/media-library/article/20093/marines-prepare-georgian-soldiers-for-nato-deployment-to-afghanistan
November 23, 2009
KRTSANISI, Georgia - About half a kilometer away from two companies of Georgian soldiers lies the objective -- an old, run-down air traffic control tower. A cluster of off-white, weathered and tattered buildings, removed of all doors and windows, are the skeletal remains of Vasiani Air Base, a Russian-era military base about 15 miles east of Tbilisi that has been abandoned and unmaintained since the early 1990s. Inside the tower, hunkered down and fortified by opposing forces, sits trapped the objective -- a hostage who needs rescuing. He sits atop the four-floor building with insurgents bunkered in around him.