Dodging rocks in Kandahar City

KANDAHAR — Driving through Kandahar City is generally safer for soldiers than driving on the open highway in Afghanistan — unless you’re a gunner. Throughout the city, groups of children pop out of alleys and hurl rotten fruit, bottles and rocks at passing military convoys with surprising accuracy.

Pfc. Natalie Boysel, 20, is a SAW gunner with the 170th Military Police Company and was struck by rocks and other debris during a driving patrol of Kandahar City’s second district on July 11.

Though shaken up by one rock that hit her in the cheek, Boysel said there’s no other job she’d rather have.

“I have the highest qualification score on all the machine guns, so where I want to be is on top of the truck, keeping my team safe,” Boysel said.

(Photo by Ben Brody for GlobalPost)

(Photo by Ben Brody for GlobalPost)

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(Photo by Ben Brody for GlobalPost)

(Photo by Ben Brody for GlobalPost)