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In the Shadow of the Opium Harvest Chief Warrant Officer 2 Michael D. Fay, USMCR (Ret) Acquisition Number: 2013.52.29 Medium: Acrylic and Water-based Oils on Canvas Lance Corporal Mulherran and his tracking dog Boone take a break during a patrol pause outside of Forward Operating Base Geronimo. Around them are freshly harvested opium poppy fields; they rest under the shade of trees and beside piles of dried sheaves of poppies. 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, established the base in 2009 as part of the Marine Corps’ operations against the Taliban in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. According to the artist, over the coming months, the Marines of Weapons Company, 3d Battalion, 2d Marines, would be battling “the fruits of the poppy harvest” in the form of newly purchased rocket-propelled grenades and 102mm Chinese rockets in the hands of the enemy.