More pictures from Larry

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More pictures from Larry
The sun here is, well like the sun, only hotter!
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The transient housing conditions in Kuwait were
bare bones to say the least. This is one of the
tent cities there.
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We got to stay in one of these. Theyre air
conditioned too (thank God)
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The inside of our accommodations on the way to
Iraq.
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A porta John after a sand storm. You havent
lived till youve used one of these in 125 degree
heat!
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A Starbucks in the sand. This is near Udari Army
Airfield, Kuwait. Literally built in the sand,
like everything else.
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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.
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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.
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The outer T walls are quite substantial. If one
fell on your CHU, it would crush it like a beer
can.
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This is the inside of my CHU. Its like Motel 6,
only different.
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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.
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A standard AK-47, actually a pretty good weapon,
but not the most accurate.
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Its a real bitch holding the muzzle down on this
thing on full auto!
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These are MIG-23Bs in the boneyard here
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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.
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This is a painting on the wall inside our TOC. It
used to be a headquarters building for one of
Saddams MIG-23 squadrons
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Some contractors build this Outhouse Hilton out
on the flight line. Notice the air conditioner
on the side? Cool Eh?
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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 300 in the morning, and
CV-22s hovering by.
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These are some really noisy bastards
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Good aerial view of part of the base.
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This is a HASS, for Hardened Aircraft Storage
Structure These are quite substantial structures.
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Heres one of the blast doors on the end of the
HASS It takes a pretty good size bomb to hurt
these.
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An Apache getting ready to depart
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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.
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A Predator UAV coming in to land.
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This is a C-17. One big airplane.
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This is at a FAARP (forward area arming and
refueling point). You can get fuel, ammunition,
rockets and missiles all in one place.
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Hawks moving troops in and out all day long.
Converting dollars and jet fuel into noise.
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Pre flighted, pre combat checks done, and ready
to go.
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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.
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This isnt the fake glue on holes you can buy.
This damage is from a mortar that landed behind
it in the parking lot.
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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
.
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One of the many Mosques that are everywhere. The
following are some generic pictures Ive taken
around Baghdad and other places.
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This is short final to one of the helipads
downtown Baghdad. Its always busy here at all
hours.
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This tower is visible from one of the main
helipads. They say Saddam used to use this tower
for public hangings.
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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.
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I think this is one of the ministry buildings
that had the shit blown out of it during the
initial assault years ago.
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We call this the Aztec building. Its also been
bombed out. The inside is destroyed. Its a cool
looking building though.
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Howd you like to try and drive through this mess.
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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.