Nate Holland visits Middle East

Mission accomplished!

Nate Holland traveled recently to Qatar and Afghanistan to boost morale among U.S. troops.

Holland, a member of the U.S. snowboarding team and a three-time X Games gold medalist, is gregarious and somewhat outlandish. He's one of those guys who makes people smile or laugh wherever he goes. With his energy and courage -- he's downright crazy on the snowboard-cross course -- he might make a good soldier if he could be persuaded to follow orders, but most snowboarders cannot.

Holland made the journey with fellow snowboarder Danny Kass, a wry but personable character, and freeskier Grete Eliassen of Norway.

Here are some snippets:

-- Danny Kass, Grete Elliassen, and I spent 10 days in the Middle East, visiting our troops on an "X Games themed meet-and-greet." Our mission was simple: boost morale. If you've ever hung out with Danny, Grete, or I you'd know not only did we accomplish our mission, we went above and beyond the call of duty. It was a small sacrifice compared to what the servicemen and women of the Armed Forces are doing for our great nation.

-- Our Middle East tour started in Qatar, a small but very wealthy country on the Persian Gulf just off of Saudi Arabia.

-- Other than the heat being almost unbearable, the troops were amazing. The base in Qatar isn't only a fully-functioning military base, it's also a rest and relaxation base for solders to get out of the combat zones in Iraq or Afghanistan for four days every six months. This was their R&R time. The feeling in Qatar was pretty lighthearted. The solders were allowed three beers a day, which loosened them up enough for Danny to olli four of them laying down -- including Col. Cotter -- on his skateboard.

From Qatar we boarded a C130 military plane flight into Afghanistan. Once we arrived in Afghani air space the plane blacked out completely into the night sky. A young soldier with a thick Kentucky accent leaned over and said, "We're going to drop in fast, they have a tendency to try and shoot these things down." That's when the realization that I was in a war zone fully hit me.

-- Once we were "safely" in Afghanistan, Grete fell ill with salmonella poisoning. She was hospitalized and our tour was put into a holding pattern. Not only did Danny and I visit Grete in the Afghanistan hospitals, but we ventured around and met most of the doctors, nurses, staff, and of course the injured and sick.

-- My heart sank as we toured room after room. The most disturbing to me were, by far, the small children I saw. One little girl lost her leg from an old Russian land mine, and in the very next room a little boy laid out dressed in bandages healing from burns he got in an explosion.

Experiences like these reassure my thoughts and wishes to have peace on earth.

-- Although our trip was short and sweet, I think I got a pretty basic taste of military life in a war torn country. The highs of hanging out with the gung-ho soldiers and their weapons, to the lows of visiting a four year old girl who lost a leg from a land mine are just two extreme emotions I felt in just one week.

Again my hat goes off to the servicemen and women who sacrifice so much to protect this great country we all love.

And hats off to Nate for sharing the story and photos.

-- Pete Thomas

Photo courtesy of Nate Holland