"Kirkuk or Bust" Kirkuk Travelogue by miketranel

Sunday, July 13 went to my last American event before I headed overseas - The Texas Rangers. I did not know it at the time, but the irony was written all over that game. It was hot, a long game and a lot of sitting. There was a lot of irony in that game and what was about to happen on my way to Kirkuk Regional Air Base (KRAB).

Monday, July 14 departed for the DFW airport at 1030 and the plane departing towards Kirkuk with layovers at Balitmore, Germany and Kuwait City was leaving at 1330. Airport security went very well at DFW especially since I did not have a weapon or ammo that I had to carry (I was swapping M16's with the guy I was replacing once I got over there). We landed at Baltimore and had a couple hour lay over so we decided to have a last beer for a while. Departed Balitmore around 2000 and landed at Germany around 1100 German time. Laid over there for a few hours and caught my first 2 hour nap at the USO since the previous 24 hours. With me being as tall as I am the commercial flights do not give me any leg room. Sleeping was not going to happen all cramped up in an ecomony seat. We flew from Germany to Kuwait City which was another 5 hour flight on top of the 3 hour flight to Baltimore and the 7 hour flight to Germany.

The ROCK II also known as Ali Al Salam

36 hours later with 15 hours and 8 hour time difference and 2 hours of sleep, I was worn. The offloaded us and took us by bus to a holding area (similar to a commercial terminal), but drastically less comfortable. The holding area was outside and was our first exposure to the lovely climate here. There was no skyline (well maybe there was) but you could not see it do to all the dust particles in the sky. Our holding area was outside under some open tents and camoflouge. It was a lovely 101 degrees at 0000 local. After sitting in the holding area for an hour or so we took an escorted ride to Ali Al Salam about an hour from the airport. We arrived at Ali Al Salam around 0100 and inprocessed; got our indvidual body armor (IBA) and chemical warefare gear. We went to our lodging for the night (Or longer since we had no itinerary for a future departure). Ah yes, tent city was or place or rest. After getting some chow and uunpacking a little a nice rat/mouse was paying us a visit in the tent. Not only could I confirm the sighting of the rat, but he had left me several "presents" on my mattress. After a day and half, we got a standby flight out to Kirkuk.

Entrance to lovely KRAB

Only 35 folks and one pallet on board a C-130, so there was a little room but not much. We were still interlocking knees and theose lovely lawnchair strap type seat cushions can make a butt go numb quickly. Once on board we were instructed we had to wear our body armor and kevlar helmet due to flying into a potential hostile area. We landed without incidence and scurried across the flight line to improcess. We got to our rooms about 2230 and crashed before we had to wake up at 0700 for work. I am working in the small computer shop where we troubleshoot various hardware, software and printer issues. The shop consists of 3 Airman and 2 TSgts (me being one of them). Our hours are from 0700 to 1900 everyday 6 days a week. The time goes by pretty quick so far. This is the only base in the area that the security forces are solely Air Force, which I like. The average daily high here is 113 degrees, but I try and stay inside the A/C working on the computers, so it is not to bad. Our dorms have 6 bunkbeds and we have 6 sleeping in a room, but I expect us to loose a few folks in the next few days due to some rotating back the the U.S.

The place I live - the office

Nice thing about being a TSgt is that I get my own office.