Welcome to the ongoing saga of Major Robert "Baghdad" Parker.
As you can tell, the Major is now serving with the USAF at Baghdad International Airport.
To view the pics full size just click on them. They will open up in a new window.

The ongoing Saga of:

ROBERT C.PARKER, II, Maj, USAF
447 Airfield Operations Flight Commander

May 8 & 9, 2005
Pics of me chasing gazelles off of the runway. Tent city and the tower. (From May 8 and 9, 2005)

 

May 10, 2005

 

May 23, 2005

Around Baghdad. A little rough in places. Saddam had some nice stuff.

 


May 26, 2005
Good Morning from Baghdad,
    I am leaving in just a minute for a small trip around Iraq. I am going up to Mosul then Kirkuk and back. I hope to be back by dark. They are sending me in a Cessna 337 Skymaster. I should get a REAL good look at the country side. If I went by helo or C130, it may take me a few days for this trip since I would most likely get stuck somewhere. I hope this works out. I sent Gen Mohammad an email telling him I was going to be “in town” but have not heard from him. I hope to get to see him while I am there.
   The other day, a Romanian C130 came in under a veil of secrecy. There were three Romanian people being held prisoner by some insurgents. When they were released they were brought here. They seemed happy to be getting on the plane out of here.
    Well, I better go. My plane should be here any minute. Wish me luck…..

PR

 

Secretary of State visit

     

May 28, 2005

Hi Everyone,

    Today I was invited to eat lunch with the Iraqi controllers. I spent a lot of time talking to them about how air traffic control was done under Saddam. They were telling me if a pilot was given a wrong heading, they could be arrested. One of the supervisors had an aircraft go around on an approach and was put in jail for one day. Another supervisor had an aircraft not fly his assigned heading and went out over Saddam’s house. Saddam called the tower and the supervisor was put in jail for two days. They run air traffic control in a most conservative way. If there is an aircraft within ten miles to the runway, they will not let anything cross the runway. Everything moves slowly. It is a real education for me about their culture. For lunch, one of the supervisor’s sister made my favorite Bomia (okra) soup with rice. It was great. There was fresh bread and vegetables to go with it. WOW. We are not supposed to eat any local food but….I just waited until they eat first. They are a great bunch of guys and I will miss working with them. I will not, however, miss the smoking in the tower. I better go. Happy Memorial Day Weekend!!!! 

 



June 2, 2005
Hi Everyone,

   Things have been rather “sporty” the last few days as you can see on the news. There is a lot of loud stuff over here. Gus said he would send out my previous emailed pictures. I would love to hear from you guys.

PR

June 6, 2005

Hi Everyone,

   I am catching a lot of heat about not writing lately. I am fine. We have had a number of military issues that have kept me from writing. I have moved into another tent. These are newer with no walls of any kind. We have hung sheets to give you the feel of privacy but that is it. It is closer to the flight line so I hear planes and helicopters all night. The showers and latrines are farther now, about 250 yards away. We had a large dust storm last night and today. It almost uprooted my tent at 0100. I woke up smelling dust with dust in my mouth. I had to try to sleep with a sheet over my head to keep some of the dust out. It looked like snow on the ground. Now I know why they call the top bed cover a “dust cover”. I moved my pillow and dust went everywhere. I will not miss the dust and wind. The visibility has been a ¼ mile most of the day. Thank goodness for good sunglasses.

   Here is a pic I took a few minutes ago when the visibility got better. Well, I have to get to the control tower. Talk to you guys later.

June 7, 2005

Desert dust in the wind
by Tech. Sgt. Brian Davidson
447th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFPN) -- Just about midnight recently the wind kicked up here as suddenly as someone turning off a light switch, bringing with it huge clouds of dust that rolled in and obliterated everything from view.

People who were sleeping in their tents were rudely awakened as tent ropes strained and even some beds were buffeted by the turbulence.

