Traveling Around The Country

I have been traveling around the country for the last couple of weeks.

But today, I am back at home (my home away from home) near Baghdad on Camp Victory.  I recently posted, "Shhhhhh. Don't Tell Anyone We Are In A War Zone."

However, while traveling I was reminded that we are certainly in a war zone.  Of course, we cannot drive and airports are few and far between.  Iraq is about twice as big as the state of Idaho. One of the sites we visited is Taji, 26 miles from Baghdad or about a 30 minute ride by car if we could drive on a interstate type highway.  Instead, we have to show up on stand by only at the helicopter pad about 5 hours before departure. The HELO ride is about an hour with a stop for refueling and follows a "tactical" route that varies each flight.  They do not fly a consistent pattern or at the same time each day.  If they did, the enemy could sit in position and try to shoot at them.  

Most of our flights were in Black Hawks. Every flight is at least two helicopters.  In the Black Hawks there is a gunner on each side. A Black Hawk holds about 15 passengers so about 30 per trip if there is no cargo.  

Flying in the Black Hawks, I opted for the window seat behind the gunner where I could see the country side.  I saw Iraqis going about their business, many buildings in Baghdad, open air markets along the road, 4-lane limited access highways, irrigation canals, and green crops growing in the desert.  I could have been flying low over the grain sorghum crops of West Texas or Kansas. 

On the Chinook there is a gunner on each side and one in the back. Below is a picture with a Chinook in the background.  It appears my helmet and chin strap are a little skewed.

Two weeks were required to visit just one day at each site that are less than 100-150 miles apart.  Even though the visits were just one day each, travel between site required 1 - 2 days and typically hours and hours of waiting in the passenger waiting areas. 

Below is a photo of my traveling companion at the same landing pad.  There was no airport at this base where we stopped to unload some passengers and cargo.

Below is picture of the motor vehicle in the parking lot outside our living quarters; more about living quarters later.