U.S. Air Force and Marine construction crews have just begun building 10 shelters for the Marines’ F-18 Hornet squadron now based at Kandahar airfield in Afghanistan. The F-18 warplanes have been at the airfield for the past four months, and suffered through the unforgiving Afghan summer, where temperatures can top 120 degrees.
“Sometimes the sun makes the jets so hot that they’re too hot to work on,” Lance Cpl. Drew Petti, a Marine aircraft mechanic, says. “The shades create a great improvement in temperature…the improvement is great.”
The shelters should be finished by November, just in time for the Afghan winter. President Obama plans to begin pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan early next summer. Wonder if the Marines will get the 30-degree benefit these sun shades offer the next time that Afghan summer sun rolls around?