Any Sport in A-Stan?

[Neil Waugh]

Here's a question for any military board members who have been over there and did us proud.
I know Afghanistan is not exactly the kinda place where you'd feel too comfortable going up a trout stream or sitting on an idex stand. The conservation ethic doesn't appear to rate too high on the political scale either. But does it look like there's any hunting and fishing to be had.
Those mountains look pretty high and snowy. The whole place couldn't have been totally (bleeped) up. Or is it?

[gonefishin]

When I was in Kabul in '03, we were there in Dec and Jan, and and with the snow on the mountains, the scenery was awesome. The locals say there are snow leapards, but are few and far between. There is also snow leopard, the markhor, Marco Polo sheep, urial, and Asiatic black bear, ibex, wolf, and brown bear. The sheep and goats are the main hunted critters and the predators are killled mainly to save the locals livestock. When I was in Kandahar, I would see the odd rabbit running around and a buddy told me that he seen a porcupine while he was out on a patrol once.

As for fishing, the only thing I can remember is that a couple Afghan Army soldiers were fishing in a river with a rocket propelled grenade (crocodile dundee style) and one fellow bent over the river bank to pick up a fish but fell in and drown. Not sure what type of fish.... and I'm not sure if they will take a fly or not!

[littlebuckgonefishin]

Hey,

I was also over in Afghan with "gonefishin" in Kandahar in 06. I saw lots of mice and geckos. In fact i remember hunting geckos at night well they would warm themselves on the rocks and trying to catch (trap) mice as they stole sips of my tims coffee (hit them on the ass into the cup) i think "gonefishin" might remember that. As for big game i didnt see any, just live stock and wild dogs and a whole lots of sand. I also saw afghans fishing with an RPG on a video...3 rounds and only one small cat fish.
Little buck

[CNP]

Afghanistan: Environmental degradation in a fragile ecological setting

Dynamite fishing is corroborated here...

I flew frequently within the country. Kandahar area is on a flat plateau, arid, infertile desert. Kabul is in the mountains, the snow covered mountains supplying runoff, birthing rivers, agriculture thrives in these areas, the elevation of the city is almost 6000' while the surrounding mountains are as high as 20,000'. Never seen a wild animal while flying through the mountains......and we were always on the lookout for "stuff".

does it look like there's any hunting and fishing to be had.

For our military? Hunting? No. Having a personal weapon...not going to happen. Fishing? Unlikely. Access, opportunity, resources and freedom of movement in some cases wouldn't permit it.

[Neil Waugh]

Real shame. Sounds like some sweet country. Especially the high up stuff. Those snow melt rivers must hold some trout.
Anyone got a recipe for one of those RPG flies?? I'd like to tie a few up. Barbless, of course.

[Jamie]

Originally Posted by Neil Waugh

Real shame. Sounds like some sweet country. Especially the high up stuff. Those snow melt rivers must hold some trout.
Anyone got a recipe for one of those RPG flies?? I'd like to tie a few up. Barbless, of course.

But how do you work the catch and release???



Might be neat to see.

Jamie

[Jamie]

Originally Posted by Neil Waugh

Real shame. Sounds like some sweet country. Especially the high up stuff. Those snow melt rivers must hold some trout.
Anyone got a recipe for one of those RPG flies?? I'd like to tie a few up. Barbless, of course.

But how do you work the catch and release???



Might be neat to see.

Jamie

[littlebuckgonefishin]

I dont really know how you would work the catch and release, you just may have to burp the fish really good.
If your interested, go to "youtube.com" and type in "afghan fishing" the video is on their.
Less then a month and its time to go back...
little buck

[CNP]

A'stan countryside...as the crow flies.

[CNP]

A'stan countryside cont'd...as the crow flies.......what you see flying from Kandahar to Kabul (not ion order).....minus the camel lol (ground shot). There are no roads (as you and I know roads) in/out of the those mountain villages.

[Neil Waugh]

Interesting river coming out of the snowy mountains. But it looks like the locals screw the creeks up as soon as they hit any kind of a river valley.
I don't think it would be a good idea to take a pop at those black crows in one shot. They look like they could spit back. All in all, some great pictures.
Gives a real perspective of the kind of country you guys are operating in. Fighting in those streets of mud huts must be a real **** show. And the high ground is "foot access only" as they say out at the Blackfoot. No robo-war here.
I understand it's the Straths and Shilo next. Good luck.

[russ]

I heard there's a few camel spiders & sand vipers around Sperwan. Plus a really good supply of camels stoned on marijuana leaves. All my info is second I hand, so I defer to the experts here.

[Mike Rae]

Great pictures, they are definately interesting!!

[TreeGuy]

Slight hijack, but i thought ehntr would like this (correct me if im wrong, but thr shadow pic sure looked alot like a herc (c-130) to me.

tree

"I WANNA BE A FIGHTER PILOT"
Sir:
I am D.J. Baker and I would appreciate it if you could tell me what it takes
to be an F-16 fighter pilot in the USAF. What classes should I take in high
school to help the career I want
to take later in life? What could I do to get into the Air Force Academy?

