Sights:
Dusty - There is a constant dust-haze in the air here. Even on a "clear" day, there is still a brown haze. Only when you look straight up is the sky ever really blue. That's a clear day. Then there are the dust storms. They can last for weeks, but normally only stick around for a day or two. They seem to come about when strong winds off the Mediterranian sweep across Syria and Jordan, blowing the powder-fine dust off dry lakebeds. The dust is the consistancy of powdered sugar, and is carried thousands of feet in the air, and blown over hundreds of miles. It coats anything and everything, and can get so dense that visibility is reduced to just a few hundred feet and the sun is almost completely blocked out. On those days, the little bit of sunlight that filters through all the dust has an erie brownish-orange color to it, and the only thing you can smell or taste is dust. Not at all unlike when you blow the dust off a box that's been sitting in the attic for years on end.
Brown - Not surprisingly, because of the constant dust, most everything here is a tan or light brown. There are a fair amount of trees, mostly eucalyptus, but even they are coated with dust. Greens here are not the same as they are at home. They are all faded and dust coated. About 40 miles west of us is an enormous lake (About the size of Lake Mead if I had to guess), but that is the only real blue water I've seen here (aside from the Persian Gulf). The Tigris and Euphrates rivers are extremely muddy and poluted, and the water is (guess which color?) brown. Even the thousands of farm fields here in the "fertile crescent" appear brown from the air. No vibrant colors anywhere, aside from... you guessed it.... vibrant brown.
Dingy - This is a very poor country, and all the wars and conflicts in the past 50 years have taken their tolls. All the buildings here (left over from when Balad was an Iraqi Air Force base) are run down and in poor repair. In the years that we've been here, a few improvements have been made, but just those that were absolutely necessary. Utilities may or may not work, water may or may not come on (and quite often when it does, it is brown for the first few seconds), and so on. Not at all up to the standards we're used to back home. Everything is dirty, and most everything is broken in some respect and works just enough to get by.
Blast walls - They're everywhere. Large, steel reinforced concrete wall sections. They're called "T" barriers, because they're sort of shaped like an upside down "T". They're designed to contain explosions from mortar rounds or rockets. Fortunately for us, they don't get used for their intended purposes very often. They surround just about every building on base, and sometimes they even have "T" barriers surrounding other "T" barriers. They're anywhere from 5' to 20' tall and 6' to 10' wide, and you can't turn your head without seeing dozens of them. Most of them are just plain old concrete gray, but soldiers being the creative types they are, have turned many of them into concrete canvasses onto which they've painted some beautiful murals. Some are memorials to fallen comrades, some are reminders of home, some are unit insignias, and others are just the "Kilroy was here" type of mementos used to mark a brief point in time that seemed like an eternity to the creator.
Sounds:
Balad is a very noisy place. Not that any big city back home is "quiet", but there are some sounds that are unique to a military airbase in a combat zone.
F-16s - Every hour or so, the air is pierced with the sounds of F-16s taking off in full afterburner. If you've never experienced this from 1/4 mile away, you should try it once. Then imagine it happening on a regular basis, all day every day. I used to live near a railroad crossing, and remember how the train horns used to wake me up at 3am. I didn't think anything could be worse than that at the time. Now I only wish I just had to listen to trains.
Generators - Everything here on base is powered by enormous generators, and they're everywhere. You can't walk anywhere without passing 7 or 8 of them. Huge diesel engines just droning on, all day, every day.
Air conditioners - Being in the middle of the desert, air conditioners are a necessity. In our offices and in our rooms, there is always the constant din of the a/c in the background.
Explosions - Just about daily, there are large explosions somewhere on base. They're called "controlled detonations", and are the Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD... military Bomb Squads) teams destroying the various explosives they'd come across that day. They announce the detonations before hand, but they still get your attention even when you're expecting them.
Birds - In the satellite antenna just outside my window, a pair of mourning doves have a nest, and now have several chicks. About 6am each morning, the chicks get fed, and I get to hear all about it. It ususally doesn't bother me, as it reminds me of the sounds of home. There are also lots of sparrows, pigeons and hawks here on base. Each morning and evening, the eucalyptus trees I mentioned above sound like they're filled with chirping birds. It's actually pretty impressive just how loud they can be.
Gunfire - There are rifle and machine gun ranges somewhere on base, and every now and then we hear the distant crackle of a machine gun burst. I realized I'd been here a while when the sound of gunfire didn't even get my attention anymore.
Accents - This place runs because of "TCNs" or Third Country Nationals. They are non-Iraqi contractors that do all the various non-military jobs on base. They work in the mess halls, they clean the showers and restrooms, they drive the busses, they work in the housing office, at the movie theaters, the barber shop, the fast food restaurants and the 3-day laundry service. They come from all over the region (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Philippines, South Africa, just to name a few), and most have very thick accents. Granted, they all speak English much, much better than I speak their native language, but its still a challenge to understand most of them. Also, we quite regularly have to deal with foreign air traffic controllers. Like the TCNs, their English is far better than my Arabic, but it can get interesting at times.
