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Kerry Barrett ReportingAfter spending some time in Iraq at the Balad Air Base, is it very evident how the environment poses some real hazards with things like the heat and ever-present dust.
But, then there's the obvious physical dangers. Those dangers put everyone's lives on the line. They also become an everyday part of Life at War.
Red alert.
Lt. Col. Peter Gersten/ 388th Fighter Pilot & 4th Fighter Squadron Commander: "I was sitting in bed and I was actually reading a section of the Bible, believe it or not. All of the sudden, I mean a tremendous explosion; a rocket went off, probably about 50 yards from my rook. Literally the explosion went off and knocked me out of my bed."
In theory there should be plenty of warning.
Senior Master Sgt. Joseph Gerling/ 388th Fighter Wing: "Folks here have satellite tracking, imagery. So once a rocket or mortar is launched from wherever, it tracks and projects real quick where the projected impact is and that location, that sector of the base goes into alarm red."
But that's not always how it pans out.
"You see it come across and it bangs across the building. Then you get the alarm. Sometimes you hear it, sometimes you don't. We have great systems, but sometimes you don't get the warning you need."
"So, are you nervous just sitting out here in the open?"
"I don't know, are you?"
Balad is dubbed Mortaritaville for a reason. Although it's been a long time since a mortar killed anyone on base, the attacks are fairly frequent, lobbed from a quarter to half mile outside the wire, usually in the early morning or evening. They fire often, but rarely actually hit anything."
And as soon as it happens, it's over, and back to the daily routine for these men and women living in a war zone.
There is a sign up on base, a not so subtle reminder of the dangers. It shows how many days or hours since an attack and how long since the last fatality.
Coming up tomorrow, we take a big picture look at the role of Balad and why it's become so important to Operation: Iraqi Freedom.
