Day 7- Balad, Iraq
posted 10.27.10 at 12:00 am
Day 7 of our USO/National Cartoonists Society drawing tour of the middle east landed us in Balad, Iraq.
(To go to day 1 and start at the beginning, click here...)
Compared to the gravity of yesterday in Baghdad, today was a cakewalk. And believe me, when I say a day in the Middle East was a cakewalk, you can take that to the bank. Every day is difficult here; the heat is relentless, and the flies are as persistent as NYC pigeons (and just as big). One relatively interesting annoy thing about the desert, or rather, the desert in this part of the world: the sand isn't sand like we're use to, it's much finer, and kicks up in clouds when you walk on it, and gets all over the place. This makes it almost impossible to wear contacts on your eyeballs, as I usually do. Luckily for me I had ordered new glasses that came in just before we left, and pretty much for the second half of the trip, these were all I wore.
Another early morning, we spent a few hours early on in Baghdad, waiting for our C-130 to arrive. The heat was exhausting, even at 8 or so in the morning, as it was when we posed for this.
When we arrived in Balad, we got a cool tour of the grounds, and after lunch were treated to a tour of the machine shop that repairs all the armored transport vehicles. Whenever one of these things hits an IED (Improvised Explosive Device, or a mine), these things are designed to take the brunt of the blast, and protect everyone inside. This shop is where they're assessed to see if they can be repaired, and if so, parts are ordered and all the work is done. Super cool!
Does it come in black?
All these trucks are equiped with all the latest cool gadgetry, like night vision and heat vision, seen here, shooting our group.
These things are definitely not built for luxury or comfort. Note the sign on the right of the window.
Cruisin'....
This is a great shot of a bunch of cartoonists trying to figure out where we are. This is not staged.
I realized I don't have enough shots on this blog of us actually drawing! I'll try to remedy that in the next few days. For now, here's some of us in action.
We drew soldiers like this for a few hours a day. This guy gave me pictures of his kids and wife back home, so I drew all them along with him one that sheet.
I tried to streamline my luggage when I packed for this trip by switching to smaller paper and a cool little paper holder/desk thing. I much prefer to draw big, and if I take another one of these trips, will definitely bring the paper and tools I'm used to.
To commemorate our last full day of the tour, I bought a cigar from the PX, and a few others said they would too. Nobody else did, and I was stuck with a cheap stinky cigar, much to Ray's confusion.
On the way to our last C-130 ride the next morning back to Kuwait, I snuck these pictures...
Cool!
During our last ride, roughly and hour and half, word got out to the crew that there were cartoonists on the flight. They asked if myself and Ray, the two caricature guys, would come up to the cockpit and draw them. They even let us wear the headsets to hear all the chatter between the control towers and them!
I'm way too tall for this.
Coming in for a landing in Kuwait. In the foreground there is the GI Joe Ray brought with him for photo ops. It's a long story...
The ceiling of the cockpit. I don't know where they usually go, but I checked: there wasn't a Hooters for hundreds and hundreds of miles from anywhere we've flown this week. Oh well.
Back in Kuwait, saying goodbye to our noisy plane.
We got back our hotel and had a few hours to recuperate before the long flight back to the states. Some guys hit the pool, I slept! So much for my Middle Eastern tan.
The USO was kind enough to take us to dinner on our last night, an Argentinian steakhouse connected to our hotel/compound!
The biggest fillet mignon I've ever seen, much less eaten.
No, it wan't camel.
Dave, on the right, the vegetarian, was THRILLED to be at a steakhouse. With no booze.
Non-alcoholic, sugary drinks abound!
(I think these two had been in the desert too long... Ha!)
Thus began our 15 hour flight to the states.
In the Kuwaiti airport, though there's no pictures allowed(!), I had to get special permission to take this shot, as this poster really struck me as very odd and fitting for the region. This is a typical airport ad, for a kuwaiti banking firm.
Take a good look at the family here (note that this is not a parody or meant to be funny or silly in any way):
Of all the sights I've seen in the past week, this one image sums up everything I've learned about the Middle East. The text basically implies that if you trust your money to this company, you'll have more time to spend with your family. This is what they mean by a happy family:
Makes you appreciate how goood we all have it in America.
out about
4 comments so far...
Beautiful job, Ed! I loved it! I'm only up to day two on my website - I'm hoping to be finished before our next trip to Iraq.
Posted by Chad "Icebox" on October 27 at 11:58 PM
Tracy looks like she's thrilled with you clowns. Did the C-130 pilots make you hold the poop bag after yamistem?
Posted by Tom on October 28 at 12:40 AM
Awesome stuff Ed. I'm a veteran and appreciate what you guys did for our military
Posted by Scott C. Hamilton on October 28 at 7:44 PM
What an experience this must have been.
Anything that boosts the moral of our troops is a great thing!
Posted by David Paccia on November 3 at 2:29 PM
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