6 April Flight to Baghdad International Airport

We depart Ali Al Salem on another C-130 a few hours after dawn enroute to BIAP. The pilots make their patented corkscrew landing. It is hard to describe but it feels like someone is pressing on your shoulders and then lifting you up off your seat. I have no problem with it but some people have. After landing at the airport, I immediately check to see if we can get a space available flight aboard a Black Hawk helicopter to the Combined Press Information Center in the International Zone. It is here that Rice needs to get his media credentials. I learn there are no flights so we have to go to plan B. Taking a shuttle bus to Camp Striker a few minutes away and waiting for a trip to CPIC on the Rhino Runner. This vehicle is nothing more than an older style Winnebago motor home with bullet proof glass and it is up armored. So we wait until early in the morning to board the Rhino. Around 5 p.m. we are in a tent and hear a 21-rifle salute. There is a small chapel on this base and we both know that this was for a memorial ceremony. Once we board the Rhino later, it doesn’t even take an hour to reach the IZ. One thing that I’ve noticed after riding these is there is no suspension. And some of the speed bumps are about a foot high. It can be a rough ride despite sitting in padded bus-like seats.