Baghdad Sites

I was excited to see the next batch of pictures that Jed sent to me last night.  We had a good time talking about them and Jed explaining what each picture was about.

This last Tuesday, the higher ranking leadership was taken on a tour to visit different sites on the Camp Liberty base.  First, you need to understand that Camp Liberty does not just encompass strictly military related places. The base covers a very large area of the city where many of Saddam's palaces are located.

Here's the group of people Jed was with (he's on the far right.): 

They were taken to two of Saddam's palaces - each palace had been given a name by Saddam: "Victory Over America" & "Victory Over Iran."  No kidding, that's the name of the palaces. 

He named this one "Victory Over America" from his perceived victory from the first Gulf War.  Which is funny because I specifically remember watching him surrender on TV while I was in my history class at school.  Saddam's memory must of been a little fuzzy at the time.  There are still French cranes placed around the palace because he was building onto it at the time of the bombing.  (The next two pics I got from the internet so I could see what the outside of it looks like.)

They got to go look around inside as well, pic taken by Jed:

The palace ballroom alone is the size of a football field. (next 2 pics below are from the internet)

Jed on the roof area of the Victory Over America palace. 

Notice that big hill of dirt with the antennas in the background?

There's a story behind that.  All of the water surrounding the palaces were dug out by men and machinery.  The dirt was then used to bury all the people that Saddam had murdered over the years.  So that hill is not just dirt, it's actually a mass grave of humans.

For example, there was a family close by that owned some land that Saddam wanted to have.  He offered money to buy the land, but the family declined his offer.  The next day, Saddam had the family murdered and then took the land for himself.

View from one of the palace balconies:

Here is the bunker room in the palace for a place of retreat in times of bombings or attacks.

Another view from Victory of America Palace:

This is where the very first bomb was dropped by American forces when the US invaded Iraq:

 It used to be the palace's movie theater room where there were 250 people sitting and watching Pretty Woman at the time the bomb dropped.  Everyone was killed and the bodies still lie there today under all that pile of rubble.  That ray of light shining down is from the hole in the ceiling.
  
Another room in the palace destroyed by American bombs:

 Palace swimming pool:

See that dark brown stained area next to the railing?  Those are blood stains where Saddam would assassinate people.  After ten years of palace vacancy, the blood still hasn't completely faded away:

Jed and his friend, Drollinger, in front of this building that was used for Saddams' harems:

To be more specific, he would kidnap young girls from the local high schools and rape them here.  Saddam would "compensate" them for their "services" by letting them wander wherever they wanted to on the palace grounds.  How nice of him. *serious sarcasm here*

This is a portion of Saddam's bedroom:

Jed says Saddam's bedroom is bigger than our house.  The mattresses are from where American soldiers stayed and slept after taking over the palace and surrounding area.  The plaster is covering bullet holes and a little bit of graffiti.

This is my favorite place to see - a Flintstone Village (yep, based off the Flintstones cartoon) that Saddam had constructed for his kids and grandkids:

I bet his grandkids had a great time at this place:

A close up view:

All so interesting, don't you think?

General Casey Christmas Visit to Camp Liberty

As for Jed's Christmas, it was umm, eventful. Everyone was put on alert and working doubled shifts because General Casey was visiting the base. He is the main general over the army, so it was a big deal:

Picture Caption: Gen. George W. Casey, Jr. (center), Army chief of staff, prepares to give a holiday shout-out with United States Division – Center soldiers Dec. 25 in front of USD-C headquarters at Camp Liberty, Iraq

Jed's Christmas evening was even more eventful. Jed asked me not to post details on the blog.  So let's just say you're hangin' out in a Muslim country such as Iraq, and the extremists who live there know Christmas is a big Christian holiday for the US soldiers.  It's a great opportunity to make a point by some. I guess I'll just say that I'm very glad he's safe.

To listen to the video without the background music, push the pause button on the play list at the bottom of the blog.

General George W. Casey

2010 USO HOLIDAY TOUR HITS CAMP LIBERTY

Jed attended this USO Christmas Concert last week.  He said Robin Williams was hilarious...dirty, but absolutely hilarious.  He said he was having a hard time standing up because he was laughing so hard.  The other artists were great too.  There was also an opportunity afterwards to get pictures with Mr. Williams, but the wait in line was a very long one so Jed just went back to his trailer to get some sleep.

I like thinking that when they pan the audience in the clip my hubby is in there somewhere watching too.

Jed also got to meet up with a few of the Dallas Cowboys' cheerleaders while they were visiting his base.

Jed got some signed autographs for the boys and one for him too. 

I'm glad he's having a little bit a fun while he's there....it makes for fond memories to look back on.

