Housed within those whitewashed walls is a lone Army and Air Force Exchange Service store. Air Force Staff Sgt. Eric Began, a member of the Paktia Provincial Reconstruction Team, is responsible for stocking the shelves and seeing to the needs of those on FOB Gardez. He also has taken on the responsibility of bringing a little culture to this desolate base at the foot of an Afghan mountainside.
"There is little to come by here, but people donate supplies on their way out or the extra goodies from packages from home that get mailed in," said Began, a Lancaster, Pa., native who is finishing up his 6-year enlistment. "Someone needs to be here to make sure what little we have is available. It's the small comforts of home that are stocked."
A self-described jack-of-all-trades, Began is on his third deployment in support of the war on terrorism. On all three deployments, he has been tasked as an Army asset. During his first deployment to Iraq, he provided convoy security as a driver and later as a .50-caliber gunner for anyone who needed a gun truck when leaving the confines of the base. On the second deployment, Began was stationed in Kuwait as a line-haul truck driver.
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