Right. So once we "secured" Basrah (oh joy), Division Main moved up to Basrah Intl. Airport. Big, fancy marble place. Kinda weird to see an airport in the middle of NO WHERE (Makes that Mid-America Airport in Bellville look metropolitan) Once they got the electric going again it wasn't too bad. Without A/C though it was muggy. But even still, way too many high-level officers for my taste.
Us, however, moved into the lovely Shaibah airbase. Originally built in the 1920s by the British...how's that for irony? Anyway, we bombed the crap out of it in 91 during Gulf War 1. (Has this war been given an official name yet?) It's been abandoned since then. Most buildings are total crap, and were literally FILLED with crap. As in, we had to shovel and clean it all out before moving in. No running water, no electricity (we live on generators), NO AIRCONDITIONING! And it's now reached the point of oncoming summer that it's literally 100+ degrees every day. And it's just gonna get hotter. Oh joy.
Anyway, this being where I took the most pictures, I'm not loading them all into just one page, so click the links to see them:
My bedroom...well, the bedroom for 5 of us
Toilets. Well, a bit better than at the DSG camp
"The Pipe" For us guys....less private but rather simple to use.
And speaking of washing, just to prove that I know how to do laundry: Washing!
Challenger II Tank. The Bristish Main Battle Tank, big toy of the 7th Armoured Brigade
Harley? Yes, made by their Australian subsidary. Sadly, that was just visiting and I didn't get a chance to ride it.
Major Weber The UK Group's commander, doing what you almost NEVER see a major do: work
Peace For War SGT Peace, one of the UK guys. Also the instigator of the daily Deathmatch games.
Even Sergeant Majors get tired....but we actually caught our (ok, the UK's) taking a nap.
Tanks for the memories! One of the blown-out Iraqi tanks we....well, blew up!
Conquering hero Ok, so I didn't really kill that tank myself, but still...
And again A different tank (there's a lot of blown-out tanks around here). With a UK Lt. Colonel, who runs the radio station they set up.
And finally....what happens when you get send a lot of chilren-sized T-Shirts to a bunch child-like Brits: Something Monty Python would be proud of.