Here are a few more pictures that Dee took this week:

One of Saddam's Water Palaces:

There are Water Palaces all over the place.  Water represents wealth there, so it looks like Saddam really knew how to flaunt it.

I found this pic on the internet, Black Hawks landing at Camp Liberty (this was taken a year or two ago but it still goes on everyday even now.)

Jed took the next two pics as he was driving by during his first week in Iraq.  He believes this was a residence for one of the Saddams' Generals. 

Another of Saddam's palaces that was bombed by the U.S. during the first part of our invasion in Iraq.

Found this pic on the internet:

This photo came with this caption: One of Saddam Hussein's palaces in Baghdad, in what is now known as Camp Liberty.

Christmas In Baghdad, Iraq

It's been a little while since I've blogged about Jed.  So, I thought I would post a few things that have happened over the last several weeks.  

He finally sent us a few more pictures, yay!

Jed in front of his military base in Baghdad.

As far as what Jed actually does there, most of it I have no idea because he usually can't tell me much.  I do know that he is in charge of a Quick Reaction Force.  They also conduct patrol and compliance missions as well.  Jed can't tell me what is coming up or what kinds of missions they'll be doing.  However, sometimes once a mission is completed he can tell me a little bit.  There are also sensitive items and places that he is not allowed to photograph so that is why he doesn't send very many pictures home or else he's just too busy to take them.

Patrol mission.

He and the other guys work 48 hours on, 48 hours off.  Well, Jed's supposed to have that time off, but he usually still goes into work to get things done.  Sometimes he can come back to his trailer (that's what their living quarters are) and skype us to say hello before he's gotta leave again.

We can usually talk to him once a day (sometimes even more), even though sometimes he can hardly stay awake....he sounds so exhausted from the lack of sleep or from doing missions during the middle of the night.

Rubbing his tired eyes:

He does alot of this too:

Today he told me he was doing a border patrol outside the base and got to shake hands with some Iraqi kids....no pictures though, dang.  He said he was too busy making sure he didn't get shot, so I guess it's ok then. :)  jk, sweetie. 

 He's told me his base has been rocketed a few times. *I actually had a few more details inserted right here, but Jed told me I needed to take them out, sorry you missed it.*  He asks me if I would rather not hear about any of this, I told him I always want to know.  So far nothing has made me terribly nervous except for when I haven't heard from him for awhile, that's when my imagination starts kicking in.  The Quick Reaction Force has been called out a few times already since he's been there but he can't tell me anything about those either.  :(  I look forward to reading his journal when he gets home.

He bought these headphones off an Iraqi.  The walls of the trailers are thin and you can hear conversations and music from the surrounding trailers. He bought the headphones to help keep his conversations private and it also drowns out any outside noises so he can hear us better.

 A guy gave Jed his TV, so here he is watching a show.

We sent Jed a Christmas package, which he of course wanted to open immediately instead of waiting until Christmas.  So he called us on skype so we could all watch him open his gifts.  The picture quality was pretty low this day...there must have been a lot of soldiers on the Internet during that time.

We included some of his favorite treats....laffy taffy.

and jerky.  My parents put some almond rocha and chocolate/caramel pretzels in there too...which he absolutely LOVED.

Aubrey willingly sacrificed her Pooh Bear and sent it to him.  (Jed gave her that Pooh when she was first born.)

We sent him a pillowcase that had a photo of the kids printed on it:

And a blanket with a photo collage of more family pictures:

Family photo book...he got a little choked up at this point. 

Picture of Jesus Christ per his request...

Love'n his jerky!

Here are a few other pictures Jed has sent:

Soldiers' living quarters - trailers protected by concrete slabs. A very attractive look, don't you think? 

One of their trucks in the "sandbag parking spaces."  The wood crosses are for a place to hang their personal equipment so they don't have to put them on the ground.  The building in the back is where the Philippino private contractors live.  Jed says that there are tons of private contractors from a variety of nationalities that live on base, including Iraqis:

It's the rainy season there right now, so it's pretty muddy.

Jed's room, he bought a few things like the rug to make it feel more comfortable:

He still gets to have his chips and salsa.

These next few pictures of Baghdad were taken from another soldier named Dee with whom I graduated high school with.  He serves in a different part of Baghdad, but I thought it would be fun to post some of his pics as well.

Behold, the city of Baghdad!

Yesterday the soldiers had to go through pepper spray and taser training. Each soldier got sprayed in the face and tased, I guess so they know what it's like.  Jed didn't have to do most of it since he's already been through it for police training.  He was pretty happy about that.

In summary, Jed is doing well and staying very busy.  Some days are good, some days are bad, some just stressful.  He often tells us how much he misses us and wishes he could hold us.  Back at home, we wish for the same thing as well.

Merry Christmas, hon, it won't be the same without you.