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Joint Base Balad
Joint Base Balad
Joint Base Balad (Balad South East)
IATA: none – ICAO: ORBD Summary Airport type Operator Location Elevation AMSL Coordinates Military United States Air Force Operation Iraqi Freedom 161 ft / 49 m 33°56′00″N 044°22′00″E / 33.933333°N 44.366667°E / 33.933333; 44.366667Coordinates: 33°56′00″N 044°22′00″E / 33.933333°N 44.366667°E / 33.933333; 44.366667
Expeditionary Times (Anaconda Times before the base name change), which serves residents of the base, as well as all logistical servicemembers in Iraq and their families at home. The newspaper is staffed solely by Army journalists, usually the sustainment command’s public affairs detachment, as well as a print team from a mobile public affairs detachment. Camp Anaconda has also been more colloquially-termed "Life Support Area Anaconda"[3] or "Mortaritaville" [4] or the "Big Snake". Joint Base Balad is also used extensively by aircraft of the Royal Air Force, which have operated a wide range of types (rotary and fixed wing) from the base, in support of ongoing missions in the country.
Location
Runways Direction Length ft 14/32 12/30 11,490 11,495 m 3,503 3,504 Concrete Concrete Surface
Joint Base Balad[1], formerly Balad Air Base and Logistics Support Area Anaconda, or simply LSA Anaconda - formerly known as Al-Bakir Air Base (Arabic: ةدعاق ةيوجلا ركبلا) and known in popular media as Camp Anaconda - is one of the largest American military bases in Iraq which was formerly the largest Iraqi air base. The Army’s 3d Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) and the Air Force’s 332d Air Expeditionary Wing is headquartered at JBB. It was decided that the facility share one name, even though for many reasons and for its many occupants, it has differing names. Balad is the central logistical hub for forces in Iraq and the busiest air base in the world operated by the United States Department of Defense and is currently the second busiest airport in the world.[2] The base is so large and has so many occupants that it has its own 16-page, weekly newspaper, the
The Sustainer Theater at LSA Anaconda. Located near Balad, Iraq in the Sunni Triangle 68 miles (109 km) north of Baghdad, its concrete walls house 28,000 soldiers and 8,000 civilian contractors. Unlike most bases in Iraq, LSA Anaconda offers amenities including a movie theater, fast food courts, dance lessons, an olympic size swimming pool, and an indoor swimming pool. The base is a common destination for celebrities and politicians visiting American troops in Iraq.
Conditions
In 2004, several mortar rounds were fired per day [5], usually hitting the empty space
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joint Base Balad
References
A pilot and sensor operator man the controls of an MQ-1 Predator Unmanned aerial vehicle from the control room at Balad Air Base between the runways, although there were isolated injuries and fatalities. By mid-2006, this rate had dropped about 40% [6]. Due to these attacks, the soldiers and airmen refer to the base as "Mortaritaville", though this name is shared with other bases in Iraq. The base is thought to be one of four "superbases" planned by the Pentagon once US forces are replaced by Iraqi forces on the front lines.[7]
Hospital
LSA Anaconda is also home to the Air Force Theater Hospital at Balad Airbase, a Level I trauma center which boasts a 96% survival rate for wounded Americans and Iraqis alike.[8]
[1] Renamed U.S. military base in Iraq reflects joint status [2] Morning Edition, NPR. Broadcast 28 September 2007. [1] [3] Carter, Phillip (October 18, 2006). "The Thin Green Line". Slate.com. http://www.slate.com/id/2151742/. Retrieved on 2007-07-25. [4] "Balad Airbase". globalsecurity.org. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ world/iraq/balad-ab.htm. Retrieved on 2007-07-25. [5] "Letters to the editor for Wednesday, October". Stars and Stripes. October 27, 2004. http://www.estripes.com/ article.asp?section=125&article=24803&archive=tru Retrieved on 2007-07-25. [6] Powell, Anita (July 22, 2006). "Attacks on the decrease at LSA Anaconda, aka ’Mortaritaville’". Stars and Stripes. http://www.estripes.com/ article.asp?section=104&article=37883&archive=tru Retrieved on 2007-07-25. [7] "U.S. Prepares ’Super Base’ in Iraq". Newsmax.com. April 23, 2006. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/ 2006/4/23/214827.shtml. Retrieved on 2007-07-25. [8] Mason, Michael (March, 2007). "Dead Men Walking". Discover. http://discovermagazine.com/2007/mar/ dead-men-walking/.
See also
• 2007 Balad aircraft crash • Post-invasion Iraq
External links
• Balad from GlobalSecurity.org • 332d Expeditionary Air Wing’s public website • Iraq, Contingency Contracting and the Defense Base Act • Expeditionary Times • Anaconda Times
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Base_Balad" Categories: Overseas military bases, Bases of the United States Air Force, Military bases of the United States in Iraq This page was last modified on 16 April 2009, at 11:33 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) taxdeductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
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