Recreation in Balad

 One of the reasons Joint Base Balad is a favorite to soldiers is the large number of recreational activities available, in addition to the shopping.  JBB even has two pools (one indoor, one outdoor), and more interesting things to do than anywhere else in Iraq.   JBB has three major rec centers, and a number [...]

The Half Way Point

At some point during the month of March 2009, we reached the half-way point through our deployment. I don’t know exactly, because the army won’t tell us exactly when we get to leave, of course. I started pre-mobilization training on September 13, 2008. The training had two short breaks, but basically lasted until November 2008. [...]

Shopping on Base

One of the strangest things is the strong desire of people to go shopping. American military personnel, in particular, seem to have an unquenchable thirst for it.  When we flew from the USA to Kuwait, we were all disoriented and a bit startled at the new environment. The very first day at Camp Buehring, pretty [...]

Camp Slayer

 After my tour of the International Zone in Baghdad, I took the Rhino, along with the rest of the convoy, to return back to Victory Base. We were picked up by Captain Paul Thompson, a nice fellow from Fayetteville, AR, who is here on his second tour. Paul was kind enough to give a short [...]

The Green Zone

 The claims conference lasted most of the day on Friday. It was productive, and much good information was taught about how to handle issues relating to claims, such as US forces crashing into Iraqi cars, taking over Iraqi houses, or other such problems.   The one downside to the conference was Victory Base itself. Most [...]

The Al Faw Palace

 On Thursday last week, we had a big tour of the Al Faw Palace. The palace was built by Saddam Hussein to commemorate a victory in the Al Faw peninsula over the Iranians in the Iran/Iraq war back in 1988. It has a grand atrium: It has ornate marble staircases: It has painted plasterworks on [...]

The Road to Baghdad

 Last Thursday, I flew from Balad to Baghdad to attend an army conference dealing with claims (e.g., when a military truck runs over an Iraqi house, and we have to pay for the resulting claim). So I woke up at 3AM on Thursday, and went over to a place called “Catfish Air” over on the [...]