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CAMP PHOENIX, Afghanistan — Nobody's saying life here is all candy and roses. But there is a massage parlor.
Most of the more than 300 members of the Nebraska Army National Guard's 1-134th Cavalry Squadron deployed to Kabul right now are stationed at Camp Phoenix, with a smaller contingent down the road at Camp Dubs.
Camp Phoenix isn't pretty. It's all concrete, rocks and gray mud, dotted with squat, utilitarian structures.
The air of Kabul can burn your throat, and the wet snow creates muddy paths and massive puddles. Because the base is considered to be under relatively higher threat, weapons are kept loaded.
The soldiers miss their homes, their friends and families, their own cars. They're making plenty of sacrifices to be here.
Still, the soldiers at Camp Phoenix count themselves lucky they aren't sleeping in the dirt at a remote combat outpost, known as a COP, eating MREs out of bags.
After nearly 10 years of U.S. military presence in this country, major bases such as Camp Phoenix are fairly built up. The soldiers compare life here to college.
In fact, the large barracks resemble dorms. The soldiers have Internet access in their rooms, although it's frustratingly slow. There are a couple of soldiers per room, with showers and toilets at the end of the hall.
Many of their rooms feature big-screen TVs and video game consoles.
The food is probably on a par with a mediocre college dining hall.
The main buffet at a recent breakfast consisted of eggs, broccoli quiche, bacon, pork sausage links, Polish sausage, sausage patties, turkey bacon, turkey sausage links, corned beef hash, fried rice, burritos and hash browns.
Soldiers also could get fresh fruit and hot breakfast sandwiches.
In the evenings, there's cake and ice cream. Cases of drinks hold Gatorade, milk products and so on.
There's a Pizza Hut that actually tastes reasonably like Pizza Hut back home. And it delivers.
Afghan vendors on the base sell phones, shoes and jackets that at least have high-end labels stamped on them, even if they look suspiciously like knock-offs.
The PX is stocked with the kinds of products you'd pick up on a Target run — soap and shaving cream, batteries and basic clothing items.
If you drop off your clothes with the laundry service, your clean clothes will be back to you the next day.
At the gym, you can play racquetball or volleyball, or just work out.
There's a movie theater, and the coffee shop hosts karaoke and offers wireless Internet.
There's also a cigar club on base. They guys hold a regular poker tournament — although they play for pride and points, not for money.
“You've got basically all the amenities of home within 30 paces of your front door,” said Sgt. Chris Moulton, 22, of West Point. “There's guys down south, down in Kandahar, there's still people living out on COPs. We've got it pretty good here where we're at.”
And what about those massages?
A one-hour full-body massage costs $20. They book up a week out.
It might sound like a luxury, but it makes a big difference working out the knots that form in the muscles after being loaded down by body armor and other bulky gear all day.
And Sgt. Tim VanLaningham, 29, of Dunbar, Neb., said it's also not like the soldiers have access to top-level professional masseuses.
“The one I had was good, but I've had better,” VanLaningham said.
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