Gravel - Pretty much everywhere on base that is not paved or concrete, is covered with gravel. It varies from small pebbles to decent sized stones, but it is everywhere and it is usually about 6" deep. They put it down in the housing areas and parking lots to try to keep the dust and mud under control. It makes a very distinct "crunch, crunch, crunch" sound when you walk thru it. Very difficult to sneak up on anyone here.
Smells:
Ah yes, all the glorious smells of a 3rd world combat zone. Where to begin?
Dust - As I previously mentioned, dust is everywhere and it has a very specific smell that is just about everywhere, except on the very clearest of days. There is no escaping it when it's bad. It wakes me up at night on a pretty regular basis.
Smoke - About a half mile away from us is a huge trash burn pit. Imagine an enormous landfill where they don't bury the trash, but burn it instead. Anything and everything gets burned, and we get to breathe the smoke. Daily. It's almost to the point that we can tell what they're burning that day, just by the way the smoke smells. Plastics are the worst. I've taken some pictures of the giant plume of jet black smoke that billows up from the burn pit. I'll post them here sometime. There is no way on Earth this would ever be allowed back home because of all the toxins and pollutants that result, but hey, we're not at home so it must be ok, right?
Exhaust - With all the generators running all over the base, it's not surprising that there is also a constant stench of diesel exhaust just about everywhere you go. It first hits when I walk outside, but by the time I get to wherever I'm going, I've gotten used to it and don't even notice anymore. Then there is the jet exhaust out on the flightline. It's everywhere, and again, after a while you don't even notice.
Pine Sol - I think the Army keeps the makers of Pine Sol in business. Every Army building I've ever been in smelled like Pine Sol. I don't know what the fascination is with it, but I sure wish they'd switch to a different floor cleanser. Enough already with the Pine Sol!
Porta Potties - They're everywhere, and they smell like, well, porta potties. To add insult to foul smells, they hardly ever put just one anywhere. Normally there are 4 or 5 together, just to ensure that everyone for a half mile downwind can sample the bouquet of less-than-pleasant aromas. Oh yeah, and there isn't much that smells worse than a porta potty that hasn't been cleaned in a week and is baked on a daily basis in 117* heat. Not fun. They should encase them in glass and write "For Emergency Use Only" on the doors.
Body Odor - Most people here smell pretty bad. Usually, it's either for job-related or cultural reasons, but whatever the cause, the result is the same. I can't go more than two days without washing my flightsuit, but apparently, many people can (but shouldn't...). Then there are the TCNs, many of whom seem to feel it is "masculine" to smell like 3 week old rotting garbage mixed with sweat (either that or they use a cologne called "Eau De Dumpster"). I'm starting to better understand how their families can send them off to work here for years on end.
Tastes:
A common question is "What's the food like?" Well, it's actually pretty normal. We have many options available to us. The most common eatery is the 4 mess halls or "dining facilities/DFACs". They're each open 4 times a day, and always have a wide variety of foods to choose from. There are different theme meals every day, and they range from Mongolian BBQ and Indian food to Surf & Turf and Italian. The menu is pretty much the same week after week, but there is enough of a variety to keep us from getting too bored with it all. In the event that we do tire of the mess hall food, our other options on base include: Taco Bell (150 yards from my room), Pizza Hut, Burger King, Subway, Popeye's Chicken, Cinnabon, McDonalds, Green Beans (a military version of Starbucks) Baskin Robbins, and a mom and pop type Turkish restaurant (my favorite). We can also get a limited amount of foods (steaks, hamburgers, soup, canned vegetables, bread, etc) to cook in our rooms, altho most rooms are not set up for cooking aside from having a microwave. Most of the fast food tastes pretty close to the way it does back home, which I guess is the point.
Activities:
What is there to do on base? Well, aside from eating and sleeping, we actually are offered lots of options to pass the little spare time we do have.
There are three major recreation centers on base, and each offers various and assorted activities. From Bingo and Poker to video games and ping pong, you can generally find something to do 24 hours a day.
There are several nicely equipped gyms on base.
There is a huge movie theater, which aside from the ballistic shields around it and the fact that it's free to get in, could pass for any theater back home. They play two different first run movies during the week, and three on weekends. They also have various USO concerts and activities there.
There are two pools here, one indoor, one outdoor. The outdoor pool was formerly used to train the Iraqi Olympic swim and diving teams.
There are three exchanges (military version of Wal Mart) on base, and you can usually get just about anything you want, just not when you want/need it. For example, right now it's 117* outside, and it's a great time to stock up on sweat pants, jackets and thermal underwear. Come winter, you won't be able to find those things, but you can get a great deal on shorts.
There are several chapels on base, and there are services for just about every faith imaginable.
If all else fails and you can't find anything else to do here on base, you can always go back to work.
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