Eric Stump (3rd from left), a squad leader with with 1st Platoon, Company I, Battalion Landing Team 3/8, Regimental Combat Team 8, and his U.S. Marines discuss their route through a poppy field during a security patrol from their patrol base in Helmand province's Green Zone, west of the Nahr-e Saraj canal, April 13. Elements of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to Afghanistan to provide regional security in Helmand province in support of the International Security Assistance Force.
U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Antonio Wilccoxen, an M249 Squad Automatic Weapon gunner, and fellow U.S. Marines with 1st Platoon, Company I, Battalion Landing Team 3/8, Regimental Combat Team 8, walk through a poppy field during a security patrol from their patrol base in Helmand province's Green Zone, west of the Nar-e Saraj canal, March 31. Elements of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to Afghanistan to provide regional security in Helmand province in support of the International Security Assistance Force.
An Afghan boy watches Marines with Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion, 10th Marines, Regimental Combat Team-8, patrol a poppy field near the Kajaki green zone in Helmand province, Afghanistan, April 19. During daily patrols over the last several months Bravo Battery Marines have come to know the local kids as both a sign of familiarity and safety.
Marines with Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion, 10th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 8, patrol through a poppy field in the Kajaki green zone, Helmand province, Afghanistan, April 19. An artillery unit by doctrine, Bravo Battery has served as a provisional infantry rifle company for the last several months while protecting the area around the Kajaki Dam.
U.S. Marines with 1st Platoon, Company I, Battalion Landing Team 3/8, Regimental Combat Team 8, return to base through a poppy field after a security patrol from their patrol base in Helmand province's Green Zone, west of the Nahr-e Saraj canal, April 13. Elements of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to Afghanistan to provide regional security in Helmand province in support of the International Security Assistance Force.
U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Mark Bower (right), a 60mm mortarman, and U.S. Marines with 1st Platoon, Company I, Battalion Landing Team 3/8, Regimental Combat Team 8, provide security for another element at the edge of a poppy field during a security patrol from their patrol base in Helmand province's Green Zone, west of the Nahr-e Saraj canal, April 13, 2011. Elements of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to Afghanistan to provide regional security in Helmand province in support of the International Security Assistance Force.
U.S. Marines Lance Cpl. Zachary Mizasawa, top, an M249 squad automatic weapon gunner, and Lance Cpl. Kevin Gonzalezsierra, a rifleman, both with 1st Platoon, Company I, Battalion Landing Team 3/8, Regimental Combat Team 8, hold in place while a group of Afghan boys tend poppy crops during a security patrol from their patrol base in Helmand province's Green Zone, west of the Nahr-e Saraj canal, April 7, 2011. Elements of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to Afghanistan to provide regional security in Helmand province in support of the International Security Assistance Force.
U.S. Navy Seaman Jeremy Threatte, a corpsman , and U.S. Marines with 2nd Platoon, Company I, Battalion Landing Team 3/8, Regimental Combat Team 8, pause at the edge of a poppy field during a security patrol from their patrol base in Helmand province's Green Zone, west of the Nahr-e Saraj canal, April 5, 2011. Elements of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to Afghanistan to provide regional security in Helmand province in support of the International Security Assistance Force.
U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Anthony Duncan, a M249 Squad Automatic Weapon gunner with 2nd Platoon, Company I, Battalion Landing Team 3/8, Regimental Combat Team 8, picks a poppy flower while returning from a security patrol through a poppy field in Helmand province's Green Zone, west of the Nahr-e Saraj canal, March 25. Elements of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to Afghanistan to provide regional security in Helmand province in support of the International Security Assistance Force.
U.S. Navy Hospitalman Chris Coughlin, a corpsman with 1st Platoon, Company I, Battalion Landing Team 3/8, Regimental Combat Team 8, pauses in a poppy field during a security patrol from their patrol base in Helmand province's Green Zone, west of the Nar-e Saraj canal, April 1. Elements of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to Afghanistan to provide regional security in Helmand province in support of the International Security Assistance Force.
An Afghan farmer fertilizes his poppy field near the patrol base of U.S. Marine Corps Company I, Battalion Landing Team 3/8, Regimental Combat Team 8, in Helmand province's Green Zone, west of the Nahr-e Saraj canal, March 27. Elements of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to Afghanistan to provide regional security in Helmand province in support of the International Security Assistance Force.
U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Timothy Brown, a team leader with 1st Platoon, Company I, Battalion Landing Team 3/8, Regimental Combat Team 8, passes word to his patrol members in a poppy field during a security patrol from their patrol base in Helmand province's Green Zone, west of the Nar-e Saraj canal, April 1. Elements of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to Afghanistan to provide regional security in Helmand province in support of the International Security Assistance Force.
U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Tyler Ivy, hospital corpsman, attached to 1st Platoon, Company I, Battalion Landing Team 3/8, Regimental Combat Team 8, pauses during a security patrol through a poppy field from their patrol base in Helmand province's Green Zone, west of the Nahr-e Saraj canal, March 27. Elements of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to Afghanistan to provide regional security in Helmand province in support of the International Security Assistance Force.
