TRAINING CRUSADERS:

From Death Valley to Kandahar: Canadian soldiers train in California desert to gear up for summer offensive in Afghanistan (Teri Pecoskie, 3/13/10, Toronto Star)

FORT IRWIN, Calif.–Cpl. Robin Golby squats in the desert behind an armoured vehicle and takes a deep drag on a Marlboro.

The 1 Royal Canadian Regiment soldier is surrounded by a barren landscape dotted with rocks, cactus and Joshua trees. Balls of tumbleweed roll by.

Squinting through waves of 30-degree heat, he can barely make out a cluster of buildings in the distance, framed by the mountains of the Mojave Desert, just south of Death Valley.

Though he can't see them, Golby knows people dressed in bright Afghan costumes are in the makeshift village, chatting in Pashtu and Dari.

"I could be there," Golby says, taking in his surroundings and recalling his tour in Kandahar last year. "It looks just like it."

The Other Brother was stationed there, though we're old enough that he was imitating the USSR for training exercises.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 13, 2010 6:47 AM