Remember I said last time, I was going down to Basra for a 'little while'? My planned, short visit of a week or so turned into almost a month. At first I was not very happy. It took some getting used to being on a foreign base, in this case operated by the British. COB Basra (contingency operating base) is located along the international airfield property. They had us staying in Camp Charlie, on the northwest corner of the base. We knew we had to be courteous, as we were guests there. We were there to do some VIP flights for the local 2 star General who was in charge of the operation. We also did some brief re-supply flights, and kept a small platoon of soldiers for a 'personnel recovery', should the Apaches, or any aircraft go down. The Apaches played a big role in the effort to push the insurgents that started the mess, out of Basra. My job was to be ready with the PRT (personnel recovery team) every night. Whenever the Apaches were out, we sat with the APU running (auxiliary power unit) listening to the radios in case they got into trouble. We listened as they found some dudes moving weapons across the river in a boat. They were discovered, urged not to do that anymore (pretty much shot them, and sank the boat). One of the gentleman was wounded, and instantly became a detainee. Later we were able to see the gun camera video...pretty cool. The IA (Iraqi Army) had been strengthened in the area and was taking the lead role in all the ground ops. Things settled down and we weren't needed to sit in the aircraft and wait anymore. We were then on standby most of the rest of the time.
Living in Basra was a little more frightening than in Balad. The rocket attacks were way more often, and more accurate. The rockets you hear about over here are fairly good size, and fired from farther away than mortars are, and have a lot more explosives in them. The Brits were getting rocket attacks pretty much daily. Once the Apaches arrived, the attacks dropped off to about 2 a week or so. We heard the Brits were glad for that, but thought that the 'Yanks' ate too much food...
They put all of us US folks in one large tent and we each lived in our own little 'concrete coffin' as they called it: a 6x7 space surrounded by short walls, concrete blocks piled 4 high. Our bunk was a hard fiberboard piece mounted 2 inches off of the floor and we slept on a 3 inch mattress (not hardly a Sealy Posturepedic). Directly above the bunk, barely 24 inches above the mattress was a half inch plate steel, covered with 15 inches of sandbags wrapped in plastic. So, the first time you were in your bunk when the rocket attack alarm went off, you guessed it, we all tried to jump up, and of course smacked our heads on the steel plate. One lesson of that almost all of us needed to learn was to just roll over, hug the wall, and pray the sandbags and steel would work. On top of that, we had to learn to live in a dark 'no lights on' tent. Seemed someone was always sleeping, with rotating shifts and all. That was a real pain, you go through a lot of batteries trying to read at all, find your stuff, etc., in the dark. I would go outside and read in the shade next to the tent, between a large dirt barrier and the blocks in the tent. I don't do well living as a mushroom...
Boy, the food was really good in Camp Charlie...much smaller menu, but much fresher meats, salads, and different deserts. I could eat 2 or 3 of the smaller lighter deserts and and not blow my 'get down to water skiing weight this summer' diet. They cook with a lot of currie...took a little getting used too, but after a bit I kind of liked it. The 'chow house' as they call it, was also a large tent, with the concrete block walls inside. It didn't have the hardened roof we have back in Balad, so if you were there when the alarm goes off, everyone hits the floor...even in the chow house. I'll say, you had to be pretty quick to beat the Brits to the floor...one evening I was talking with their pilots, when all of a sudden, I was like the only guy standing for a split second. Don't worry, I was horizontal and falling at terminal velocity (from 3') and found my own little spot to land on and cover my ears, close my eyes and pray. That one landed out on the taxiway, missed our aircraft (whew!). We were all tired of wearing our body armor all the time, too. I have to say, the only thing I liked about being there was getting to talk to the Brit pilots every night while we sat around waiting for a mission. What a hoot! I asked them every question I could think of, we covered all topics: The Queen, Maggie Thatcher, Prince Harry, Prince William, Tony Blair, weather, fishing, hunting, who can own guns, the few Brit police that do carry guns, politics, Princess Diana, Prince Charles, and local rubbish removal (garbage strike troubles in the UK). And of course, I got a lot of pics of the British helicopters there - the Lynx and the Merlin. Pretty cool stuff. The Brit pilots come from all over the UK, and some from Africa, Australia, Europe, and even Fiji. Their military has an interesting retirement plan, you can stay and get full retirement after 22 years, or take a partial (50%) at 12 years. Our basic plan is 20 yrs or nothing .
While talking to the pilots every night, we were introduced to their British cable, and BFBS - British Forces Broadcasting Service. They have a lot of sport channels, soccer, rugby, cricket. Then there's pool tourneys, card tourneys ,dart tourneys, and some of the Brit comedies we've had in the States. Kind of enjoyed all of the music videos...I'm up on all the tunes now, I can probably list 5 of the top 10. Did you know they have a rather large woman who does 'hip-hop signing'? That was something to see...this lady dancing around while signing the lyrics. Ohh boy! The Brits have very nice 'telephone cabins' and 'Internet cabins' to use. A whole different Internet, phone calling system, and even their keyboards are different than ours. Anyone who got an email from me in Basra, saw some of the occasional difficulty I had finding the usual letters, etc.
