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Sun rise in Southern Afghanistan from the back of my helicopter as we're
flying home after a mission. |
My name is Kurtus Koklich and I'm starting my third year at the University of Colorado Denver majoring in Psychology with a minor in Pre-law. I've spent the majority of my life living in Colorado but I've just moved back to Denver in the past year after spending the previous six years in the Army. While in the Army I was able to travel a lot and see many different places that most people would never be able to see, or want to see. I was a Flight Engineer for the Special Operations Aviation Regiment, basically a "door gunner", which I believe makes my vantage point of the places I've seen special compared to being on the ground. I've chose to study the physical geography of Afghanistan because of its extreme and ever changing weather conditions and rugged terrain. Spending close to two years in Afghanistan has left a pretty negative personal view of the country in my mind, so I'm hoping that looking at it in a different way might change my opinion. Afghanistan's physical geography covers just about everything, extreme heat and cold, huge mountains and rolling deserts, and some of the harshest living conditions imaginable. The people who live and survive in Afghanistan are easily some of the toughest people on the planet because of the extreme conditions in the country, and I respect that more and more. I've seen many different places from the window of a helicopter, most of the United States, Europe and parts of Africa, but none of these places have the rugged beauty or inherent danger of Afghanistan.
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| Sun rise in north east Afghanistan January 2011 |
