Iraq Trip - Day Six

You can see the CHU in this picture. It is small but compared to some other accommodations it is very nice.







They line dozens of them up in a row... 2 people per room, four rooms per trailer.









Then, they surround them with blast walls made of concrete to protect from mortar attacks.

We got to sleep in a bit and take a short tour of the base. There are tons of these armored vehicles sitting around. Eventually we would get to ride in one of them but that's much later...


First, we have half a day to tour the Ziggurat. This is a big honor for us being that this place is 4000 + years old. It also happens to be the home of Abraham (Yep, the one from the Bible) Since the entire thing is encompassed by a fence and temporarily "owned" by the United States, we are some of the only people who get to visit this sacred place.


It is only a short drive from base (10 min) and this great arch greats you when you drive up the road.








One of our awesome army guides tells us to stay put while she talks to the man who lives on the property. He is often scared by random vans pulling up with a bunch of males getting out.

He agrees to give us a tour.



I don't remember his name but I do remember that he spoke English pretty well. Apparently he learned English from a dictionary. He also learned Japanese, French, and Spanish all from Dictionaries. He claims that someone from his family has lived on this property all the way back 4000 years to Abraham. He loves Americans and here's why...
Before the American occupation of this area, this man had no electricity, no running water, no way to make money. The USA gave him all of these things and provides him with a job giving tours to US Soldiers. Anyway, back to the Ziggurat.

Here stands one of the temples that the Mesopotamians used for worship of the moon God. It is the oldest known standing archway in the world.






Crazy thing is... if you add a little water, you can still see the original writings in cuniform, carved into the walls of the temple.







We find out that only 5% of this entire city has been excavated. That leaves 95% of it untouched.






We are led into the burial temple where the kings of the Mesopotamians were found. Our Iraqi guide never lets people into the tombs...but you would be amazed at what a twenty dollar bill will do in Iraq.




Down we go...











This leads down into a corridor that once contained the bodies of the kings and queens of this land. It is very dark and dusty down there.

Still no Camel Spiders...







We stopped for a band photo on the steps and moved to the other tomb.







This room was just like the other one.








As I was coming out I snapped this heavenly photo of Walker, standing at the entrance to the tomb.










Another band photo and we climbed out of there. Still much more to see...





























And here it is... the Ziggurat. This thing is HUGE! Imagine that 4000 years ago, this was the most sacred place around.


















Many steps lead to the top.










And from there you can see just how much has been dug up. Not much. Under the rest of this sand lies a vast city that was once the center of Mesopotamia.






You can see that this place is crumbling slowly. Someone should build a giant bubble around the place to protect it.

You can't help but feel awestruck at this place.





The wind was really blowing hard and Smitty climbed right up on the ledge. One wrong step and he would fall 100 feet to the ground.





















(Looking down from the top of the Ziggurat)









And yet another temple that is almost destroyed.







Next we go to Abraham's house. His house is pretty big and one can only assume that his family had some money. There was once a second floor and a roof on this place but over the years the bottom floor is all that remains.





The house is like a maze with a kitchen and family rooms.









Then, we broke out in dance on top of Abraham's house. That lasted for about 10 minutes while we sang "Father Abraham had many sons..."






Here's the band plus Franky Perez and Adam Haney. It was time to go back to base and play a show.

There was scheduling problem due to the weather and our show got canceled. Very much in the tradition of Truth and Salvage, we did a show anyway.


We grabbed acoustic instruments and did an "unplugged" version of our show for a small but thankful crowd.

Then it was off to bed because we had an early flight in the morning to take us to Base Apache, a small base that hardly ever gets entertainment.

Iraq Trip - Day Five

Our 1:45am call time came early and most of us got NO sleep since we didn't get back to our rooms until midnight. We had to catch a flight that morning at 6am so we drove back to Camp Virginia and sat in a large room with hundreds of soldiers.

Everyone was confined to this huge room where they played old movies on a large screen. There were about 200 black leather chairs and couches and we chilled just waiting for role call.

