When a commander asks a service member where they’d like to be promoted, most people go with a nice backdrop for photos.
Marine Sgt. Lindsey Vedsted of Sterling, Colorado got her stripes in 2005 in what appears to be boring stretch of desert, but is actually an active minefield near Bagram Air Force Base, Afghanistan.
As her gunnery sergeant points out in the video, most of the mines are older than Vedsted or about the same age. The mines are still dangerous though, as Air Force security forces when they strayed into an unmarked minefield near Bagram in 2004.
Just a warning: The video jumps around a little bit and doesn’t have a narrator explaining what’s going on.
Video courtesy Armed Forces Network Afghanistan.