Flight to Anaconda

A few hours after sunset, I found myself waiting at the Camp Liberty Landing Zone for a Blackhawk helicopter ride to Logistical Support Area Anaconda. Using my night vision lens, I tracked some Blackhawks arriving. It was interesting because to the naked eye there were no lights on these birds. But with my lens, I could see the two infrared lights. When my Blackhawk arrived, the doors were shut and we were on our way. I had somewhat of a good view of the gunner and I thought about breaking out my camera with night vision lens. But I couldn’t reach my camera bag because I was stapped in too tight. The interior smelled like a mixture of fuel and body odor. It was interesting because we flew over some areas that were pitch dark. It was a very smooth ride.

tour of an entry control point

Two days after reaching Baghdad International Airport, I decided to go take some photos of some of the BCT Soldiers manning an entry control point near where the convoys droppped off the trucks they were escorting. At the tower closest to a main road, one of the roads with a lot of roadside bombs and small arms fire, I talked to a soldier from Burnsville, Minn. He and a Ugandan manned this tower that was about 10 feet in the air. He told me how this tower had been improved by adding metal plates about half way down each opening. There were several buildings across the road that could hide snipers. He said it was a pleasure working with the Ugandans. As far as last summer, he said he survived the heat by drinking water. In a bunker below this tower also were several puppies born a few days before. They were cute. You see most dogs in this country have rabies so we stay away from them. It was kind of nice to see these cute little puppies.

My sixth convoy

The night of the 9th of November was my sixth time I rode along in a convoy escort mission to Baghdad International Airport (I rode in the back seat of one of the Humvees). My mission was to escort four large Pelican cases containing a portable satellite system. Basically this system allowed us to do live interviews from Iraq. Our most famous one was where one of our soldiers proposed to his wife at the metrodome at a Twins game. He was on the roof of our headquarters building when he proposed. This system was only a loaner though and I had to bring it back to the owner before he left the country. He had to verify that all the parts were there before he could leave the country. So we left my base a few hours before midnight. We would be escorting more than 15 tankers driven by Americans. At our first stop where we picked up the trucks, we had some down time. I learned that the gunner was also a former Marine so we hit it off right away. As we waited and talked, he pulled out a ziplock bag full of photos of his family. It was interesting as he told about his wife and young daughter. He also showed me how to load his 50-caliber machine gun mounted on the Humvee. We didn’t get a mile down the main supply route to BIAP before one of the trucks broke down. It took about two hours for KBR to recover this vehicle. The trip to our first stop about three hours away was uneventful. All of us in the Humvee had headsets so we could talk and joke. Music ranging from AC/DC to Pop blared on a portable sound system too. It wasn’t a comfortable ride. Cold air from the gunner’s open turret blew down the back of my neck despite the Humvee being heated. Once we reached this first base where we gassed up, we had a half hour to decide if we should push north or stay at the base (there is a curfew for heading north). We decided to head north. The truck commander’s routine was to play Metallica’s “Fuel” as we headed north. Then the music was shut off. About three hours later, we arrived nonstop at BIAP. This is the first time this has happened in my convoy ride alongs. We arrived just as the sun was starting to rise. This crew would now sleep until their convoy brief later in the afternoon.

Flight to Al Asad

After a two-day stay at LSA Anaconda, I left for Camp Al Asad early in the morning (showtime was daybreak but we didn’t fly until mid morning. This was my 10th flight aboard a C-130 not counting my two R&R flights. This was the first time that the plane was filled to capacity with passengers. It was kind of funny when the pilot gunned the engines to takeoff. A very small woman sitting on the last seat begin to slide off. A man pushing 350 pounds grabbed her and held her the rest of the trip. I don’t know if they were friends or not. Al Asad is the second largest air base in Iraq and occupied by mostly Marines. The headquarters of a unit in our Brigade Combat Team is in front of a large empty swimming pool. Al Asad also was where Saddam Hussein trained his Olympic swimming and soccer teams. The soccer stadium is across from the headquarters. One soldier from the battalion was stationed here earlier in the war. He said this headquarters building was where his unit got their potable water from. This camp also has boulevards and trees. It is very scenic despite the sand everywhere you walk.   

