When the US military’s “morale network” proved an insufficient way for soldiers stationed overseas to keep in touch with their families back home, the 3/6 Marines in Afghanistan turned to Tux for help. After a fundraiser and some donations for equipment, UnwireIraq was born.

A two-way satellite connection provided far more bandwidth than the handful of computers available to the soldiers at .5-1 Kbps. The attached wi-fi network also allowed them to use their own laptops and other equipment without threatening the secure military network with unpatched systems, and Linux and the Squid proxy/caching server did the rest.

This is my wi-fi, this is my gun, baby.