Forum: Air Force Life

Hey guys,

I'm going to be heading over to Balad in the near future and I just had a few questions for anybody that's been over there recently-

- How are the living conditions for enlisted personnel?
- What are the MX work areas like? (the tools and equipment, as well as the buildings themselves)
- Any cool/interesting things to see on the base? (Scrapped MiGs, other leftovers from the old regime, etc.)
- Any extra items you reccomend bringing or not bringing?
- Frequency of attacks?

That's all I've got for now, any other comments and/or advice will be greatly appreciated.

As always, keep OPSEC in mind while typing responses.

Thanks in advance.

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Try the pizza hut toasted subs, so good! The subway is horrible, eat the sandwhiches at the chow hall, it's free. King crab legs atleast once a week, the food is great.

The tools and equipment are what you (you're home unit) brings for the trip. The AF BX is Tiny, but gets the job done. The Army PX, about a 2 or 3 mile walk, is much larger. I was there a few months ago and there didn't seem to be any shortages of anything. You may want to bring a small portable DVD player and movies. Keep in mind that you'll have to carry EVERYTHING you bring. Some of our guys and gals packed everything you could think of, and their backs paid the price for days. Your unit should have a pretty detailed list of do's and don'ts of what to bring.

The food is pretty darn good at the DFAC's.

If you in any kind of upgrade training, bring your CDC's. You'll have more time on your hands than you'll know what to do with. Great chance to knock out a course.

Don't bring anything from home....seriously. Everything you could want possibly you can get there. No sense dragging a buncha crap with you.
The E side of the base takes the most fire, but again, its supposed to be "indirect"....and it was when I was there for the most part. No sense worrying about it though. Its as random as anything else.
I like the idea about the CDCs. I got a BUNCH of training done and worked on my degree on the net.
There isn't much interesting to see, except all the HAS have patched holes in the ceilings and shrapnel holes in the walls from Desert Storm. I guess the MiGs are still there, but I'd heard they were going to be carted off.
The pool and theater are the 2 best things on base....and the Burger King, but the wait was alsways horrendous.
Avoid DFAC 4......there isn't a reason for you to go there really, but the temptation to go to a different DFAC is there....just to break the monotony.

I agree with what everyone has said thus far, there are 2 PXs there. Most AF personnel live in trailers, airmen about 8 to a room, junior NCOs 2 to a room, SNCOs might be 2 to a room or even have their own room. Don't know much about DFAC 4 I was closer to DFAC 2 so that is where I ate.
Here is some humor about Balad thought up from the people who were stationed there from Sept 05-Feb 06. From the following list the AF personnel voted on the 10 best and put that on a t-shirt. Cheers