Sincerely,
DJ Baker
*********************************************

From: Van Wickler, Kenneth, LtCol, HQ AETC

Anybody in our outfit want to help this poor kid from Cyberspace?

LTC Wickler
**********************************************

A worldly and jaded C130 pilot, Major Hunter Mills, rises to the task of
answering the young man's letter.
**********************************************

Dear DJ,

Obviously, through no fault of your own, your young, impressionable brain
has been poisoned by the superfluous, hyped-up, "Top Gun" media portrayal of
fighter pilots.

Unfortunately, this portrayal could not be further from the truth. In my
experience, I've found most fighter pilots pompous, backstabbing, momma's
boys with inferiority complexes, as well as being extremely over-rated
aeronautically. However, rather then dash your budding dreams of becoming a
USAF pilot, I offer the following alternative:

What you really want to aspire to is the exciting, challenging and
rewarding world of TACTICAL AIRLIFT. And this, young DJ, means one
thing..the venerable workhorse, The C-130! I can guarantee no fighter pilot
can brag that he has led a 12-ship formation down a valley at 300 feet above
the ground, with the navigator leading the way and trying to interpret an
alternate route to the drop zone, avoiding pop-up threats, and coordinating
with AWACS, all while eating a box lunch.with the engineer in the back
relieving himself and the loadmaster puking in his trash can!

I tell you DJ, TAC Airlift is where it's at! Where else is it legal to throw
tanks, HUMVs, and other crap out the back of an airplane, and not even worry
about it when the chute doesn't open and it torpedoes the General's staff
car! No where else can you land on a 3000 foot dirt strip, kick a bunch of
ammo and stuff out on the ramp without stopping, then takeoff again
before range control can call to tell you that you've landed on the wrong
LZ! And talk about exotic travel; when C-130s go somewhere, they GO
somewhere (usually for 3 months, unfortunately). This gives you the
opportunity to immerse yourself in the local culture long enough to give the
locals a bad taste in their mouths regarding the USAF and Americans in
general, not something those C-141 Stratolift pilots can do from their
airport hotel rooms!

As far as recommendations for your course of study, I offer these:

1. Take a lot of math courses. You'll need all the advanced math skills you
can muster to enable you to calculate per diem rates around the world, and
when trying to split up the crew's bar tab so that the co-pilot really
believes he owes 85% of the whole thing and the navigator believes he owes
the other 20%.

2. Health sciences are important, too. You will need a thorough knowledge of
biology to make those educated guesses of how much longer you can drink beer
before the tremendous case of the G.I.s catches up to you from that meal you
ate at the place that had the really good belly dancers in some God-forsaken
foreign country whose name you can't even pronounce.

3. Social studies are also beneficial. It is important for a good TAC
Airlifter to have the cultural knowledge to be able to ascertain the exact
location of the nearest topless bar in any country in the world, then be
able to convince the local authorities to release the loadmaster after he
offends every sensibility of the local religion and culture.

4. A foreign language is helpful but not required. You will never be able to
pronounce the names of the NAVAIDs in France , and it's much easier to ignore
them and to go where you want to anyway. As a rule of thumb: waiters and
bellhops in France are always called " Pierre ", in Spain it's "Hey, Pedro"
and in Italy , of course, it's "Mario". These terms of address also
serve in other countries interchangeably, depending on the level of
suaveness of the addressee.

5. A study of geography is paramount. You will need to know the basic
location of all the places you've been when you get back from your TDY and
are ready to stick those little pins in that huge world map you've got taped
to your living room wall, right next to the giant wooden giraffe statue and
beer stein collection.

Well, DJ, I hope this little note inspires you. And by the way, forget about
the Academy thing. All TAC Airlifters know that there are waaay..too few
women and too little alcohol there to provide a well-balanced education. A
nice, big state college or the Naval Academy would be a much better choice.

Hunter Mills,
Major USAF

[CNP]

Slight hijack, but i thought ehntr would like this (correct me if im wrong, but thr shadow pic sure looked alot like a herc (c-130) to me.

Yeah I liked "cricking" on our shadows...

3. Social studies are also beneficial. It is important for a good TAC
Airlifter to have the cultural knowledge to be able to ascertain the exact
location of the nearest topless bar in any country in the world, then be
able to convince the local authorities to release the loadmaster after he
offends every sensibility of the local religion and culture.

The letter; written by a true TAC airlifter...a legend in his own mind lol...although it is 99.9% representative of a Canadian C-130 crew.

[TreeGuy]

ithought ya might get a kick out of that one. great pics, and God speed boys. thanks for being you. be safe.

tree

[russ]

ehntr were you involved in the first 'official' Canadian tactical drop in the sandbox?

[CNP]

No