All in all, it was a very worth-while experience to see Basra. It's an interesting place. We did get
to do a very special mission one night. The IA (Iraqi Army) was making a push (door to door)through the last of a bad part of town, and were looking for an individual, an HVT (high value target). If they found him, we were to transport him to another base about 100 miles northwest, and give custody to some Marines. We were normally working 7pm to 7am. They called us at 0345 and said they had him. We launched at 0400, met them at an undisclosed location, and flew him and an extra detainee to the other base, and transferred custody, and we took off. Got back about 0930. We'd been awake and working for a long time. Pretty fun mission.
DNR notes - Basra is in the very southeast corner of Iraq. It's the place where the Tigris and the Euphrates join and become the Shaat Al Arab river, which then flows down to the ocean and neighboring Kuwait. Years back, Basra must have been a shipping mecca as there are fairly large ships tied up along shore, and some very large (300'+) ships laying on their side, sunken, and rusting away. This area is one of the oil rich areas in Iraq as well. Lots of refineries, spilled oil, and constantly burning pipes/wells above ground. We can see some burning near the airfield, about 4 miles away. Lots of fishing here, too. I have pics of guys setting gill nets in the river, and lots of people collecting vegetation and fishing in the shallow areas in their push boats...only a few people had a small outboard motor. Can you imagine flying over a wetland that goes from one horizon to the other? You would never expect this in a predominately desert environment.
Unbelievable! I loved it! It even smelled like our wetlands at home. Mostly all cane grass, and lots of other types I obviously couldn't identify while zipping along at 13o mph. Water levels are down here though, we never got the usual amount of winter rainfall. You can easily see some wetlands are dried up, and the ones with water are shallow...it's tough for the canoe/boaters to push their boats through in places. What a great place to do some veg studies...maybe when things settle down a bit more. I'd love to send some water samples home from Iraq, though I can't figure out how to get them past customs...
Now back at home plate (Balad...and by the way, this place is like a 3 star hotel compared to Basra) we are busy in the 'starting to pack mode'. We have dates to get a lot of our gear ready to send home. Can't hardly wait!! This has been an incredible experience, but I miss my family too much, and they miss me. We are still flying a lot of missions, while working on the packing lists. Our replacements are busy at Ft Sill (remember last year for us?) and they are on a shorter train-up than we were and will start arriving here late June. So, thanks for all the prayers, boxes of goodies (we're full on snacks and stuff) and the support. We know there is a lot of good going
on here even if you don't hear it at home. All the soldiers are doing a good job at winning the hearts and minds of the people. It was fun to personally thank the Brits for helping in the coalition effort. They were envious of our support networks, and overall support from the majority of our country. They don't get much support at home, but they too are equally angered at global terrorism, just as we are.
That's why they serve. We all do this to protect our own soil. Be safe at home, and God Bless you all. We'll stay vigilant, until the last of ours is on their way home. Thanks.
Living in Basra was a little more frightening than in Balad. The rocket attacks were way more often, and more accurate. The rockets you hear about over here are fairly good size, and fired from farther away than mortars are, and have a lot more explosives in them. The Brits were getting rocket attacks pretty much daily. Once the Apaches arrived, the attacks dropped off to about 2 a week or so. We heard the Brits were glad for that, but thought that the 'Yanks' ate too much food...They put all of us US folks in one large tent and we each lived in our own little 'concrete coffin' as they called it: a 6x7 space surrounded by short walls, concrete blocks piled 4 high. Our bunk was a hard fiberboard piece mounted 2 inches off of the floor and we slept on a 3 inch mattress (not hardly a Sealy Posturepedic). Directly above the bunk, barely 24 inches above the mattress was a half inch plate steel, covered with 15 inches of sandbags wrapped in plastic. So, the first time you were in your bunk when the rocket attack alarm went off, you guessed it, we all tried to jump up, and of course smacked our heads on the steel plate. One lesson of that almost all of us needed to learn was to just roll over, hug the wall, and pray the sandbags and steel would work. On top of that, we had to learn to live in a dark 'no lights on' tent. Seemed someone was always sleeping, with rotating shifts and all. That was a real pain, you go through a lot of batteries trying to read at all, find your stuff, etc., in the dark. I would go outside and read in the shade next to the tent, between a large dirt barrier and the blocks in the tent. I don't do well living as a mushroom...