TOP 50 YOU KNOW YOU ARE AT BALAD WHEN………
…. watching porn means catching Desperate Housewives on AFN
…. you run in terror from a controlled detonation your first week then stand in the open and watch real mortars landing yards away a month later.
…. the most intimate contact you've had in months is with the shower curtain in the cadillac.
…. winning a dodge ball tournament is like winning the World Series or the Super Bowl
…. your most successful pick up line is "I've got a vehicle".
…..You’d trade a month’s per diem for an empty dryer that works
…..All the Air Force people look like glow in the dark power rangers and you can’t see the army folks.
.… your 6:00 am wakeup call is “Boom….Alarm Red, Alarm Red, Alarm Red”
…. “We are U ready” is proper English
…. they actually give the Air Force weapons
…. you give directions using bunker murals
…..you realize AAFES is there own country, and can print their own money.
….. The amount of sand in you’re boots is only surpassed by the amount in you’re nose.
…… the F-16 wakeup call sounds like its coming from your wall locker.
….. KBR provides free purple tie-die t-shirts and short sleeve DCU service after each washing
…..Something as simple as taking a shower or going to the bathroom at 2:00 in the morning requires preparation equal to the Apollo moon landing.
….. the Texas Style Brisket is not from Texas, is not brisket and has no style.
….. you are more worried about your socks showing while in PT gear then getting hit by a mortar.
….you are watching a “chick-flick” with 300 guys with machine guns.
…you start sending out care packages to needy friends back home because you’ve received too many
…..You attend several Services’ theme parties but you’re always in PT gear or DCUs!
…your internet connection is twice as slow as your old dial-up connection back home
…you’re lying under your bed in IBE saying to your spouse, “No, nothing exciting happened today” and you mean it
….You can buy vehicles from AAFES but paper towels are no where to be found.
….You use the term “War is hell” in the DFAC while watching a movie on the big screen TV and eating Steak, Lobster and Baskin-Robbins ice cream
…. You know Army TOA is really code-word for “hold on to your stuff”
…. Your lunch leftovers are covered with crème sauce and raisons and magically becomes the “dinner surprise”
…..You live in gated community and your home is still a trailer
….your idea of PT is that morning sprint to the porta-john.
…. your idea of a road trip is going to the west side PX.
….your roommate drops his boot and you drive for cover
….You are caught way over the speed limit and you are going 22MPH
….Your helmet is referred to as a, “Combat cup holder”
…. incoming mortar fire at 0630 is your wake up call for morning chow
…. You’re idea of a night on the town is going to DFAC 4
….. the Cadillac you are sitting in is not a car!
…. DWI means driving while inhaling
…. the grass is always greener but you still wouldn’t want to be on that side of the fence.
….. Dusting the furniture has a whole new meaning.
….. ”Pimp my ride” means putting doors on your Hummer!”
…. “Your Cadillac seats are porcelain instead of leather”
…. U2 is hitting the charts again
…. you start using Alarm Red as a reason why you didn’t call your wife/husband!
…. You put tick marks on your boonie cap to mark the number of Alarm Reds.
…. you buy a new PT shirt to update your wardrobe
…. The local community holds fireworks displays everyday in your honor
…. Driving over curbs seems totally natural
…. The outcome of the war hinges on how you wear your reflective belt
…. you see a guy in full battle gear driving a humvee trying not to spill his latte’
…. It feels normal to dry your hands at the DFAC on toilet paper

This is good info for all. As a old timer who can't play any longer I'm glad to hear that the food is decent, and I'll even pay more in taxes to make it better and bring everyone home safe.

yeah - there's definately some good t shirt material on that top 50 list. We're headed for Balad pretty soon. Definately some good scoop on this thread. Please keep it coming!
Not Worthy

Quote:

you run in terror from a controlled detonation your first week then stand in the open and watch real mortars landing yards away a month later

LOL!! You know it's funny the things you get used to. It sounds stupid, but after while you just become completely blase about the attacks. Little things piss you off to no end....lost stuff in the laundr, the BX is out of Dr. Pepper, the same idiotic PSAs on AFN....but some guy lobbing mortars at you is a yawner. Now, for a while there we had a dude called 5 o'clock Hadji, who for about 2 weeks consistently hit the base between 1700 and 1800. If you were in line at the DFAC, you had to go to the bunker....wait an hour for panther to clear you, then the line was stacked around the corner. THAT will piss you off. After a while, you have conversations that start with "is that incoming or outgoing?" that seem perfectly normal. You figure if you heard it, it didn't hit you. I know its not really something to be taken lightly...and we had people killed and hurt very badly on the base while I was there, but there just isn't anything you can do about it. The ridiculous part was when and where to wear your IBAs. It just seemed so irrational to get jocked up to go eat or to work....in a building, but I never saw anybody taking an IBA into the can, or sleep with 'em. You run just as good a risk of having something drop in your lap leaving a shi'ite as you do anywhere else at any time. Having said that, there were a couple of cases where somebody got hit wearing their armor and it saved 'em.

Quote:

You can buy vehicles from AAFES but paper towels are no where to be found.

