There was a point on Wednesday that I thought my entire trip to Iraq had fallen apart.

My trip to Babylon, as I’ve already written, had been postponed at the last second, and sorting out the logistics for the rescheduled visit was proving nearly impossible. On top of that, my trip to Babylon was meant to conclude with the security team dropping me off at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Kalsu (near the ruins) for the start of my military embed. Because my Babylon trip was cancelled, I instead needed to find military transport down to Kalsu. The drawdown of U.S. troops, though, meant that the number of helicopters zooming around the country, ferrying guys like me, was greatly diminished.

After a couple of days of waiting at the International Zone, the public affairs officers got me manifested on a series of 3 flights that would land me at FOB Delta, in Wasit province, which was supposed to be my next stop after Kalsu anyways.

Of course, even though it seemed like I’d get to my embed after all, the weather gods intervened.

It had poured rain on Sunday night. A few Iraqis reported later that it had actually hailed on the other side of the river. Since then, the air had been thick, weather clouds mixing with the smoke from the seasonal Iraqi field burn offs to make the air exceptionally hazy.

When I arrived at the helicopter landing zone on Wednesday morning, I was told by an affable employee that no regularly scheduled flights had taken off in 48 hours. The news landed like a punch to the chest. No Babylon. No embed. A devastating ending to what’s been a wonderful 8-month project.

I determined to wait and pray that the helicopters would resume their flights. I’d sit there all day if I had to.

At about 11am, 3 hours after I had arrived at the landing zone, the report came in: the Chinook helicopter had lifted off and was on its way.

Several minutes later, another call came in: the chopper had circled for a few minutes and set promptly back down after the air quality was deemed still unacceptable.

I continued to wait.

Just before 1pm, the landing zone manager ran breathlessly into the waiting area. There were a pair of Black Hawks approaching, he told me, on their way to drop several UN employees at a meeting in Diyala Province. After the stop, the choppers would be returning to FOB Taji, the second of my three stops. They’d take me along, but I had a minute to get ready. Even as he spoke, I could already hear the helicopters approaching.

I slammed my computer shut, threw my body armor on, and sprinted to the landing area, just in time to trot out to my ride.

Unlike the Chinook helicopters and the C-130 planes (the other two forms of military air transport I had taken), the Black Hawks offer superb views through tall windows. And the rides are thrilling.

Lifting off from Baghdad, we zoomed over the low-rise, monochromatically brown city. For a town of several million, Baghdad seems to stretch on forever, fanning out from the banks of the Tigris River. We followed the river and a nearby highway north, and just I began to wonder if the city would ever end, it gave way to vast tracts of farmland, the population all but disappearing. For more than half an hour, we cruised over muddy farm fields, which eventually transformed into the sandier landscape of Diyala.

At one point, our Black Hawk launched a burst of flares. My heart leapt into my throat. The flares automatically deploy in order to deter an attack on the helicopter, but I’d learn later that any number of factors can cause them to launch.

After a touchdown in Diyala, we turned back towards Taji, just north of Baghdad. And another half hour later, we had arrived.

The flights out of Taji seemed to be running on time, and I was quickly sent on my way to FOB Delta aboard a Chinook helicopter.

The ride into Delta gave me a good sense of its setting. Delta is the main U.S. base in Wasit Province, southeast of Baghdad and bordering Iran. Wasit is largely rural, poor, and Shiite. It continues to see some measure of violence, though the fighting here pales in comparison to that of Mosul or Baghdad, for example. Because it’s a Shiite province, al Qaeda has little or no presence here. Trouble, when it does arise, comes in the form of the Mahdi Army.

The capital of Wasit is al Kut, a city of about 350 thousand people, just on the other side of the Tigris from FOB Delta.

Delta itself is enormous because it used to serve as an Iraqi air force base before the war. Stationed here, and my host for the embed, is the 2^{nd squadron of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.}

More on night patrols, border bases, and reconstruction efforts in my next posts.

Tags: al Kut, Baghdad, Diyala, FOB Delta, International Zone, Iraq, Taji, Wasit