Martha Stewart on the FOB

We have about a zillion sand bags stacked around our FOB. They are used primarily for shielding from rocket or mortar attack, and are stacked along side buildings and bunkers, but they are also used to fill potholes and hold down wires, camouflage netting and signs. Most bags are green and made from some plastic fiber, but others are made from cloth. The cloth ones tend to fade badly in the sunlight and then start to disintegrate, eventually ending up as just a pile of dirt imbedded with a few cloth remnants.

I suppose soldiers put up most of the sandbags I see here, but now there is an Iraqi sand bag detail. Young men, guarded by a soldier, who fill sandbags all day long. I’m not sure what they’re doing with all the newly filled sandbags; I don’t see new sandbags being emplaced anywhere.

Now that it is spring, our sandbags have begun to sprout, mostly grass, which grows out between the fibers. The bags, especially the plastic ones, retain moisture, so are good planters. I saw a soldier with a hand trowel and a package of watermelon seeds, planting the seeds in the top sandbags of a stack outside his CHU. He cut a small flap in the bag and inserted the seeds. "75 days from planting to harvest" he said with a satisfied smile.