Camp Leatherneck Begins Hunger Strike
The dining hall at Camp Leatherneck, vacant and unused.
CAMP LEATHERNECK, AFGHANISTAN — Marines at Camp Leatherneck have begun a base-wide hunger strike in an attempt to draw attention to what they described as the "appalling" humanitarian nightmare unfolding on the installation.
In a letter submitted by Maj. Theo Gennaro, a C-130 pilot, and hand-delivered to the office of RC-Southwest leader Maj. Gen. Walter Miller, the Marines have demanded an independent panel receive access to Leatherneck and review its basic living conditions.
Some Marines have been reduced to eating food from care packages.
"I would rather starve than live another day in this filthy hellhole," Gennaro announced while munching on a packet of frozen M&M's he had been storing in his personal trailer's refrigerator all day.
"We already saw what happened last year when Marines couldn't order their own personal pan pizzas," he added. He was referring to the September 2012 attack, where a group of Taliban infiltrated the ba…
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