Al Asad Airbase is our home for the next who knows how many days. Thanks to my boss, we are staying in the VIP billeting. The two bunk beds, miniature TV and couch inside the hanger says that it’s for important guests, but the brooms and trash stacked in the corner says this is nothing more than a storage closet. Our 5 man team is waiting on air transportation to get to our next destination, which is a common theme here in Iraq. You tend to do a LOT of waiting on the next airplane or helicopter which are frequently delayed due to weather or other high priority missions. Sitting around in a hanger waiting for the next flight manifest can suck the life out of you, but I’m armed with enough books to keep me occupied for at least a couple of days, and when I run out of reading material, I can always watch the big screen TV with the sketchy satellite reception. Right now, George Bush is on the tube giving a brief, although it looks more like watching Max Headroom than the commander in chief.
What ever happened to Max Headroom anyway?
As you can see, not much to see here in Al Asad
Not much to see at all
7 comments:
You were in my thoughts all last week while we were "Up North". We spent one of the days in Mackinac City, and one of the days we crossed The Bridge into the U.P. and traveled up to Whitefish Pointe and spent a couple of hours skipping stones into Lake Superior. I loved skipping stones into the Straits of Mackinac, with the bridge in view, with you last summer.
No matter how many times I go over Mackinac Bridge it never ceases to amaze and astound me. I just think of all the work and hard labor that went into its construction. The foresight that the project designers had, to construct at that time, the worlds largest suspension bridge that connects two cities that have almost no population. It amazes me every time.
We also went to an antique boat show in Hessel. The show was nothing but Chris Crafts, Centurys and Gar Woods from the '20s and '30s. I guess its the only show of its kind in the nation where all of the old boats are in one place and in the water. (They emptied out a whole marina just for this show.)
We have had beautiful weather here all summer. My classes start back up the week after Labor Day.
Thanks for the link to Michael Yon. I have looked at some of his pieces and have really enjoyed them.
Talk to you later.
http://news.webshots.com/album/510675308zmfPJK
Has some old photos from 2005 of the air base, if you wanted to get a flavor or where in the BOONIES this place is!
http://z.about.com/d/urbanlegends/1/0/t/8/image004.jpg
A photo of a sand storm heading to Al Asad. A dust storm traveling at 60 mph. YUCK,
http://z.about.com/d/urbanlegends/1/0/t/8/image004.jpg
correct link.
well shoot,. just ad the jpg to the end of the link.
http://video.google.com
/videoplay?docid=-1447064212122697074
copy all of this together. Awesome vidoe of a sand storm engulinf Al Asad airbase.
Al-Asad base is a massive facility which is based around what was originally an Iraqi army air force base. It's right in the middle of the desert, and surrounded on all sides by scrublands and desert and rocks.
The base has two bus routes. When you drive in, you go through a series of outer fences. Then you drive through where the old Iraqi air force base was, and see all the debris that remains from that - destroyed planes, destroyed vehicles, a vast amount of rusting kit.
As you emerge into the American section, you come across much better roads, freshly Tarmacked. In many ways they've tried to recreate the set-up of a modern US suburban town, but obviously within the context that it's a military base within the deserts of western Iraq.
The overriding impression is one of sand and dust, but the actual layout is very similar. It has a grid network, many of the same signs, they have the same US Post Office mailboxes.
There are two bus routes there, which gives some idea of the scale.
From:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/
hi/world/middle_east
/4850876.stm
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