Marines in Combat Outpost Sharp, Afghanistan

Independent:

Amid the maze of trenches and dug in positions, mortar barrels poke forth circled by sleeping bags encased in mosquito nets and camouflage ponchos offering shade from the searing heat of the day.

Nearby a few industrious troops have fashioned small huts out of wire, sacking and dried up reeds. The lop-sided sign on one reads Home Sweet Home. A hammock strung from two trees offers somewhere to rest away from the beating sun.

This is Combat Outpost Sharp, the US Marines’ most remote base in southern Helmand, deep into Taliban territory in the notoriously lethal green zone bordering the river.

Here a few hundred Marines have set up camp in the shattered remains of a derelict school. The graffiti on the walls, childish pictures of planes next to Jihad proclamations, bear testament to the previous Taliban inhabitants who made it their headquarters.

Every room and hallway is packed with cots, next to each are neat piles of body armour, helmets, weapons, MRE (meals ready to eat) and the rudimentary basics needed to survive. Only the odd package from home, a United States postal service box bearing the words “America Supports You”, a pack of Cheez It crackers or some Close Up toothpaste stand out from the military paraphernalia.

Everything is covered in thick grimy film, blown in from the foot-deep powder-like sand outside. As a helicopter descends, giant rolling clouds of dust sweep like a tsunami over the camp.

Ants and rats share the accommodation. At sun down the mosquitoes buzz in from the surrounding canals while at night bats swoop low around the buildings.

A plastic toilet seat, ingeniously fashioned on to some ammunition cases over a cess pit are the ablutions while a series of tyres and bars strapped to wooden posts make up the “gym”.

The camp – officially called COP Sher (Lion) but renamed by Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines after Lance Corporal Charles “Seth” Sharp - a popular 20-year-old from Georgia who was killed on the day they arrived in July - is fortified with large Hesco barriers on top of which sit make shift look out posts fashioned out of wood and sand bags, from where sentries maintain a constant look out into hostile territory beyond. Almost every day involves a battle in this Taliban heart land.

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Well, at least the Brit papers are still covering out Marines. It is hard to find first hand coverage of the troops in the field in Afghanistan. The Marines can adapt to the deprivation. While the story discusses the envy of the British troops to most of the US bases, they are not envious of these Marines at the tip of the spear in deepest Helmand.