During my 2004 deployment I was part of several logistics convoys that went up to Balad to pick up parts, supplies, etc. I spent 10 days there atttending a HAZMAT handling course. It's the base where I picked up my fear of dying in a Port-O-John.
Hell, when I wanted to buy the DVD box set of Babylon 5: Season 2 and it was sold out on Camp Victory I hopped on the first convoy to Balad I could get on to get it there...it was sold out in Balad too. That's right, I risked my life to drive 2 hours in a non armored HMMWV into the Sunni Triangle with all of its IEDs, small arms fire, rockets, mortars, and RPGs just for Babylon 5.
Hey, it's a good season.
With characters like Londo here I would have driven through Sadr City to get season 3I wonder what the mad mortarman of Balad is going to do now that there are no more US forces at the base...
As one of the last US forces on Balad, I can say with confidence the base has been raided of 80-90% of everything that wasn't nailed down (50% of that is probably gone, too, but now we are just getting into conjecture). Our unit's final days were spent trying to shoo away a pesky and pernicious fence-cutting teen who wanted first pick through our leftovers.
ReplyDeleteThe final days were quiet. Quite quiet. The bazaar had been shut down and despite threats of the newly unemployed vendors unleashing fury on the occupiers who would no longer be paying for knockoff knick-knacks, the mortars never rained down.
--Cheers--
Abu Shockr
Glad to hear that leaving was fairly uneventful. I know there was some concern on what kind of threat, if any, the last units in Iraq would face.
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