Word: dune
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Then, protected by Kevlar body armor, they will fast-rope to the ground, bending under the weight of night-sighted M-4 carbines and grenade launchers, carrying radios and handheld global-positioning gear. Some of the teams will feature snipers; others will race across the desert in specially equipped dune buggies; yet others will practice their mountaineering skills, crawling over Afghanistan's rugged mountains. For many search-and-destroy missions, the aim will be to get in and out so fast that forces stay on the ground in Afghanistan for less than an hour...
...Pentagon denies the Taliban's reports, but there were certainly other hazards. Returning from its mission and attempting to land in pitch blackness, one Black Hawk helicopter got caught on a sand dune near the Dalbandin runway, lost its balance and flopped over, killing two crew members and injuring three others, according to a Pakistani witness. American servicemen who returned safely to Dalbandin were so jittery that they refused to brief Pakistani military officers unless the officers removed their gun holsters before approaching the helicopters. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, bands of U.S. troops continued their covert search-and-destroy missions...
SURVEILLANCE: Infiltrate by parachute, dune buggy or on foot to set up listening posts and periscope-equipped subsurface "hidesites" to monitor and relay intelligence on hostile activity...
...Awir desert, 40 km from downtown Dubai, I'm hanging on Chris Perera's every word. "The secret to good dune-bashing is to jump onto the dune, not off it," he yells into my helmet as I swing on the padded roller bars into the buggy. "Build up your speed slowly, then accelerate up the dune, taking your foot off the gas at the top, then accelerate back down the dune." He gives me a thumbs-up, and backs away. Until today, sitting in the desert heat, feeling the soar and stutter of engine revs rattle through my spine...
Aside from half-day dune buggy trips ($90), Perera's company Desert Rangers offers a range of excursions, including overnight trekking ($102, with meals) in the Hajar Mountains, sandboarding and sandskiing ($148) and kayaking in the eastern Klaba mangrove ($82); for more information, call (971-4) 346-0808. Many operators offer more genteel desert safaris. After a 30-minute drive east of the city into the desert, our group clambers into a fleet of 4x4s. There's some more dune bashing, air-conditioned this time, and after 90 minutes we arrive at base camp in time for some sandboarding...