"Although weather reports had predicted high winds, even our satellite images didn't reveal the curtain of dust that descended on the airfield," said Tech. Sgt. Michael Sanborn, noncommissioned officer in charge of the 447th Expeditionary Operations Squadron's weather flight.

Sergeant Sanborn, deployed from the 25th Operational Weather Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., is no stranger to working in a desert environment and said he knew full well the dangers of such high winds and reduced visibility.

"We had 10 aircraft due in that couldn't land and had to turn around," said Col. Daniel Kornacki, 447th Air Expeditionary Group commander. "Three aircraft ended up stuck on the ground as their crews scrambled to
cover intakes and protect their engines from the blowing dirt."

As a career C-130 Hercules pilot in the Air Force Reserve, and a Boeing 737-200 pilot for Delta Airlines, Colonel Kornacki knows from experience how unpredictable the weather can be and its effect on flying operations.

Shortly after the wind began, Colonel Kornacki set off, driving up and down the flightline, straining to see through the dust as he searched for aircrew members who might have been caught out in the storm.

People who were working on the flightline ran for cover, and many of those who were off duty and had been sleeping stumbled out of their beds to see what was happening, only to find they could not even see the tent next
door.

"Visibility was officially down to one-sixteenth of a mile," Sergeant Sanborn said.  "But the dust was pretty thick in some areas."

By first light, the winds had died down, but there was so much dirt in the air the sun was only a faint light in the eastern sky.

A layer of dust, so fine it was like brown flour, covered everything.

"It was everywhere -- you could even taste it in the air," said Colonel Kornacki who is deployed from his position as the 94th Airlift Wing vice commander at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga.

Flight crews began cleaning out engine intakes and other critical components of their aircraft.  Other Airmen shook the dirt out of their hair and clothes as they set about their normal daily routine, chalking the experience up to "just one of those things that happens when you're deployed."

Here is the dust. 

ROBERT C.PARKER, II, Maj, USAF

447 Airfield Operations Flight Commander

 

>>It looks just like what I saw in my living room yesterday.    BeEe

Hey BE,
    We go through cases of canned air. You can never get rid of all the dust, you just attempt to move it on to someone else’s stuff. Now that the storm has blown over (we had another one yesterday) the weather this morning is beautiful. There was almost a hint of fall in the crisp 90 degree air. Well, it was clear anyway. See you guys soon.

>>Is it as hard to get someone to go on a chow run there as it is here?  : ))))  BT

Yeah it is. After a few days of rocket attacks, food becomes low on the priority list. You know, maybe I will just eat an MRE here in the tower instead….wearing my body armor. The guys here do the “starvation stare” as well in the Operations Tent. “Are you going to chow?” “I might.”  “Well, if you are going, just pick me up a hamburger.”   Same stuff all around the world. We need Rob Thorne over here. Thanks for the email.

>>I have a friend, (debated, yet true) who is the District Manager for the Popeye's on Brooks Rd.  The other day I mentioned to him that if he were to at least match the deal that the Popeye's on Goodman Rd. gave us, (Free chow for the runner) a lot of us would go there instead of all the way to Horn Lake.  He agreed to.  So if you would rather just go to the Brooks Road Popeye's, let them know that you're Air Traffic Control, and that the D.M., Phil Bradsher, said he'd treat the runner, it should be free.  It worked well on Friday AM.  Once they get used to it, it'll become habit to them.  RT

>>PS...I don't think he has the Popeyes in Baghdad.  Sorry PR!

RT,
   There is a Popeyes here in Baghdad. I will send you a picture of it. It has been almost hit a few times by mortars and rockets but it is still there. See what you can work out with Mr. Bradsher on the chow runner over here getting free chow. I have to get all the battle gear on and my weapon (just like you will on Brooks Road I guess). Talk to you later.

