Balad the Beautiful

Concrete and more concrete; you walk on it, you walk between it, you ride by it and you work under it. Balad scenery; but for a purpose.
Joint Base Balad (JBB) or Balad Air Base or Logistic Support Area or LSA Anaconda is one of the largest American military bases on foreign soil. Also referred to "Big Snake" or "Mortaritaville", hense the importance of all the concrete barriers. Not all that attractive but it may help save a life.

Except for food, the base is totally self sufficient. The water is piped in from local canals and filtered and bottled right here. The base goes through 50,000 bottles of water a day. The plastic bottles are made here as well. Additional water is shipped to all the other bases. If you have all of these concrete barriers, then you will have your own cement plant. All contruction is also done by on base contactors. There are acres of truck, and storage areas as well as huge convoys that bring in supplies for all of the bases; a huge local distribution center for everything.

Everything is tan or grey. There are hardened shelters that were built in the 80's as at one time this was the most important airfield in Iraq of the iraqi air force. It has four hardened areas with about 30 individual airctaft shelters

The base is about 68 miles north of Bagdad in the Sunni triangle. There are about 5,000 USAF personnel and 10-15,000 Army personnel. Another 10,000 are contractors and support workers that run everything from the laundries to the dining facilities. The base can be expanded to accommodate up to 35,000. Scattered trough out the base are structures that were once part of the Iraqi base as well as the Iraqi air academy.

Most of the new contruction has a double layer which provides a shell or covering that protects the roof from incoming mortars. The perimeters of the buldings are all surrounded by the concrete T-barrier that would protect the building if something should land outside. Again, function over form.

Scattered through out the base are the hardened structure that have been converted either for storage or as aircraft hangars.

Not too far from the hospital is a mosque. Note the nice layer of dust that settles everywhere.

As far as a sunset, this is about as clear as it gets with the ubiquitous barb wire everywhere.