Boy, the food was really good in Camp Charlie...much smaller menu, but much fresher meats, salads, and different deserts. I could eat 2 or 3 of the smaller lighter deserts and and not blow my 'get down to water skiing weight this summer' diet. They cook with a lot of currie...took a little getting used too, but after a bit I kind of liked it. The 'chow house' as they call it, was also a large tent, with the concrete block walls inside. It didn't have the hardened roof we have back in Balad, so if you were there when the alarm goes off, everyone hits the floor...even in the chow house. I'll say, you had to be pretty quick to beat the Brits to the floor...one evening I was talking with their pilots, when all of a sudden, I was like the only guy standing for a split second. Don't worry, I was horizontal and falling at terminal velocity (from 3') and found my own little spot to land on and cover my ears, close my eyes and pray. That one landed out on the taxiway, missed our aircraft (whew!). We were all tired of wearing our body armor all the time, too. I have to say, the only thing I liked about being there was getting to talk to the Brit pilots every night while we sat around waiting for a mission. What a hoot! I asked them every question I could think of, we covered all topics: The Queen, Maggie Thatcher, Prince Harry, Prince William, Tony Blair, weather, fishing, hunting, who can own guns, the few Brit police that do carry guns, politics, Princess Diana, Prince Charles, and local rubbish removal (garbage strike troubles in the UK). And of course, I got a lot of pics of the British helicopters there - the Lynx and the Merlin. Pretty cool stuff. The Brit pilots come from all over the UK, and some from Africa, Australia, Europe, and even Fiji. Their military has an interesting retirement plan, you can stay and get full retirement after 22 years, or take a partial (50%) at 12 years. Our basic plan is 20 yrs or nothing .
While talking to the pilots every night, we were introduced to their British cable, and BFBS - British Forces Broadcasting Service. They have a lot of sport channels, soccer, rugby, cricket. Then there's pool tourneys, card tourneys ,dart tourneys, and some of the Brit comedies we've had in the States. Kind of enjoyed all of the music videos...I'm up on all the tunes now, I can probably list 5 of the top 10. Did you know they have a rather large woman who does 'hip-hop signing'? That was something to see...this lady dancing around while signing the lyrics. Ohh boy! The Brits have very nice 'telephone cabins' and 'Internet cabins' to use. A whole different Internet, phone calling system, and even their keyboards are different than ours. Anyone who got an email from me in Basra, saw some of the occasional difficulty I had finding the usual letters, etc.All in all, it was a very worth-while experience to see Basra. It's an interesting place. We did get
to do a very special mission one night. The IA (Iraqi Army) was making a push (door to door)through the last of a bad part of town, and were looking for an individual, an HVT (high value target). If they found him, we were to transport him to another base about 100 miles northwest, and give custody to some Marines. We were normally working 7pm to 7am. They called us at 0345 and said they had him. We launched at 0400, met them at an undisclosed location, and flew him and an extra detainee to the other base, and transferred custody, and we took off. Got back about 0930. We'd been awake and working for a long time. Pretty fun mission.DNR notes - Basra is in the very southeast corner of Iraq. It's the place where the Tigris and the Euphrates join and become the Shaat Al Arab river, which then flows down to the ocean and neighboring Kuwait. Years back, Basra must have been a shipping mecca as there are fairly large ships tied up along shore, and some very large (300'+) ships laying on their side, sunken, and rusting away. This area is one of the oil rich areas in Iraq as well. Lots of refineries, spilled oil, and constantly burning pipes/wells above ground. We can see some burning near the airfield, about 4 miles away. Lots of fishing here, too. I have pics of guys setting gill nets in the river, and lots of people collecting vegetation and fishing in the shallow areas in their push boats...only a few people had a small outboard motor. Can you imagine flying over a wetland that goes from one horizon to the other? You would never expect this in a predominately desert environment.
Unbelievable! I loved it! It even smelled like our wetlands at home. Mostly all cane grass, and lots of other types I obviously couldn't identify while zipping along at 13o mph. Water levels are down here though, we never got the usual amount of winter rainfall. You can easily see some wetlands are dried up, and the ones with water are shallow...it's tough for the canoe/boaters to push their boats through in places. What a great place to do some veg studies...maybe when things settle down a bit more. I'd love to send some water samples home from Iraq, though I can't figure out how to get them past customs...Now back at home plate (Balad...and by the way, this place is like a 3 star hotel compared to Basra) we are busy in the 'starting to pack mode'. We have dates to get a lot of our gear ready to send home. Can't hardly wait!! This has been an incredible experience, but I miss my family too much, and they miss me. We are still flying a lot of missions, while working on the packing lists. Our replacements are busy at Ft Sill (remember last year for us?) and they are on a shorter train-up than we were and will start arriving here late June. So, thanks for all the prayers, boxes of goodies (we're full on snacks and stuff) and the support. We know there is a lot of good going
on here even if you don't hear it at home. All the soldiers are doing a good job at winning the hearts and minds of the people. It was fun to personally thank the Brits for helping in the coalition effort. They were envious of our support networks, and overall support from the majority of our country. They don't get much support at home, but they too are equally angered at global terrorism, just as we are.That's why they serve. We all do this to protect our own soil. Be safe at home, and God Bless you all. We'll stay vigilant, until the last of ours is on their way home. Thanks.