June 12, 2005

Hi Everyone,
            Well, another dusty day in paradise. I have been busy the last few days. Yesterday was exciting. I was in the tower and some aircraft called in. The weather was 300 meters on the visibility and the arrival required 1500 meters. It sounded like a Polish helicopter but no one was certain. The Iraqi supervisor took the position and told the aircraft that he could not land and to remain outside of tower airspace. The pilot said he was coming in. I told the sup to get his call sign and ask if the aircraft was declaring an emergency. The pilot simply said that he was coming in to land and wanted fuel. Once again, ask him if he is declaring an emergency. No response. Since we could not see even a ½ mile, and were not able to visually identify the aircraft, I called the rapid response soldiers and told them someone may be attempting to land on the taxiway and to consider them to be potentially hostile and to detain them on the spot until I get down there.  The real problem was language. The Iraqi controller, trying to speak English to a Polish pilot who is low on fuel and is trying to speak English and an American Officer trying to understand both of them. I was concerned since the pilot was doing all of the wrong things for making me feel comfortable about him landing here. Everything that happened goes under the category of suspicious aircraft for certain. Needless to say, he was going to get at the very least an armed escort. When I got to the taxiway, there were 3 Polish Helicopters surrounded by 5 gun trucks with 50 caliber machine guns pointed at them. The security force leader asked me if I wanted them out of the helicopters and on the ground. He was really disappointed when I said to wait on that. Once I could see that they were Polish, I called for the Polish Military Liaison to meet me out there. He showed up and asked what was the problem? I asked if these were his aircraft and he said that they were. I told security to escort the aircraft to parking, and bring the lead aircraft commander to the Ops tent. Thirty minutes later, the all of the pilots and the Military Liaison showed up. Trying to listen to 6 Polish guys telling me their side of the story was difficult to say the least.  The jest of their problem was that they were in really bad weather without any real good instrumentation for flying in it and were running low on fuel. They just wanted to land somewhere, anywhere. They did not want to say that they were an emergency since it might cause them to get into some kind of trouble. They did not seem to be too insulted that they were almost shot. They seemed to have expected it. Remind me never to try that in Poland. After an hour of conversing, they left to wait out the bad weather.
         All day long, flight crews were coming to me and the weather guy about what could be done to “fix” the weather. “We need xxx meters for takeoff”. There were a few times were the tower or weather guy seeing 1400 meters or 1500 meters meant the difference between staying here with worse weather coming or getting back to their base and completing the mission. Sometimes we saw what we needed to see, sometimes not. Everyone wanted more than what we had. After going through this with about 6 flight crews, it was getting old. I looked up and here were the Polish pilots coming back. “Major, we want to talk to you about the weather.” Here we go again. “Alright sir, what weather minimums do YOU need and I will see what I can do?” They had a different problem. As they explained it, if the weather was almost 1500 meters now and they would HAVE to fly if it got to 1500 meters and they did not want to due to the low visibility. However, if the American officer in charge of the operations did not allow them to leave, they could tell their commanding officer that and could stay for better weather tomorrow or when ever. One of the pilots was on a satellite phone standing near by with their commander on the line. I called weather on the radio and asked for the current vsby. He said 1200 meters but it was coming up fast. I turned to the pilots, “Sir, the weather is below takeoff minimums and I will not allow you to depart.” You would have thought I just gave them a million dollars (US). I heard the pilot on the phone saying nothing I understood except “American, Major Parker, no take off, weather too bad.” I got them some tent space and made friends for life. When I got up this morning and was walking to work in the blowing dust with a ¼ mile of visibility again, I passed the Polish guys at the coffee tent. As I got close enough for them to see me they all stood “Good morning Major, thank you, thank you.” That was easy enough.
    Today has been similar due to weather. Every military aircraft that wants to take off, I have to negotiate with the Iraqi Manager and Supervisor to allow them to take off if the US military will assume responsibility. Some of these decisions that I am making, “on behalf of the US Government”, are REALLY pushing my authority and we all know it. The Iraqis do not care since they just want someone to blame it on.  John Null, a controller from my unit in Meridian, keeps laughing and saying that if one of these flights crash, Major Parker is going to jail but he promised that he would come and see me. Oh well. Do you sleep in a tent in jail? Well, I better get back to making Iraq safe for democracy. Thanks for the emails.