Around 5am, still no sleep, we lined up with the soldiers and were herded onto a bus. We were wearing our body armor and carrying our bags. The bus pulled up on the flight line and when we got out we saw this huge monstrosity of a plane called a C-17. It is this plane that you always see in the movies... the thing can transport several tanks or a bunch of soldiers. More on this later.

Just when we were about to load on to the C-17, we were told that plans had changed and we were escorted back to the holding area. So close!!!!

Again we find ourselves chilling on the black chairs and being told that we may catch a flight at 10am. More waiting. More waiting. More waiting.

Then we are told, around 9am, that there would be no more flights till that evening at 8pm. Sam, who was just as tired as us, led us to another area where we waited to see if we could get rooms at Camp Virginia.

We hung out on wooden benches outside for the next two hours...we were approaching thirty hours with NO SLEEP. Luckily, everything seems funnier when you are sleep deprived and we all had developed the giggles. The troops who passed by us probably thought we were insane or drunk.

Finally, around noon, Sam managed to get us a tent that we could crash inside.

Here we are, exhausted and happy to have a place to sleep.

Man! That was some good sleep!

Sam woke us up at 7pm and we were hustled back to the waiting room. Same thing all over again.

Single file. Body armor. Role call. Bus ride. Finally, we got on the C-17.


Here are the only pics I got off before being told to put the camera away.

Just to give you an idea...


We were strapped onto the walls in a giant plane with no windows.

The plane took off... a beast of a machine lifted into the air, and the whole thing was very surreal. Thirty minutes later we landed in Tallil, Iraq.

We were picked up by our new escorts and driven to our CHU (Compartment Housing Unit) These were tiny trailers with no bathroom and two beds inside one little room.

Most of us went right back to sleep since we were still tired from the day before. In the middle of the night we were awakened by what we thought was the Mortar Alarm... turned out it was just two Camel Spiders fighting outside out our CHU.

Iraq Trip - Day Four

Early the next morning our guide and head of security, Sam, took us to obtain our IBA's. (Body Armour) Sam is a badass. Being an 8th degree black belt in karate and an ex-Navy SEAL, we always felt safe with him.




The reason we needed this body armour was obvious: Sometimes insurgents shoot at us! They also like to launch mortars at our vehicles and at the base in general.







Once everyone was fitted, we were off for a top secret briefing by the Col. Jones.











After much debate we decided that Col. Jones, the man in the middle of this picture, is NOT related to Tim Jones.







The top secret briefing was intense. They explained what their base, Arifjan, was responsible for in Kuwait. They also explained how important it was that we were performing for the troops.

We also were briefed on Area 51, the Kennedy assasination, and what happened to Atlantis. I wish I could explain more but we were sworn to secrecy!


We were then awarded a certificate of apreciation for efforts and headed out to do a show at Camp Virginia.








The drive was uneventful and the landscape is pretty much either desert...







Or desert with houses.








Once we arrived at Camp Virginia, we were given another certificate of appreciation and were off to set up for our first show.







Alot of the troops who are at this base are from Hawaii.








Here's the stage we performed upon. It was a great stage with plenty of seating for the audience. We were pretty excited to finally get to jam. You can see Franky and Tim doing the victory dance in this picture.





But then, a sand storm rolled in in a matter of minutes. When that happens, the wind picks up and blows sand everywhere. You can go from clean to filthy in a matter of seconds. You can see in this picture how the air changed to orange.





We sound checked.































Backstage, we made the setlist. We were pumped!!!









Right before the show, Joe tuned his bass, and we stepped out on the stage to a very packed house.










AFter the show, we gave out CD's and signed autographs. The troops were super excited and there was a great feeling in the air. The sand storm had passed.






We want to give a BIG thanks to everyone at Camp Virginia.

We packed up our gear and drove back to Camp Arifjan. We were really tired from the day. Our sleep was cut short by a 1:45am call time to catch a flight to Iraq. That's when we got stuck in purgatory....