Current state of Iraq's south airfields
 

Interested to know if any one has any info on the state of the airfields in southern Iraq.

I know Basra int is the hub, Basra city is out of action long time ago.

ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/misc/maps/pcl...uth_h6b_91.jpg

I was in Shaibah the week we pulled out in 2007 if memory serves and in a sorry state. Runway not in the best condition and most if not all of the HAS's had been blown.

Basrah Maqal is at the front of the Shaat al Arab hotel which was our main presence downtown, not counting the Palace. From memory the runway was a vehicle park and the rest was tent city.

Basrah Int was in comparatively good nick apart from the terminal building which needed a lot of work, I think we moved out of the Terminal in '96 and handed it back to the locals, we then used our own dedicated terminal - read two big tents and a baggage scanner.

Didn't go to any of the other southern strips, but up north Balad, Talil & Baghdad were all in fairly good condition.

Why did the Basra terminal need work?

Was it something to do with the mighty British forces ripping all the marble floors out of the arrival's hall perchance?

Somewhere in the UK there has got to be a very extravagant entrance hall/ballroom in an O's or Sgts Mess:)

CS

96?? Were you on a very early advance party?!

Oooops, what's 10 years between friends ....... '06

I'll leave the original as is or it won't make any sense now :ugh:

Shaibah West
 

I see from the map that Shaibah West is 'Abandoned'. Is that the one we used in the 1950s (the spiritual home of 84 Squadron and the origin of the 'Shaibah Blues' song)?