Flying Man

Flying Man

Read Nancy's story about the suicide bombings at the Flying Man gate right outside of Camp Victory. The day before that incident, I was sitting in that parking lot waiting to meet one of my Iraqi counterparts. Unfortunately, because the US and Iraqi troops moved the checkpoint, he decided to meet me at another location instead of our usual spot. So I am sitting there waiting for him in my sniper-friendly Camp Victory SUV getting more and more restless wondering where the hell he was. So I finally get him on the cell phone and he says that the check point has been moved and he is by what I thought he said were"date trees." So I look to the left and right and I see a grove of date palms about 200 meters east. So, I take a left out of the parking lot onto ... oh yeah, did I tell you that this parking lot is on Route Irish? ... Route Irish heading toward the "date trees" and downtown Baghdad. I keep looking for his truck until he tells me "no!! dead trees! Closer to the base!" At this point I am driving toward Baghdad proper on a very dangerous stretch of highway and I can't find a spot to turn around. When we went out of the gate for this reason, we did not wear our body armor or kevlar helmets because, ironically, one is a much richer target and in more danger with it on. I finally ended up driving through a grove of trees to get to the other side of the road because the side I was on started curving away from the other side - eeeekk. Anyway, luckily all the Iraqis drive like bats out of hell, so me hitting 90 on the way back to the base looked normal! I finally found the "dead trees" and my Iraqi friend. That was more adrenaline than I wanted to chug.