U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Clay Sherrod, an M249 squad automatic weapon gunner with Sniper Platoon attached to Company I, Battalion Landing Team 3/8, Regimental Combat Team 8, conducts a security patrol through a poppy field in the early morning haze from their patrol base in Helmand province's Green Zone, west of the Nar-e Saraj canal, April 1. Elements of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to Afghanistan to provide regional security in Helmand province in support of the International Security Assistance Force.
An Aghan boy working in a poppy field watches as U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Mark Bower, a 60mm mortarman with 1st Platoon, Company I, Battalion Landing Team 3/8, Regimental Combat Team 8, crosses a ditch during a security patrol from their patrol base in Helmand province's Green Zone, west of the Nahr-e Saraj canal, April 13. Elements of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to Afghanistan to provide regional security in Helmand province in support of the International Security Assistance Force.
An Afghan National Army soldier accompanies a squad of Marines with Company B, 1st Tank Battalion, during a mission April 9. Tankers had to learn a whole new skill set in order to be successful during their seven-month tour in Afghanistan.
An Afghan child helps Cpl. Anthony J. Chavez, an Albuquerque, N.M., native, and a provisional rifleman with Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion, 10th Marines, Regimental Combat Team-8, stop to smell the flowers during a patrol halt in the Kajaki green zone, Helmand province, Afghanistan, April 19.
MARJAH, Helmand province, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan - Corporal Mark Hickok, a 23-year-old combat engineer from North Olmstead, Ohio, patrols through a field during a clearing mission April 9. Marines with Company B, 1st Tank Battalion, learned basic route clearance techniques from engineers like Hickok, who are deployed with 1st Combat Engineer Battalion.
Related Material From the Archive:
- US/NATO Troops Patrolling Opium Poppy Fields in Afghanistan
- ISAF/DoD Biometrics Tracking Afghanistan Photos
- NATO Afghanistan Training Mission Photos
- UNODC Afghanistan Opium Survey Winter Assessment 2011
- Afghanistan Provincial Governors Photos
- UNODC Afghanistan Opium Survey 2010
- War Dead Soldier Coffin Photos August 2010
- U.S. to Resume Training Georgian Troops
A big thank you to all of you young men and women deployed
to Afghanistan who are working hard to bring goverance and
measurability to a land and people afflicted by war and conflict and
also giving us security at home here in America.
May the lord protect and reward your efforts. Take good care
and thank you.
yes, bring goverance to aborigines and heroin to Europe & USA
you are joking right?? umm, God didn’t lead us into afghanistan. And the conflict you speak of… we brought that to them.
you must be kidding right?
@Tracy: Hahaha! Do you really think that’s what’s going on there? “Bring(ing) governance and measurability (???) to a land and people afflicted by war and conflict and giving security at home here in America?
Did you go through a TSA irradiation machine a few too many times? Someone should pat down your head to check for a brain.
“War Is A Racket” – should be standard reading in american history classes…
@Tracy
You are watching too much CNN and talk like a brainwashed american (may be you are). You don’t believe it either what just you wrote do you?
opium production has resumed and has skyrocketed since the us invasion, photos of us marine patrols in and around these huge opium fields, those members of the tank battalion are learning a new skill for sure… There should be no wonder why the MSM isnt showing the American people these photos or providing US with any in-depth investigation of whats really going on there…We might start getting an inkling of why the crazies in the pentagon really want this illegal 100 year war of aggression.
Peace, truth, justice, freedom and prosperity, in-spite of those who would have it otherwise.
The question is: Is this opium being used to produce legal morphine and codeine, or illegal heroine?
Edwin said: On December 20, 2011
The question is: Is this opium being used to produce legal morphine and codeine, or illegal heroine?
haha. that is a question? Follow the money.
The answer is yes, both, naturally.
So… what are those flowers saying allover there?
I’ll tell ya all what: FLOWER POWER! MAKE LOVE NOT WAR! Throw away the guns and quit fighting!
Put away the Kevlar vest and put on a Latex condom! ;)
Thank you American Soldiers…. From a thankful American. If you don’t like it-my feeling for my countries soldiers- learn to live with it…..
You can say a lot of things about the US Military, such as, if you are stupid enough to join then it does not matter if you are killed or maimed (I believe Henry Kissinger said this in so many words). Also you can say it is a way to cull out foreign populations, and America’s not so bright. America has never ever needed to fight a foreign war – our military and its wars are just welfare for the Military Industrial Security Complex, along with oppressing and controlling the American populace. JFK’s assassination provided two major happenings – it stopped his peace making actions, plus it announced to future politicians that if you try to bring and end to America’s imperialism then you know you will be killed. Anyone that was uniting any kind of peace effort has been done away with: RFK, MLK, Malcolm X, John Lennon, etc….
And we are spending 2 billion a week in Afghanistan.
How’s that war on drugs going?
First the Taliban banned poppy plants. They where very successful. Less and less heroin. Then the first crisis came around. How did that happen? Do some research.
Now, we see this is all the USA army does there. Providing care for the heroin growers.
war IS a racket …has nothing to do with justice, really eye opening looking into opium in relation to war it seems to be the underbelly of many of them