KANDAHAR AIR FIELD - The big summer push to increase U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan has turned this air field into a military boom town. Tent camps stretch for acre upon acre as construction crews dig the foundations of new buildings and place prefab container units of newly minted barracks.

There are plans to improve sewage treatment, but for the moment there is a giant, waste pond that wafts an odor that is carried by the desert winds as it sweeps across this barren site. Even with all the construction, living conditions for many of the troops are cramped. When they venture out of their rooms to take a stroll through the night air, they traverse a landscape of gravel and dust. Greenery here is scarce as palm trees on Arctic tundra.

I arrived here early Thursday morning in a C-130 cargo plane, which had most of its belly converted to passenger space. After a few hours sleep, I got a chance to tour the air base with Maj. Howard Marbut, who is attached to the 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, as well as several recently arrived public affairs officers who will assist the unit in the months ahead. We drove around a maze of tent offices, tent quarters, and then around a perimeter fence where we could make out camels grazing in the distance.

"It looks like this place is having growing pains," I ventured.
"Put the emphasis on pain," Maj. Marbut said.

But this camp is not without its pleasures. Foremost among them is the boardwalk, a big, wooden-planked pedestrian square lined with shops that feature kabobs, French pastries, doughnuts, pizza, burgers and other delicacies. You can eat, shop for rugs or check out the interior of the square where there might be a touch football game or a volley ball game.

From kabul

There are plenty of short pants, and a few tank tops. All in all, it is a world away from the nearby city of Kandahar, one of the most conservative urban areas in Afghanistan, where most women cover up with burqas.

For newcomers, the camp can be a bit of a shock, with the warnings to check for vipers in your shorts and to stay away from the feral cats that could harbor disease. Sgt. Chris Florence is on his first deployment, after reenlisting in the Army in 2007 when his day job leasing office equipment faded away. His night job - a stand up comic at Los Angeles night clubs - failed to bring in enough income so he rejoined the military to stay financially solvent.

Florence will be spending the next year assisting in public affairs here in this southern Afghanistan desert. He said his preference is for the desert is Las Vegas.

Friends have said he'll get plenty of new material for his night club. But Florence is skeptical. "This is not funny," Florence said. "At least I have failed to find the humor in it so far."

Florence and other public affairs officers here gave me a big hand today in getting me around the air field, and to the PX for a few last supplies. It was much appreciated.

Tomorrow morning, early, I am scheduled to take a helicopter flight to the northern part of Kandahar Province to join a battalion of the Fort Lewis-based 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

The brigade arrived in Afghanistan this summer, and has been in a tough fight with the Taliban.

The Associated Press reported that three more brigade soldiers died in an improvised explosive device attack on Thursday. Officials at NATO's International Security Assistance Force reported that five American service members died Thursday, but would not say whether any of the deaths involved Stryker vehicles or the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.