 

June 13, 2005

Hey Memphis Tower guys,
      See, there is a Popeyes Chicken over here. It is not quite as nice as Brooks Road...well maybe it is. Just like on Brooks road, most people have guns.

Talk to you later.

 

Hi Everyone,
   Here are some pictures from today. I went to the tower for a late lunch. Bomia (okra soup) with white rice and vegetables. It was great. The Iraqi controllers sleep at the tower. Here is a pic of their rooms. The weather was much better today. We had almost 4 miles of visibility. I better get back to it.

     

June 14, 2005

Hi Everyone,

    Today I went to the civilian terminal at Baghdad International Airport for a going away lunch for Mike McCormick (FAA) who is going back home to New York after his second tour in Iraq. Lunch was great but was a long ordeal. It took about an hour and a half to get your food. Here are some pictures of the terminal. I could not take my weapon in there. They even took my knife which they gave back when I left. Something interesting about the Duty Free Shop, you could buy a leather holster for your pistol, a very large knife or a bottle of Crown Royal. It was a neat experience. I will write more about this when I can.

 

Ross,
   Remember when I told you there was a guy here who worked with you? Well, he is in the background of this picture. His name is Ed Long. Don't' try to reach him here, because he only stayed 3 days and went home. He said he couldn't take it. Oh well. Talk to you later

 

June 16, 2005

I echo Amanda’s warning below only I will add “I don’t want to end up in the Wing Commander’s office …..again.”

PR

From Amanda:

Something to Ponder 

Military Rules for Non-Military Personnel

"Dear Civilians, "We know that the current state of affairs in our great nation have many civilians up in arms and excited to join the military.
For those of you who can't join, you can still lend a hand. Here are a few of the areas where we would like your assistance:

(1) The next time you see an adult talking (or wearing a hat) during the playing of the National Anthem---kick their ass.

(2) When you witness, firsthand, someone burning the American Flag in protest---kick their ass.

(3) Regardless of the rank they held while they served, pay the highest amount of respect to all veterans. If you see anyone doing otherwise, quietly pull them aside and explain how these veterans fought for the very freedom they bask in every second. Enlighten them on the many sacrifices these veterans made to make this Nation great. Then hold them down while a disabled veteran kicks their ass.

(4) If you were never in the military, DO NOT pretend that you were.  Wearing battle dress uniforms (BDUs), telling others that you used to be "Special Forces," and collecting GI Joe memorabilia, might have been okay when you were seven years old. Now, it will only make you look stupid and get your ass kicked.

(5) Next time you come across an Air Force member, do not ask them, "Do you fly a jet?" Not everyone in the Air Force is a pilot. Such ignorance deserves an ass-kicking (children are exempt).

(6) If you witness someone calling the US Coast Guard 'non-military', inform them of their mistake---and kick their ass.

(7) Next time Old Glory (the US flag) prances by during a parade, get on your damn feet and pay homage to her by placing your hand over your heart.  Quietly thank the military member or veteran lucky enough to be carrying her---of course, failure to do either of those could earn you a severe ass-kicking.

(8) Don't try to discuss politics with a military member or a veteran.  We are Americans, and we all bleed the same, regardless of our party affiliation. Our Chain of Command is to include our Commander-In-Chief (C in C). The President (for those who didn't know) is our C in C regardless of political party. We have no inside track on what happens inside those big important buildings where all those representatives meet. All we know is that when those civilian representatives screw up the situation, they call upon the military to go straighten it out. If you keep asking us the same stupid questions repeatedly, you will get your ass kicked!

(9) 'Your mama wears combat boots' never made sense to me---stop saying it! If she did, she would most likely be a vet and therefore, could kick your ass!

