Sunset over Lake Slayer
Remnants of Flintstone Palace
Sunset over Lake Slayer
Perfume Palace
A building a know nothing about -- On Lake Slayer
"Freedom Over America" Palace in the background - never completed due to 2003 InvasionCamp Victory, Iraq – March – Sept 2009
Location: Just outside of Bagdad
Area: HUGE
Population: A lot
Weather: Hot
I can honestly say that I am no longer on Mars. True, Post 2--my description of Kuwait--covers all the basics of Victory as well – t-walls, jersey barriers, bumpy dirt/gravel roads, MRAPs, Hummers and other huge vehicles with a MPG of 0.0008, more t-walls, 12 ft high walls with barbed wire fencing, and did I mention t-walls?
But Kuwait has one thing Camp Victory does not – McDonalds. And I honestly can not imagine a Mars without a McDonalds. Can you?
Camp Victory/Camp Liberty Compound is actually a collection of smaller bases – Sather, Slayer, Striker, Liberty, Victory Base, and I’m sure many many more. To be honest, this place is so huge that I’m not sure if I’ll ever know everything. The population size is supposed to be secret information. Personally, I think there’s so many here, and there’s so many deploying and redeploying everyday that it’s not that it’s a secret at all. It’s because no one has a freakin clue!
The Army Corps of Engineers has their own little secured off section, with their own little buildings, barracks, gym, laundry and “CHUs” Which is a containerized housing unit or combat housing unit, whichever you prefer. However you put it, it's a trailer, and that's where I sleep. There's two rooms and a bathroom. So yes, I have my own room and only have to share a bathroom with one person. I have a fridge (that never has anything in it because the food is free at the dining facilities (dfac) so there’s no point in buying anything), tv, wadrobe and bed. There’s even a cleaning staff that not only vacuums and washes my sheets, but even straightens up my room every Friday. As you can see, I’m not exactly roughing it and therefore really have no right to complain!
This area of Iraq has some interesting history. And that’s really what I want to tell you about, not my CHU or ability to get free laundry detergent (which I do!). A portion of this base used to be part of Saddam’s private resort complex.
To better imagine what this portion of Victory looks like, first imagine Mars/Kuwait again (minus the McDonalds of course). Now, I give you permission to take out the t-walls that run along the side of the road. Do this for several miles. Instead, run canals and thick vegetation along the roads. Imagine miles upon miles of complex canal systems intertwined with small lakes. Now surround the lakes with palaces and small villas, all beautifully architectured with great attention to detail. Within this complex are a few infrastructures worth pointing out.
1. Here is where Saddam’s main palace -- Al Faw Palace is located. This is where President Obama met with Iraq’s Prime Minister after the G-8 summit. And no, I did not see Obama. There was a no-fly zone, and all roads were closed off leading to the palace. I had the opportunity to be 30 ft from Obama in Baltimore during the Whistle Tour, and then was about a mile away on Inauguration Day. Both of those days I stood for 5+ hours in 15 degree weather with crowds so huge I couldn’t even lift my arms up. I'm Obama'd out.
Location: Just outside of Bagdad
Area: HUGE
Population: A lot
Weather: Hot
I can honestly say that I am no longer on Mars. True, Post 2--my description of Kuwait--covers all the basics of Victory as well – t-walls, jersey barriers, bumpy dirt/gravel roads, MRAPs, Hummers and other huge vehicles with a MPG of 0.0008, more t-walls, 12 ft high walls with barbed wire fencing, and did I mention t-walls?
But Kuwait has one thing Camp Victory does not – McDonalds. And I honestly can not imagine a Mars without a McDonalds. Can you?
Camp Victory/Camp Liberty Compound is actually a collection of smaller bases – Sather, Slayer, Striker, Liberty, Victory Base, and I’m sure many many more. To be honest, this place is so huge that I’m not sure if I’ll ever know everything. The population size is supposed to be secret information. Personally, I think there’s so many here, and there’s so many deploying and redeploying everyday that it’s not that it’s a secret at all. It’s because no one has a freakin clue!
The Army Corps of Engineers has their own little secured off section, with their own little buildings, barracks, gym, laundry and “CHUs” Which is a containerized housing unit or combat housing unit, whichever you prefer. However you put it, it's a trailer, and that's where I sleep. There's two rooms and a bathroom. So yes, I have my own room and only have to share a bathroom with one person. I have a fridge (that never has anything in it because the food is free at the dining facilities (dfac) so there’s no point in buying anything), tv, wadrobe and bed. There’s even a cleaning staff that not only vacuums and washes my sheets, but even straightens up my room every Friday. As you can see, I’m not exactly roughing it and therefore really have no right to complain!
This area of Iraq has some interesting history. And that’s really what I want to tell you about, not my CHU or ability to get free laundry detergent (which I do!). A portion of this base used to be part of Saddam’s private resort complex.
