Ok, here’s a bunch of publicly available info on Kirkush/Caldwell/Balad Ruz that I picked up over the last couple of weeks but didn’t post because I didn’t want to disclose where I was going until I got here for security reasons.
Robert Alt describes his trip to FOB Caldwell in May 2004
A picture I found with Google (don’t know who took it or when)
NewsObserver posted this article just a few weeks ago, which describes the trip by road between Balad and Caldwell. Luckily, we managed to get a flight via Chinook (25 minutes) instead of a 2.5 hour convoy.
Kirkush Military Training Base is described here.
This Fayetteville article describes the unit I’m with. It requires a subscription, but Google has a cached version here for now.
I don’t have a place to sleep yet and I don’t know what my job will be yet, but I expect those things to change in the next week or so.