(10) Bin Laden and the Taliban are not Communists, so stop saying 'Let's go kill those Commies!' And stop asking us where he is! Crystal balls are not standard issue in the military. That reminds me---if you see anyone calling those damn psychic phone numbers, let me know, so I can go kick their ass.

(11) 'Flyboy' (Air Force), 'Jarhead' (Marines), 'Grunt' (Army), 'Squid' (Navy), 'Puddle Jumpers' (Coast Guard), etc., are terms of endearment we use describing each other. Unless you are a service member or vet, you have not earned the right to use them. That could get your ass kicked.

(12) Last, but not least, whether or not you become a member of the military, support our troops and their families. Every Thanksgiving and religious holiday that you enjoy with family and friends, please remember that there are literally thousands of sailors and troops far from home wishing they could be with their families. Thank God for our military and the sacrifices they make every day. Without them, our country would get its ass kicked."

"It is the veteran, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press.

It is the veteran, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech.

It is the veteran, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate.

It is the veteran who salutes the flag, who served beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag.

"If you can read this, thank a teacher"

"If you are reading it in English, thank a veteran."

June 17, 2005

Yesterday was one of the hardest days since I have been here. I was called at 0400 in the morning to be in charge of a Patriot Detail. The detail is the ceremony for putting a killed service member on the flight back to the states. I have done about 6 of these so far. Each time I do it, I have to take about 30 minutes of “alone” time to get my head back into what I am doing. Yesterday it was an Army guy from here. It makes you remember where you are. I got back to the office and started going through email. I had almost finished answering the questions from the previous night when the tower called on the radio and said that they had lost all landlines to Balad Approach Control (the radar facility that surrounds us at Baghdad). I ran to Command Post and grabbed their Satellite phone, and called Balad and started doing all of the tower coordination. Sat phone in one hand, tower phone in the other. We finally got the lines back up about 30 minutes later.  I was just walking out of the Command Post when the Transit Alert (ramp controller) called and asked Command Post where they wanted these two foreign helicopters to park that were taxiing in. Command Post yelled at me that they had two helo’s on deck without prior permission. Roll out the guns…again.   We get them stopped. I get to the taxiway and find the Polish Liaison Officer….again. I told him that his pilots have got to call ahead and talk to Command Post so we know where to park them. How long are you staying, do you need fuel, are you picking up passengers, are you armed etc. We finally get that straight and now it is noon. I go to the tower for some proficiency time. The weather is nasty, low visibility due to blowing dust. Wow that is different. Back to the office I go. I get called to an Intel Briefing. As a result of that, the Group Commander looks over at me and says, “Hey PR, make me up a Power Point with slides showing the arrival and departure routes of both civilian and military traffic. Put it over Satellite photos and maps.” I called Intel to have them send me the sat pics and maps via secret email (SIPR). I spent an hour or so working on these pictures. My boss LtCol Arlinghaus (Lefty) looked at it as I was finishing up and said it was great. Col Kornacki called and said “PR, where are my slides?”  “Sir, I am finishing it up now. I will have to you in 10 minutes.” Great right?!? Well, one last look at the slide show and I will send it. I hit the save button about 10 times, where it got saved we will never know, because 2 minutes later, it was gone. We did a search of the entire computer, gone. Suck it up PR and get it done I told myself. I just started it again, quicker this time with all of my previous experience. Phone rings. “PR, it has been 15 minutes, where are my slides?” “Sir, the dog ate my homework. I cannot find them now when I went to send them. Give me 15 minutes and you will have it.” Thirteen minutes later as I was frantically typing, the phone rang. One of the other guys answered it and I heard him say, he is right here. “Major, it is the tower.” Crap. “Tell them unless it is a matter of national security, take a message and I will call them back in 10 minutes.” Type faster PR.  “Sir, Chief Null said it IS a matter of national security and he needs to talk to you NOW, it cannot wait 2 minutes.” You have to know Chief Null to realize the significance of that statement. If the tent was on fire, he would simply say that I guess we need to get out of the tent. For him to say that I hated to answer the phone. “Sir, the Iraqi controllers have unplugged from position and are suspending operations due to a disagreement with Balad Approach. The Iraqis think that Balad is not doing what they should reference the weather. They said that they refuse to work across from them and are walking out. So Major, what do you want us to do now?” It is going to be dark in an hour and a half, and when that happens, all civil aircraft are grounded at BIAP. There were three Iraqi Airlines aircraft loaded on the ramp. If we did not do something quick, those three planes and all the passengers would be spending the night on the ramp. They are not allowed to sleep in the terminal. This has happened before, and yes, they slept on the ramp in a full airplane. I could hear the Iraqis talking rather loud in the background. Chief Null said I needed to get up there now. As I was speeding toward the tower, I was going through my head if there was any legal reason that we could not work the civilian traffic for the next hour and a half. By the time I got there I had decided that us working the traffic was the right thing to do. I hit the top of the stairs to find 6 Iraqi controllers talking loudly at each other in a circle. This excitement on the part of the Iraqis had our Security Forces troop nervous. Usually these guys sit back and just observe. He was standing with his weapon ready. I imagine that to him it looked like a flight was about to breakout at any moment. On the other side of the tower was Chief Null and the other tower controllers in gauged in a rather spirited discussion……………….

