Marine Corps News Room

Where did everybody go?

Written by
Gretel C. Kovach
10:11 a.m., July 2, 2012

At first glance little seems to have changed at Camp Leatherneck since Nel and I visited last spring. Generators drone a steady soundtrack at the strategic headquarters for U.S. Marine and NATO operations in southwestern Afghanistan. A British voice broadcast throughout the base alerts medical staff of serious casualties arriving by medevac at Bastion, the adjoining air station. The eerie call comes crackling over the loudspeakers at all hours of the day or night, blaring "Op minimise, Op minimise..."