Logistics Support Area Anaconda

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Logistics Support Area Anaconda (LSA Anaconda or "Camp Anaconda" - sometimes informally, "Life Support Area Anaconda"[1] or "Mortaritaville"[2]) is one of the largest American military bases in Iraq. It is also commonly referred to as Balad Air Base in the US Air Force.

Located at Balad in the Sunni Triangle 68 miles north of Baghdad. Its concrete walls house 28,000 soldiers and 8,000 civilian contractors. Unlike most bases in Iraq, Camp Anaconda offers amenities including movie theaters, fast food courts, and dance lessons. The base is a common destination for celebrities and politicians visiting American troops in Iraq.

It has been referred to in the news "Mortaritaville" to the soldiers occupying it, owing to the large numbers of mortar attacks it receives from Iraqi insurgents. On 2 January 2004 a soldier from the Fourth Infantry Division was killed in a mortar attack there. In May 2004, a Filipino worker was also killed in a mortar attack.

In 2004, a few mortar rounds were fired per day [3], usually hitting the empty space between the runways, although there were isolated injuries and fatalities. By mid-2006, this had rate had dropped about 40% [4].

With 27,500 landings and takeoffs a month, Camp Anaconda flight operations are comparable to the airport of a busy city. For reference, Atlanta's Hartsfield airport often exceeds 80,000 flight ops per month, each with ten to one hundred times as many average passengers per takeoff or landing.[5]

The base is thought to be one of four "super-bases" planned by the Pentagon once US forces are replaced by Iraqi forces on the front lines.

Camp Anaconda is the largest military base operated by Halliburton subsidiary KBR.

[edit] See also

• Balad, Iraq
• Post-invasion Iraq
• Task Force Mustang -- 36th Combat Aviation Brigade
• 2d Battalion, 135th Aviation Regiment
• 1st Battalion, 131st Aviation Regiment

[edit] External links

• Balad from GlobalSecurity.org
• Internet in LSA Anaconda, Balad
• Snapshots from a soldier who served at Camp Anaconda
• 332d Expeditionary Air Wing's public website