Deployment to Sather AB, Iraq - 1

23Dec08
Here is the start of my blog to Camp Sather, near Baghdad International Airpport (BIAP), formerly Saddam Hussein International Airport. Some info may be copy and pasted and credit given in perenthesis ( ). Others may post emails I send as blogs if given authority. Plz keep checking back for more information and regular entries!
447th Air Expeditionary Group - Sather ABThe 447th Air Expeditionary Group, located at Sather Air Base, adjacent to Baghdad International Airport, was established in April 2003. It's a self-sufficient and geographically-separated unit of the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, Joint Base Balad, "Tuskegee Airmen." Sather AB is co-located with the Victory Base Complex that also includes a series of U.S. Army camps, Iraqi Special Forces and Police training areas, all surrounding BIAP. (http://www.sather.afcent.af.mil/ , Google)
Sather Air Base or Camp Sather is a United States Air Force base on the west side of Baghdad International Airport. There are about 1,200 Air Force airmen serving at the base as part of the 447th Air Expeditionary Group. The main function of the base is to serve as a hub for transporting military cargo and personnel through the Baghdad area. The only permanent building was Saddam Hussein's old personal terminal but has been converted to the Camp Commander's support offices. Most VIPs enter Baghdad using this terminal known as the "Glass House". Sather Air Base includes a small BX, Subway, Green Beans Coffee shop, gift shop, and barber located next to the main Air Force Passenger Terminal.
Camp Sather is named in memory of Staff Sergeant Scott Sather, the first Airman to give his life in Operation Iraqi Freedom. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
Well this will be my home for 6 months, starting mid January! Should be fun! For those that don't know me, I am a nurse/medic in the Air Force and will be medical affairs liason and work for med command as well as treating patients for 6 days a week and 12 hours + per day. This is my third deployment, having gone to Al Udeid AB in Qatar, and Balad, Iraq, 40 miles north earlier this year. I've done trauma, codes, sick call, pediatrics, cardiovascular, lab, orthopedics, neurology, pain management, wound care, outpatient surgery, ICU, and trauma surgery, etc while deployed. I've been bombed, shot at, the whole nine yards and am proud to say I treat the thousands of soldiers, sailers, airmen, marines, coalition troops, and Iraqi casualties of this war, mostly with success, some, regrettably not. In any case, here we go, and look back here for more as this deployment, and this blog, continue! Thank you all for you kind words of support!