Quote:

You’re idea of a night on the town is going to DFAC 4

YUp.....'cept 4 was our "home" so when we just couldn't take it any longer, we'd mount up and have "date night" and head to 2 for a night on the town. Again, this sounds really dumb, but it actually became a big deal and you really enjoy it....anything different is a good thing.

Quote:

You are caught way over the speed limit and you are going 22MPH

TINS....those MPs are serious about that shi'ite. The group that was there when I was there was merciless. They pulled us over in the fire truck responding to a call once, and then follwed us there to make sure we weren't BSing them.

I'll be going sometime soon too, but from what I've heard from my guys who went last year it wasn't all that great. 12-14 hour shifts on the flightline so there wasn't much time for anything else other than laundry and the bed. People getting denied entry into the chowhall because their uniforms were too dirty (just got off work). Chow runners not bringing back enough chow to the line, etc. They were living in tents last year and ended up with a lot of flood water in a few of them.

I hope things have changed...I'm still looking forward to my first trip there. Cheers

There is NO reason whatsoever for anybody to be living in a tent on that base. If that's really what's happening then its a disgrace. We've been there coming up on 4 years.....could have built a 50 story dorm by now. Geez, we were the redheaded step children, and it only took me 3 weeks to get decent housing for my guys. I'd have thought T-Town was long gone by now.

The DFAC sitaution was in issue 3 years ago....I can't imagine it's still going on. I recall vividly that it was a stryker brigade group that was denied entry to DFAC 4 after coming back from a convoy mission in which they got hit hard and lost some guys, plus some KBR truckers. That caused MAJOR heartburn and you'd think somebody would have fixed petty horsecrap like that. Its called a war zone for a reason folks.

The food wasn't bad, its just that gravy covered mystery meat 35 days in a row for lunch gets to you. Fried shrimp nite was always a treat, and occasionally the lobster was not bad at all. Still, tough and chewy lobster in Iraq beats the living crap outta most anything else. They were always out of ranch dressing though. My wife would send me care packages of nothing but sugar free Kool-Aid and ranch dressing....and the occasional bottlle of "special" mouthwash.

Thanks for the info guys, if there are any other bits of information or advice, by all means, please post it.

BTW, what's the base policy for picture-taking? I know that they were Nazi's about it at the 'Deid during my last deployment.

I don't know what the policy is on photos. I do know while on a 'Passport Tour' of different places on the base (i.e. F-16s, fire dept, tower, predators,etc) they let us know if we could take pictures. As for the tent thing, I'm not sure, I know when I was there pretty much all AF was in trailers and you lived in a tent if you were inbound waiting for a trailer to open up or outbound and opening up a spot for someone inbound.

The tent time was last January when my guys were there. I think they were just opening up trailers for them as they were getting ready to come home. I think our pilots had trailers, but the Crew Chiefs and mx folks were still in tents.

Not sure about the photo policy, but I've seen a lot of pictures from the guys in my unit, and I plan on bringing a camera. Smile

I never had a single issue taking pictures, BUT having said that I was in the fire dept. and knew all the SP folks. I went once over to take some good static stuff of the 421st and got a super guy to shepherd me around but mostly I just stood on the apron of the fire station and shot both still and video. I know guys shot from the tower as well.

The army/navy was the same way....I knew everybody on the flightline and when I wanted something I'd just pop in and say "hey, I'm taking a buncha pix of your birds if that's ok?".

I also discovered that people are willing to let you take pictures of practically anything if you promise to make some sort of powerpoint presentation using them. I learned to use powerpoint over there, and made some good safety stuff actually, but man....just mention powerpoint and you can't take enough pictures.

The key is to always ask first and make friends. I dealt one time with a guy from 332nd PA, and he was very nice.....not there anymore I'm sure, but that'd also be another route. As many pix as there are of Balad ops floating around out there its obviously being done, but again the best thing is to make sure you get it cleared.

Forum: Air Force Life

Life at Balad