Well everyone, I was just called that I have to get to the pax terminal to get on a plane to Al Udied AB Qatar. I hope to be back on Sunday. Then you will hear the rest of the story.

June 22, 2005

When we left off, our hero was entering the control tower to find…….

This excitement on the part of the Iraqis had our Security Forces troop nervous. Usually these guys sit back and just observe. He was standing with his weapon ready. I imagine that to him it looked like a flight was about to breakout at any moment. On the other side of the tower were Chief Null and the other tower controllers in gauged in a rather spirited discussion………………. 

As I said, the Iraqis on one side yelling and pointing at each other, the American controllers and out the window. On the other side, were the Americans doing the same. My first order of business was to calm the senior airman down with the machine gun standing in the middle with a worried look on his face. I explained to him quickly that the Iraqis are very emotional people and they are not mad at us, they are made at Balad approach control. Next I went to Chief Null. “Chief, are we stopped all around or not?” “We are continuing military operations, but THEY have suspended all civilian traffic due to the restricted visibility.” Great, all civilian traffic is stopped to Iraq’s largest commercial airport. It gets dark in an hour and a half and there are 3 Iraqi Airlines flights full of passengers sitting on the middle of the ramp waiting to move. If they are not airborne prior to 8:00 pm, they will have to spend the night on the airplanes on the ramp. They cannot go back inside the terminal at night. We did have a plane do that one night. When a plane in the US gets a few hours of delay, it is on Fox News, not here. We were under a time crunch. “Chief, get someone standing by to work their traffic.” Well, it looked like all was going to get worked out after all. “Major, there is just one problem. We don’t know how they do the security verification for the civil aircraft with Global Security via the handheld radio.” Alright, THAT was a problem. We had never had to do this, nor should we until now. Now it was time to talk to the Iraqis. I went to Mr. Ishmael the Iraqi Supervisor. “Mr. Ishmael, you know that you are my friend and will be tomorrow as well, right?!? Sir, you cannot simply walk away from the control tower. This tower is your control until 8:00. You have a responsibility to the civilian aircraft here.” “Major, we will always be friends but, we will not work in an unsafe operation that being put on us by Balad Approach.” The jest of their argument was that the reported official visibility was 5,000 meters (VFR) or good visibility. The Supervisor thought that the visibility at the approach end of the runway was less than that. Mr. Ishmael called Balad when the tower launched and aircraft and said that the visibility was not very good. Balad thought that he was just making conversation and was not directing anything. After all, Balad looked at their monitor and saw that the official visibility was still VFR so they continued to run traffic accordingly. As soon as the tower switched the departure to Balad, Balad switched an arrival to the tower. Mr. Ishmael thought that he made it clear that they could not see the aircraft and would not provide visual separation. So, he started yelling…. I mean speaking in a loud spirited manner. Iraqi controllers do this a lot. Now as he is speaking about this one arrival, Balad switches another arrival to the tower without providing, what Mr. Ishmael thought was appropriate separation. That was it. He told his controllers to unplug from position now. He called Balad and said the airport is closed and to stop all traffic to Baghdad until further notice. I could just imagine the look on the controller’s face at Balad.

