On to Iraq

My flight to Iraq was interesting. We flew a C-130, which really looks like a plane left over from WWII. It was hot inside. It was also very hot outside too. Anyway, we had to make 2 stops and drop off other providers at Al Asad and Tikrit. The interesting part is the pilot has to make combat approaches. For the landing he turns and twists and goes up and down, then dive bombs the plane. He pulls out at the last second, then all of a sudden you feel the tires hit the runway. Man this ride puts the rides at Great America to shame. Apparently, the planes have been shot at before, so they take precautions.
When I arrived, at the airport, they took me a couple hundred feet from the terminal and said I was home. I am at the 86th CSH (Combat Support Hospital). It is literally a stone's throw from the taxiway of the airport. They bring in casualties from all over, usually fly them by a blackhawk right to us.
My place in Mosul is not too bad. My shack is about 50 feet from the hospital. There is a bomb shelter about 10ft right outside my door. Fortunately, I haven't had to use it yet. The last mortar attack was a few months back.
I am the only American Orthopedic Surgeon in all of northern Iraq. Any troop with ortho injuries comes to see me. Amazing, my practice spreads 50 to 100 miles. And to think they travel all that way just see me. Imagine how busy I would be in Chicago covering that much territory.
I didn't know this, but Mosul is the 3rd largest city in Iraq, has about 2 million people living in it. This is mainly a Kurdish area. The Kurds are our friends, unfortunately, there are still plenty of unfriendlies around. The Kurd are like the Jews of Nazi Germany. Saddam Huesien(s/p?) killed over a million of them with gas and chemical weapons. So they liked that we took him out.

Tom