Greyhawk,

From Global Security

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/iraq-intro.htm

"By May 2005 the Washington Post reported that plans called for consolidating American troops in Iraq into four large air bases: Tallil in the south, Al Asad in the west, Balad in the center and either Irbil or Qayyarah in the north. Eventually, US units would be concentrated at these four fortified strategic hubs, from which they could provide logistical support and emergency combat assistance. Each base would support a brigade combat team, along with aviation and other support personnel."

Planned, timing to be decided, based on conditions, would have been a better choice of words.

I'm currently writing from Balad AB/LSA Anaconda. The notion that this installation is scheduled to be one of the last four remaining in Iraq has been spoken about for quite some time now.

The WaPo article seems fairly accurate. Having visited many other FOBs/Camps/LSAs around theater, I can say that the conditions seem much better here than most other bases in country. During the rainy season, the mud is nowhere near as bad as, say, the complex down in Baghdad (i.e. BIAP, Victory). Personally though, I prefer LSA Adder/Ali Airbase/Tallil over Anaconda because it is quieter.

According to my sources, one statement noted in the WaPo article isn't totally upfront:

The other place where the war intrudes is the busy base hospital, where doctors perform 400 surgeries a month on the wounded.

From what I've heard, roughly 70-80% of the wounded treated at the CSH are Iraqis.

To me, the DFAC food here is excellent. No real need to frequent a fast food stand. The WaPo article also forgot to mention that the ice cream is made by Baskin Robbins.

P.S. Love your site, Greyhawk. It is one of my required, daily reads whenever internet is available.