Now back to us taking the positions. “Mr. Ishmael, will you allow us to continue to work military aircraft into your airport?” “Yes Major, I will allow that.” Great. “Chief, call Balad and …” he was already on the phone before I could even finish. “Mr. Ishmael, you have three Iraqi Airline flights there full of your people waiting to leave. If you and I don’t come to some understanding, they will be sleeping on the plane. And tomorrow, you and I both will be talking to our bosses. There will be a lot of attention on what we are doing here today. The Minister of Transportation and the Embassy will get involved. We do not need this. Will you consider going back to work?” “Major, I will not continue to work under this unsafe condition. I don’t care if the Minister of Transportation gets involved or not. Maybe HE will call Balad and make them do it according to procedures.” “Alright sir. I respect your position. Do we need to make the people on those planes traveling with small children suffer from this heat all night because of Balad? I can make things happen with them, but I cannot do anything with Iraqi Air without your help. Will you allow us to work these three flights out? If you allow us we can release these aircraft and then we can talk about this when we are not under so much pressure.” “Major, I will allow you to work them out if you wish it.” Now we are talking. I glanced over at Chief Null will a look of satisfaction on my face. His response was mouthing, “What about security????” Oh yeah, I knew I had forgotten something. “Mr. Ishmael, would you please assist us with the security calls required for your Iraqi Air flights?” “Yes Major.” In just a moment there was an Iraqi controller “training” one of us on how to do security procedures. Soon, three Iraqi Airlines flights were on their way without ever knowing that they almost spent the night on the ramp. Now what do we do? “Mr. Ishmael, what about any other civilian flights that come in over the next hour? Can we work them in as well?” “You may work until tomorrow morning. We will be back to open our side as scheduled at 0700.” “That sounds good my friend. Take the rest of the night off J” So they did. For the next hour or so, we were working the civilian traffic using completely different procedures than we were used to using. I have to hand it to Chief Null and the USAF controllers on duty. They stepped in there and made it work and made it look easy.

Well, now what do I tell everyone about. That was last week and there has been a ton of stuff since then as well. Here are some pictures from the last few days. Lunch in the tower with the Iraqi controllers. Me in a Polish Hind helicopter this morning (they did not call ahead to command post so I was having to chew them out again. They were nice guys.)

