From tonysounds@yahoo.com Tue Dec 14 12:41:16 2004
Subject:Iraq N Roll Part 3......

Hey there...Desert Tony reporting once again from a strange place where even stranger things happen.

We had one more show to do in Kuwait at Ali Al Salem. This is an Air Force base which originally was a Kuwait base until the Iraqi's invaded and took it over. In a very medieval display of declaration, the Iraqi's hung the presiding general of the air base from the flag pole. The US went in at that point and put down that insurgence and ousted the Iraqi's. (This was a few years ago already.) So now, its our air base. Our POCs took us on a tour of the base; one of the "attractions" were these massive concrete aircraft hangars, built by a French firm for the Kuwaitis. These hangars were guaranteed to be indestructible, but in the fine print, apparently that guarantee is good for all potential threats except for US equipment. When the Iraqis had control of the base, we dropped a nice load on them and blew them to crap. It was pretty impressive to see. Well, fast forward to the present, and now Kuwait is suing the French firm who built them, which is kind of crazy. Anyway,
after seeing a few jets take off, we went to set up our gear and then have dinner. Lucky for us, Friday night was "steak night" and the dinner was steak and shrimp. What a treat to use real silverware for a change. This base houses Americans, Japanese, Korean and Australian soldiers. That night's show, we had a great turnout, and not just Americans came out. Because of previous tours to Japan and Korea, we were able to utter a few "origatos" and "comsa hap niedas" and make those guys chuckle. We were presented with commemorative coins from the base and had a good gig that night, but we're starting to get tired.

Saturday morning we met our POC for the Iraqi leg of this tour. He's our man, our bodyguard and our new friend. Turns out he's also our Reuben Kincaid too! He's a Lt. Colonel in the Air Force from upstate NY, and he's very gregarious and yet "no nonsense" at the same time. He's caught on to our sense of humor quick, and he's not shy about taking a few shots at us either! We're outfitted with Kevlar flak jackets (which weigh about 40lbs) and helmets. Our man Broadie was able to hook us up with some gear too, a monitor for bass for Big Al, a guitar amp for Magoo, and a Marshall keyboard amp for myself.

We flew in on another C130, and I got to sit in the cockpit for the landing. These guys are something. As we're coming in one of the co-pilots let the pilot know that we were coming in on the wrong runway, so better than any roller coaster, he swings to the right, then corrects to the left and drops it down. Pretty cool!!!!!

We had our first Iraq gig that night, at the airbase we landed at in Tillal. We played in this enormous soft dome, like those indoor golf courses. All the power on this tour has been 220v so there's always some electricians present at the gig to get us happening, and there's always scrambling to find enough converters for all our gear. The guys at this base were great, and before we even started, they presented us with desert camouflage hats with our names embroidered on them in English and Arabic, and someone else presented us with more coins. This trip is one massive dustbowl and we're being very diligent about wiping gear and cables down after every...well, most shows. The dust and dirt are terrible.

After the show which was around midnite, which is very late for these things, we had chow and then found our barracks, which are small trailers with 2 cots and a hanging cabinet. It is cold out here at nite, and it's just sleeping bags on these twin mattresses covered in hard plastic. Every time you roll over you wake yourself up from the krinkling noise. No pillows, but luckily for our first flight, Chicago to Heathrow, I bought one of those horseshoe pillows, which generally are useless. But rather than just throw it away, I velcroed it to my backpack, and it has come in very handy, especially this night. When's the last time you slept without a pillow? ;)

Sunday morning, our guys from Tillal took us on a tour before our flight to Baghdad. We went to what is believed to be the oldest structure standing, a pyramid about 4000 years old. It's more Mayan than Egyptian, but it is pretty impressive. From the top you have a great view of all surrounding lands. This pyramid is on the same site as Abraham's house (he of The Bible fame). The house is, or was, a grand structure, and is very maze-like, with tombs. An Iraqi local gave us the tour, and was very knowledgeable; he had a portfolio with pertinent facts and visual aides, none of which he needed. He knew his stuff. This is in the middle of what used to be fertile farmland 20 years ago, but Saddam rerouted the river to starve the farmers out, and he singlehandedly decimated the area. We saw the Italian and Portugese bases out there as well.

Gotta leave it here for now....we have a midnite chopper transport to our next gig.

Peace....
T


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