Kandahar Boardwalk: KAF Offers A World Away From War

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Sgt. Charles Reed, from Steam Boat, Colo., of the 715 Military Intelligence Unit, center, celebrates his 34th birthday with his colleagues and the staff at TGI Fridays restaurant on the boardwalk at Kandahar Air Force Base, Afghanistan, Monday, Sept. 6, 2010.


Kandahar Boardwalk: KAF Offers A World Away From War
TODD PITMAN | 09/ 6/10 01:15 PM | AP

ANDAHAR, Afghanistan — It was a broiling fall evening in this southern Afghan battlezone, and U.S. Army Sgt. Charles Reed wanted to celebrate his birthday in style – at T.G.I. Friday's on the boardwalk.

So the military intelligence soldier ducked inside the Western diner with a dozen friends, climbed atop a chair, and began a slow, solo groove as smiling Asian waiters in baseball caps clapped a carefully practiced birthday cheer.

Two nonalcoholic Dutch beers and a $30 steak and shrimp dinner later, Reed stepped out of the air-conditioned cool of the wood-floored eatery – whose walls are plastered with guitars, surfboards and Elvis posters – and back into reality: the sweltering desert heat of a giant NATO military base ensconced in a rocky Afghan moonscape crawling with insurgents.

"It was kind of unreal," the Steamboat Springs, Colorado native said, describing his recent 34th birthday fete at Kandahar Airfield, better known as KAF. "At least for a few minutes, you could pretend you were somewhere else. It was like going back home."

The only difference, perhaps: most of the people ordering cheeseburgers and milkshakes were decked out in combat fatigues, and heavily armed.