4

Time to fly again, after spending 40 hours in Kuwait we headed to Ali-al-Saleem Airbase for our flight out on an Air Force C-17. The airbase is completely run by coalition. There are planes there from all of the Iraq participants. The interesting thing is seeing all of the "bomb-proof" bunkers that the Iraqis tried to hide their planes in during the first Gulf War. All of them had gaping holes from Cruise Missiles or B-17 strikes. The land that the airbase sits on is desolate. The winds blow constantly and the sand stings your face. There are still sheep herders out of the highway steering sheep from one patch of impossibly growing grass to the next. Our flight time was 6 hours into Bagram. The flight went by quickly thanks to comforts of modern technology, most importantly the Ipod Touch and the PSP. If you don't have an Iphone or a touch, you need to get one. Matt H. is pictured in the C-17. We went to school back together back in the day and now he commands in our BDE. He deployed early so that he could get all of his aircraft out of Bagram that were coming from the States.