Basic Training: Photos Archives

June 27, 2006

Abu Ghraib Prison Cell Art

Still working on the tour. In the meantime, here are some murals on the walls of the cells.

June 25, 2006

Tour of Abu Ghraib - preview

I have a bunch of photos to put together a bit of a visual tour of Saddam Hussein's prison at Abu Ghraib. I was unable to get a tour myself, but my buddy there with me the past month had gotten one - the photos come from his camera so Im in the process of editing them down and getting the stories straight. Check back in a couple days for the full tour.

This photo is but a little preview. Recently, 3 inmates at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba committed suicide (apparently believing that that would lead to the prison's closure). Inmates in Saddam's Abu Ghraib were prevented from suicide by binding their hands to their cell bars in the days leading up to their execution. Some of these straps still remain:

Posted by TJ at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)

June 21, 2006

More Abu Ghraib photos

I was walking back to my quarters 2 nights ago and ran across some K-9 training. The photos are a little dark because, although I'm pretty sure it would have been ok, I didn't want to distract the dog.

Some photos of murals from the non-prison areas.

"Welcome, noble guests"

"At your service, oh Jerusalem!" The "BOMB" was most likely one of us trying to make a not-so-subtle point.

The message here is about as subtle as the last. Dome of the rock and combination Iraqi/Palestinian flag being carried by the guy in a kaffiyah. That is Saddam's face smashed off in the upper left. He used to provide the equivalent of $25,000 US to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

I have no idea what this scene dipicts, but it is right in the same area as the other 2.

Posted by TJ at 05:06 PM | Comments (0)

June 06, 2006

Abu Ghraib

Some photos from Abu Ghraib. Im looking into getting a tour of the hard side - Saddam's old prison, that we do not use, and will surely have my camera with me for that.

My promotion ceremony to E-5 (Sergeant)

One of the few murals of Saddam I have seen where his face has not been blasted away by bullets.

Posted by TJ at 09:39 PM | Comments (4)

May 27, 2006

Another storm photo

This is another photo of the sandstorm below, but from a more head-on view.

Posted by TJ at 09:12 AM | Comments (0)

May 14, 2006

Sandstorm

The first 3 photos were taken within a 10 second time period of the same scene.
The last just gives a little perspective.

Posted by TJ at 09:16 PM | Comments (3)

May 12, 2006

Random Photos

A litter of kittens was born under one of our buildings. We aren't allowed to keep pets, so we don't disturb them. It is still fun to watch them play when they venture out into the open, which isn't often as they are feral.

The sunset the evening this photo was taken reflected off a thunderhead. It was the brightest object in the sky for 15 minutes or so.

Another sunset

A friend from DLI stopped by and we went to his DFAC for dinner. It is inside Saddam's old hunting palace. This falcon is made of marble and covers an entire wall.

Very possibly, the only working fountain in Iraq

Posted by TJ at 08:13 PM | Comments (0)

May 11, 2006

Ruck March

We did a ruck march for PT this morning. Took 2 hours. Drove it later and found it was 6 miles. I didn't have too much weight on, but it was the first in a while and good preparation for the 12-mile, 4 hour march the XVIII Airborne Corps requires once per year, which we will do when we get back to Drum.

The blue thing in my pocket is my iPod. In the 2nd photo you can see a white square with blue light on my ruck; that is a speaker. It definately made the time pass quicker.

Some murals from the area of the old Republican Guard barracks.

I don't know what these tracks are from, but it was big.

Posted by TJ at 07:53 PM | Comments (0)

March 26, 2006

Random photos

Turns out it wasn't his birthday after all.

Me in the Blackhawk to Balad.

Random marketplace photos.

Posted by TJ at 04:08 PM | Comments (1)

March 18, 2006

Mission #6 Photos

I know I have photos from my 5th mission still to put up, but I really like these. They were the first chance I've had to interact with the public and as you can see, the kids were definately excited to get the school supplies and toys that many of you have sent.

New visitors can get information about what I am collecting for our brigade to pass out to school-aged children in the Abu Ghraib neighborhood.

As I mentioned the main purpose of the mission was to provide medical care to the people in this village. The line was fairly long.

I don't know how many school supply packets were given out, but there were alot of kids and parents walking home with them.

Some soldiers got in on the fun, too.

The T-shirts say "Choose your future, Iraq!"

Me, with the same 2 kids, looking (and feeling) a bit like the Michelin man.

I only noticed this at the end, but we gave out a few of these home-made wheelchairs as well.

Posted by TJ at 07:05 PM | Comments (0)

March 01, 2006

Mission #4

A long one. Accompanied the infantry out on a patrol. I was driving for about 15 hours straight, which means lots of leg cramps. At least it was a fairly nice day and we were able to get out a few times and stretch.