This will be my first trip outside my base in southern Iraq in 2007.  My destinations include Ali Al Salem in Kuwait, Al Asad Air Base in Iraq, Rawah, Iraq and Camp Fallujah, Iraq. My trip began Tuesday morning. I flew from my base to Ali Al Salem in a C-130 Cargo plane. Believe it or not it was a Japanese C-130 painted baby blue with the rising sun on it. A middle aged civilian woman told me to prepare for a rough landing as we boarded the bus to go out to the plane. I thought maybe it would have Japanese writing in it but it didn’t. In fact the Japanese soldier spoke pretty good English when he gave us some instructions. By the way, it was a very smooth landing. For those of you that have never flown in one of these planes, the noise inside the plane when its flying sounds like amplified crickets. From here, I will fly to Al Asad on another C-130.

Dropping off school supplies

The mission that I covered today, Oct. 30, was the delivery of school supplies to two schools. At the first school we were going to deliver school supplies, including 12 pencils, notebook paper and three folders. These supplies were provided by Operation Iraqi Children that is Gary Sinise’s brainchild. My day started with being able to test how my new prescription Wiley X ballistic glasses would work. This was the first time I wore them outside the wire. In all fairness, the Humvee’s air conditioner was not working well but still these glasses fogged up very quickly. It may have been the rubber gasket around the lenses too. I finally removed the glasses and put on my regular glasses. After a several minute ride, we arrived at the first school. We parked the Humvees several yards away from the school. We parked on a narrow road actually. As we walked up the road, I couldn’t help but notice young Iraqi girls watching us. As several soldiers including two females begin carrying the boxes of the supplies up the road I couldn’t help but notice that one of these children has her arm around the other as they watched the soldiers. I immediately got behind these two children and got a nice photo of the action taking place. See www.redbullweb.com Photos, Page 27 for the photo (No. 4).  As we neared the school, all we could see was a aqua cinder block building sitting on a hill. And that hill was muddy (we received some rain before earlier in the week). I mean as we walked up the hill, the mud was like ice. One wrong move and you would be looking up at the blue sky. We brought all the boxes into the school’s courtyard and each classroom came out of their rooms to receive the supplies. At the same time, we were offered chai tea in small glasses. Being polite, I took one of these glasses. But at the same time one classroom came out of their room. I had to down this hot tea (but it is good) It was a quick process, the children lined up and were given the supplies by the soldiers one at a time. I was able to tour their classrooms. Not much, a blackboard and old wooden desks. The children were excited though. They would stand outside their doors and give us the thumbs up and wave.

Saddam is guilty

On Sunday, Nov. 6, I went to lunch at the dining facility. After picking up my tray and plastic plates and silverware I was walking toward the serving line. I couldn’t help but notice most of the soldiers and civilians were looking at the big screen TV. I turned around and knew why. Saddam Hussein had just been found guilty of crimes against mankind (it was a NBC breaking news event). This was at 12:24 p.m. Iraq time. As his sentence by hanging was read, I heard several soldiers say “holy crap” more than once.

Later I walked into the post exchange to kill some time because the barber shop where you can get a haircut for $3 was packed. So while in the PX, I noticed that it finally had some shaving cream (about 15 cans).  It has been out of this for at least two weeks. After my haircut, I returned to the PX in less than 20 minutes. As I walked down the aisle where the cream was there was only two cans left and a soldier was just picking up the second can.  Also while I was the PX I couldn’t help but notice how popular Operation Iraqi Freedom clothing was. Especially for the Bosnia and Romanian soldiers. In the back of the PX, there were fleece jackets and sweat pants still in boxes and in plastic (the jackets in plastic were lying on top of the boxes). I mean these soldiers were checking the sizes of the jackets and pants.