Afganistan : Life from 15 ft up

Recently, on some 2-man trips I have been fortunate to spend some hours with young men in the 22-25yo age group, an age group that I rarely, if ever, spend any time with. Banbury, where I operate from, does not present this unskilled age group with too many working opportunities, and 3 of them have elected to join the army and are waiting for dates to enlist.

As we drove, on each news report, more deaths in Afghanistan were reported and (to me) the prospect of signing up for the army seemed either a brave or foolhardy thing to do.

I asked each of them how they felt about listening to reports of death, and each of them was fairly non-plussed about it.

They all talked about ‘comes with the job’! I was reasonably impressed. Although the dangers were clear, the effect on their respective families and friends, lovers and children noted, but none of them looked upon the danger as an obstacle to ‘getting stuck in’.

What do you think?

Nick Ingram