This group of kids waited around at least 45 minutes down the road from us when we were at a stop. I guess they are getting used to us throwing candy to them because wherever we went, they were asking for some.

Thumbs up!

The 3 kids who live at this house are now the happy owners of one of our school supply kits.

Qusay Hussein's palace.

Posted by TJ at 02:34 PM | Comments (1)

February 28, 2006

Mission #3

Had my trip outside the wire on the 23rd. I was the driver:

As you can see, not a lot of room in those things with all that armor on. I still think before any more armor is added to what we wear, technology needs to advance so we can get the same protection with less weight. I feel that for me, more armor would be detrimental. Please don't let the media or your politicians trick you into thinking we are not being protected as much as possible. People that need the armor are getting it and as for those occurances like the soldier who had to pay for his destroyed insert plates, the army is a massive bureaucracy and although it sometimes takes a while to get through the red tape, this type of thing usually gets sorted out in the end.

A couple random photos

Posted by TJ at 02:15 PM | Comments (2)

February 19, 2006

Murals I

All over the walls here can be found murals, mostly words. I would have to guess they were done by Republican Guard units, because this area is quite nice and from the content, they were obviously done by soldiers.

"All of Iraq cries out, Saddam! The glory of the nation."

"Iraqis have faith that their leader will burn the hopes of the American"

"Our triumph"

"Death to America, the enemy of the people"

"Yes! Yes! The leader! Saddam Hussein!"

Posted by TJ at 11:22 PM | Comments (1)

February 03, 2006

Mission #2

My second mission outside the base was thankfully quiet and boring.

The buildings are pretty much all constructed of cinder blocks. The mortar looks to be the mud that is all over the place right now - it definately has the consistency of heavy clay. Hundreds of years ago, they probably used it like adobe to build the blocks as well. The roof seems to be the same mud layered with palm fronds from the trees you see growing in the background.

The roads are almost all lined with piles of trash - tires, bottles, cans. Every once in a while you see where someone just backed up a truck and dumped it. Apparently Saddam would make trash crews out of some in disfavor and others would simply dump on the road for them to pick up. Whether this is all left over from then, or people are just haven't broken out of the habit, I don't know.

The mission was a ride along with an infantry unit out to do some meet-and-greet type stuff in a tiny village. There were only 10 or 15 houses and not very many people at all out and about. These 2 kids were very cute. The older girl quickly overcame her initial shyness and was quite the flirt after a few minutes.

Posted by TJ at 02:14 PM | Comments (0)

Christmas photos

Better late than never.

Outside the chow hall.

This was the roof of a building where I think the laundry workers live.

Posted by TJ at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2005

Fun with care packages

Someone was sent a 24oz bottle of Hunts Ketchup in a care package. Since we don't do any of our own cooking, it ended up in the common area for anyone to grab who wants it. I was right there when the conversation occurred and I'm still not quite sure how it happened, but one of the sergeants from the 2-48th MI company accepted the challenge of drinking it. The only caveat was, like in the Nathan's hotdog eating contest, he had to hold it down until he got off the stage. As far as I know, 10 hours later, he still has.

This is gonna be easy.

Ugh. Not even halfway gone.

Just hold it down...

Hey, I think I may actually do this.

Easiest $40 I ever made.

Posted by TJ at 08:06 PM | Comments (2)

October 17, 2005

Sandstorm

We had a bit of a sandstorm today, although I am told it was more of a duststorm. Apparently it gets much worse. Most days there is a little dust in the air and you can almost always taste it and feel it when you breathe. Today was something else, you had to cover your eyes and mouth just to walk 100m outside. At dinner, I kept biting down on grains that had lodged between my teeth during the day. It wwas not actually much wind, but as you can see from the photo below, two photos taken of the same view, it was something...

UPDATE: I did an update here a couple days ago but for some reason, it didn't take. Anyway, here is another photo that adds a little prespective. The closest trees are about 10 feet away.

Posted by TJ at 08:15 PM | Comments (1)

October 06, 2005

The teams

Day shift.

Swing shift.

Night shift.

Posted by TJ at 08:29 PM | Comments (0)

October 03, 2005

Range Rovers don't float

What's that in the water?

Whoops!

Posted by TJ at 06:37 PM | Comments (1)

September 22, 2005

Photos

This is a mosque that Saddam was building. When finished it will be the largest in the world. I've had some friends drive by it and it is immense. I believe the little domes around it are as big as the one in my previous set of photos. We can only see this on very clear days, as it is usually obscured by the haze of sand that always seems to be in the air, so this isnt a great photo.