More pictures from Larry

The sun here is, well like the sun, only hotter!

The transient housing conditions in Kuwait were bare bones to say the least.
This is one of the tent cities there.

We got to stay in one of these. Theyre air conditioned too (thank God)

The inside of our accommodations on the way to Iraq.

A porta John after a sand storm. You havent lived till youve used one of these in 125
degree heat!

A Starbucks in the sand. This is near Udari Army Airfield, Kuwait. Literally built in the
sand, like everything else.

IRAQ
After arriving Iraq, we got assigned our living quarters. Our housing areas are
containerized housing units, or CHUs for short. They are set up and surrounded by
large concrete T walls to protect from shrapnel damage, or bullets. Im lucky that mine
has a bathroom inside (called a wet CHU). Others have to go to another trailer for
showers or to the bathroom. Here is a view of the outside of U pod.

Here is in side the pod. This is the view outside my CHU. More T walls
and CHUs. As long as a mortar doesnt land square on top of your pod,
you should be OK.

The outer T walls are quite substantial. If one fell on your

CHU, it would crush it like a beer can.

This is the inside of my CHU. Its like Motel 6, only different.

The following slides are pictures of some of the equipment (boy toys). This is a
ZPU-4 Its 4, 14.7 mm Machine guns mounted to a chassis- bad Ju Ju for aircraft.

A standard AK-47, actually

a pretty good weapon, but
not the most accurate.

Its a real bitch holding the muzzle

down on this thing on full auto!

These are MIG-23Bs in the

boneyard here

Remnants of soviet built equipment the Iraqis had (a BMP and a BRDM I think) There
is lots of blown up stuff around, if you look.

This is a painting on the wall

inside our TOC. It used to be a
headquarters building for one of
Saddams MIG-23 squadrons

Some contractors build this Outhouse Hilton out on the flight line. Notice the
air conditioner on the side? Cool Eh?

Some flight line pictures. Pods with CHUs are in the background. Its
hard to sleep so close to the flight line and runway with F-16s taking off
in full afterburner at 3:00 in the morning, and CV-22s hovering by.

These are some really noisy bastards

Good aerial view of part of the base.

This is a HASS, for Hardened Aircraft Storage Structure These are

quite substantial structures.

Heres one of the blast doors on the end of the HASS It takes a
pretty good size bomb to hurt these.

An Apache getting ready to depart

This is a Russian made Ilyushin IL-76 used to fly cargo into here by contractors. Its old
technology like the C-141 the US used to use. They take a lot of runway to get airborne.

A Predator UAV coming in to land.

This is a C-17. One big airplane.

This is at a FAARP (forward area arming and refueling point). You can
get fuel, ammunition, rockets and missiles all in one place.

Hawks moving troops in and out all day long. Converting dollars and jet fuel into noise.

Pre flighted, pre combat checks done, and ready to go.

This is the micro climate vest. The umbilical(in my left hand) gets hooked into the aircraft
and chilled glycol circulates into the tubing, helping keep us cooler. It feels like a cool
shower when its turned on. It works pretty good. When it fails on a hot day, life sucks.
Youre wearing a flight suit top, bullet proof vest, and a survival vest over the thing.

This isnt the fake glue on holes you can buy. This damage is from a mortar that
landed behind it in the parking lot.

This is the Euphrates river. I routinely fly over the Tigris too. I have also flown
by the city of Babylon, which dates back to the third millennium .

One of the many Mosques that are everywhere. The following are some
generic pictures Ive taken around Baghdad and other places.

This is short final to one of the helipads downtown Baghdad. Its

always busy here at all hours.

This tower is visible from one

of the main helipads. They say
Saddam used to use this tower
for public hangings.

Here is a close up of the same

tower. I guess the hangmans
noose confirms the story. Too bad
we cant do similar things in the
U.S. for certain crimes.

I think this is one of the ministry buildings that had the shit blown out of it
during the initial assault years ago.

We call this the Aztec building. Its also been bombed out. The
inside is destroyed. Its a cool looking building though.

Howd you like to try and drive through this mess.

These are the famous crossed sabers that you see in the media a lot.

Well the file is getting really big, so Ill stop here. Ill send more later.