To better imagine what this portion of Victory looks like, first imagine Mars/Kuwait again (minus the McDonalds of course). Now, I give you permission to take out the t-walls that run along the side of the road. Do this for several miles. Instead, run canals and thick vegetation along the roads. Imagine miles upon miles of complex canal systems intertwined with small lakes. Now surround the lakes with palaces and small villas, all beautifully architectured with great attention to detail. Within this complex are a few infrastructures worth pointing out.
1. Here is where Saddam’s main palace -- Al Faw Palace is located. This is where President Obama met with Iraq’s Prime Minister after the G-8 summit. And no, I did not see Obama. There was a no-fly zone, and all roads were closed off leading to the palace. I had the opportunity to be 30 ft from Obama in Baltimore during the Whistle Tour, and then was about a mile away on Inauguration Day. Both of those days I stood for 5+ hours in 15 degree weather with crowds so huge I couldn’t even lift my arms up. I'm Obama'd out.
Which is why when I heard President Obama was going to be at Al Faw Palace, I went to the dining facility for dinner – located in the OPPOSITE direction.
Anyways, I haven’t gotten any good pictures of the palace yet, so I’ll go dwell more on that another day.
Anyways, I haven’t gotten any good pictures of the palace yet, so I’ll go dwell more on that another day.
Instead, I'll take you for a walk around one of my favorite places -- Lake Slayer. Harry (my 50 something Harley Davidson biker friend -- next blog) and I take our sunset walks there a few nights a week before dinner. Rumor has it you can get tours of the palaces/places I'll talk about below and I'm working on getting that set up. So hopefully I'll have some more pictures and cool Saddam stories in a few weeks!
Lake Slayer 101:
“Freedom over America” Palace – Saddam began to build this after we left in 1993. It was never finished due to invasion of 2003. Like most of Saddam’s infrastrure, he brought in the French to actually design and build it. You can see in the picture above the cranes from construction were abandoned and still stand. Right now, the palace is part built, part falling apart (perhaps bombed by us, I’m not sure-- gotta get that tour!!), and part occupied by multinationals. The palace is used for office space and living quarters at the moment.
The Perfume Palace – this is the 4 or 5 story round building shown above. Rumor has it this is where Saddam kept his women for both himself and for his closest friends…
Flintstone Playhouse (made up name). Definitely more pictures of this to come!! This is essentially a HUGE playhouse/playground that Saddam had designed and built (by the french, agian) for his grandkids. It was designed to look like a place out of the flintstones. In it's hay days, it had waterfalls, living room, play areas, balconies, boys and girls bathrooms ( Bathrooms is my guess -- there's tiled rooms with plumbing fixtures. One tiled room is sporting blue and the other purple). There's even an elevator shaft and what appears to be staff washrooms in the basement. Just take a moment and imagine being a 5 year old and having a full blown HOUSE that looks straight up from a flintstone cartoon, that overlooked a beautiful lake, all to yourself.
Also above is a picture of a small Mosque and a few other buildings on the water that I know absolutely nothing about. This is only a very small portion of the resort. But don't worry. I'll hit up that tour and add a part II to this already lengthy blog!! Rumor has it I can also get a tour of Al-Faw Palace, which of course, you'll hear all about.
On closing note:
One of the local nationals I work with told me that the general Iraqi population had no idea any of this was here. They had heard rumors Saddam had his own “paradise” resort, but it was commonly not believed--he was very careful to not reveal his wealth to the public. I did not research this to see if it was true, but it makes sense. This is an impoverished country where much of the population is uneducated and has not realy means of communication and access of the new except through word of mouth. So it wouldn’t be very hard for Saddam to make sure the majority of his country doesn’t know about his resorts.
Furthermore, if this was true, it makes you wonder how many Iraqi’s STILL don’t believe Saddam was using their countries money to building himself palace after palace…and who can blame them? They've never had the opportunity to know any better.
Also above is a picture of a small Mosque and a few other buildings on the water that I know absolutely nothing about. This is only a very small portion of the resort. But don't worry. I'll hit up that tour and add a part II to this already lengthy blog!! Rumor has it I can also get a tour of Al-Faw Palace, which of course, you'll hear all about.
On closing note:
One of the local nationals I work with told me that the general Iraqi population had no idea any of this was here. They had heard rumors Saddam had his own “paradise” resort, but it was commonly not believed--he was very careful to not reveal his wealth to the public. I did not research this to see if it was true, but it makes sense. This is an impoverished country where much of the population is uneducated and has not realy means of communication and access of the new except through word of mouth. So it wouldn’t be very hard for Saddam to make sure the majority of his country doesn’t know about his resorts.
Furthermore, if this was true, it makes you wonder how many Iraqi’s STILL don’t believe Saddam was using their countries money to building himself palace after palace…and who can blame them? They've never had the opportunity to know any better.
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