Later,

PR

June 26, 2005

Hi Everybody,
    I guess most of you have seen the news by now about Global Security walking off of the job here in Baghdad. Before all of this happened we had some real interesting things happen. The weather was starting getting bad again like the last few days. I was in the tower due to the impending Global walkout coordinating with Security Forces, Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority, the Embassy and everyone else in the area. I was standing behind the Iraqi controllers when an aircraft landed without a landing clearance. The Iraqi supervisor Mr. Ishmael (the same one who pulled his controllers out of position last week) took the mike and tried to call the aircraft. When the aircraft answered, Mr. Ishmael told the aircraft that what he did was wrong. The pilot and he started going back and forth on the frequency. Soon Mr. Ishmael realized that the pilot was the same one that landed last week without a landing clearance which only made it worse. The aircraft was put in the “penalty box” for 30 minutes in the 118 degree heat. The pilot was bent to say the least. He and the supervisor “discussed” it all the way to the ramp. Ten minutes later, the phone rang and it was the pilot wanting to talk more about it. Mr. Ishmael talked to him for a few minutes then turned to me as asked if the pilot could come to the tower. I said absolutely not. Soon he hung up the phone and it was back to work for everyone. About thirty minutes later, we see three men on the tower door monitor approaching the door to the tower cab. It looked like a flight crew. They started banging on the door demanding to be let in. Here we go again. I took the Security Forces troop (Sra Davis) with me and we went down to talk to the crew. I told Davis to stand behind the door and if needed I would call for him. I then told Davis, “no matter what, do not allow them past this door, you understand?” “Oh yeah, I got it Sir.” I had wanted this to be as low key as possible so I had debated about taking my weapon or not, I took it. I opened the door and there they were. There were three pilots standing on the stairs to the tower. As soon as I stepped out, they all started talking at the same time. One was in broken English and the other two I could not tell. The aircraft was registered to Uzbekistan, so I am not sure what they speak there, Russian I would guess. Anyway, I tried to be as diplomatic as possible. I told the English speaking one that it would not be possible for them to come to the tower due to security concerns and that they needed to call Mr. Kareem, the Director of Air Traffic Services on Monday and make an appointment to come back during business hours. Well, the pilot was not buying that. “I demand to speak with that supervisor now.” “Sir, I understand your frustration, but, you will not be able to speak with him in the tower and I cannot allow him to leave to come down and talk to you. Please take this phone number and talk to the Director on Monday.” “I will talk to him NOW” and he took two steps toward me. That was two steps too close. I turned back over my right shoulder and called, “Sra Davis”. He opened the door with this MP5 machine gun at ready in full combat gear. “Yes Major?” I turned to the pilots, “Sir, you ARE going to leave the tower. Sra Davis will escort you to the elevator. If you do not leave now peacefully, I will consider you a threat to the air traffic personnel and you do not want that to happen. Sra Davis, please take these men to the elevator.” I guess Sra Davis had the look of someone who was just looking for a reason to shoot someone and I had already given him the green light, so the men decided that leaving the tower was a good idea. I think Davis was disappointed that there were no shots fired. I was not. An hour later another aircraft landed without talking to the tower. It was a civilian Citation Jet. When the Iraqis saw him land, Global Security was notified and rolled the trucks. The aircraft was stopped by two guys with guns pointing at the cockpit windows. They “negotiated” on the ramp for a while and were escorted to a remote area of the ramp. See the picture above. Not something you see everyday in Memphis. Now we get to Global Security leaving.

What does that really mean to us you might ask. Well, Global Security provides the security for the civilian side of the airport. That means without Global, civilians cannot come to the airport. The civilians who work in the terminal, cargo areas and control tower are not able to come on or leave the area without security. On Thursday, we were given notice that Global was planning to walk out if they did not get paid. Iraq has not paid them in 2 months. This has happened twice before since I have been here but never got to this point. So, on Friday morning, we got word that it looked like Global was really going to leave this time. Notices were issued that no civilian traffic could land after noon local time, and all departures had to be airborne no later than 4:00 pm, all Iraqis had to be gone by 4:30 pm and Global was leaving at 5. And that is just what happened. At about 3:30 I released the Iraqi controllers to go home. I hated doing it but did not have a choice. There were 2 flights left and the Embassy called every 5 minutes to see if they were going to get out by the dead line. Now we were running into weather issues. The visibility was getting bad again. I assured the Embassy that we would do “what ever it took” to get them out, and that is exactly what it took. At 4:45 pm the last aircraft departed BIAP.

     Now with Global Security gone, the Army moved in to support security operations on the airport. Entry Control Point (ECP) 1, the big one getting into the airport was now being staffed by both Iraqi Police and US Army. ECP1 is the one you hear about on the news almost everyday. I wish it was a little farther away. It gets bombed a lot and is really loud when a car bomb goes off. Now you only jump if it sounds really close.

    As of today (Sunday) it looks like Global is coming back tomorrow. It has taken me about three days to write this email 5 minutes at a time. Well, I really have to send this and get to work writing a Letter of Agreement. Talk to you guys later. Thanks for the emails about what is going on over there.