The things they received

I came to Combat Outpost Mizan with the mail.

The mail people met me at Forward Operating Base Lagman in Qalat and we drove the mail to nearby Forward Operating Base Apache. The packages for Mizan got loaded onto a huge cargo helicopter along with me. Forty minutes later, we landed in a narrow crook in the mountains. After the people got off and Mizan's stray puppies ran to greet us, the helicopters tilted up and dumped all the mail out the back as they flew away.

I couldn't really introduce myself for awhile because everyone was tearing into their packages of Harley-Davidson spicy beef jerky, hard candy, magazines, etc. But one private's face lit up as he opened a small box. I peered over his shoulder and saw that he held a Fleshlight. If you don't know what that is, Google it.

I burst out in involuntary laughter, and he looked up at me as if I'd just laughed at his crutches or a hearing aid or something.

"Don't laugh, man," he said to me. "This thing is gonna change my life."

(Photo by Ben Brody for GlobalPost)