IRAQ: Bikes over Baghdad-part 4

As you can tell from the past few blogs our trip had been action packed and we had seen and done more in a week than I could have possibly imagined. We were already receiving Thank You emails from soldiers we had met along the way. It had already been an adventure and we were still in Basrah.

By now we were all quite used to the military way of life. We became a bit more accustomed to the intense heat and dusty air. Carrying out passports, identification and U.S. military orders everywhere we went became as second nature as did the site of M-4s, MRAPS, M-16s, desert camo day in and day out.

Our first morning demo went off without a hitch and more crazy tricks went down. At first we thought riding during the day would be impossible but when you look out at a crowd of hard working men and women you can’t help but get fired up and do the best you can. More DK’s were given away, more posters were signed and more guns were held. Basrah was the first place in the world I have ever hopped over 6 soldiers who were locked and loaded. Shortly after the last show we were notified that our choppers were ready to pick us up to take us to the next base. Helicopters? Bikes? Yup. Here we go…

With body armor on and bikes in hand we loaded onto two Blackhawk helicopters and headed north to FOB Hunter.

The choppers were loud, windy, powerful and heavily armed. We sat down, buckled up, gunners got in position and we were off.

(My bike sat right aside the left gunner and my wheel spun in the swift wind as the gunner surveyed the land for any sort of disturbance. They were locked and loaded and ready for anything. I shook my head for the entire flight in disbelief. It was incredible.)

This was the first time I really got a great view of Iraq from “outside the wire”. We flew with the windows open and nothing separating us from a war zone but pure, hot, Iraqi air.

Despite Nate’s dreads whipping me in the face every few minutes it was a pretty enjoyable and exciting ride. The maneuverability of those choppers is amazing and the pilots are extremely talented and precise (and I’m sure the gunners are too).

Along the flight I also learned that while Iraq is mostly desert there is also some marshy wetlands in a certain region we were flying over. This was the first time all week I had seen a tiny bit of green. A tiny bit.

We landed at a remote base of FOB Hunter. This base had about 500 soldiers and was far away from many of the larger bases. The soldiers had no notification of our arrival and frankly we didn’t really know where we were headed before we had arrived. Like I mentioned before it was a “need to know” basis.

Walking my bike off the runway was surreal. Here I was in remote Iraq with my BMX bike and my great friends. WTF? As we walked further into the base we saw bombed out bunkers, airplane hangers, and many soldiers in full battle gear heading out on missions. While this felt like we were really at war, further in the base felt like a family get-together.

It was Sunday and the dining hall was shut down. BBQ’s were a blazing, footballs were being tossed, soccer games were going on and many soldiers were enjoying some well deserved time off. A bit apprehensive to us walking up in civilian clothes the soldiers quickly adopted us into their family. We walked around the base from grill to grill and the familiar smell of tailgating filled the air (minus the beer of course).

I was at the base no more than 20 minutes when I heard “Kachinsky! What the hell are you doing here?” I looked behind me expecting to see a friend from school or perhaps the heat was making my hallucinate? I looked back and saw Dan “Evil” Hylton from Davenport, Iowa. Dan is a well-known shredder from Rampage skatepark. I have always been a fan of his riding and known of him for a long time as being that kid who killed it whenever I went to Rampage. He even won a Local Exposure Tour stop there back in 2005. Little did I know that he had joined the Army and had been stationed in Iraq for many months now. The chances that we ran into him is about 1 in 300 since there are about that many bases in Iraq. I was in disbelief and overjoyed to see him. We walked around the base some more as he told me more about his many experiences in Iraq. The sun began to set and we continued hanging out with more people on base and climbing around different tanks, bunkers and other cool stuff.

Meanwhile, Nate and Judd proved once again that they are miracle workers. We had no anticipation of riding ramps at this base but within an hour or so soldiers had brought Nate tools, wood, nails and screws. It was one. In record time Nate built a take-off, landing and a quarter pipe. It took no more than an hour we had a fully ridable set-up. Complete with a hummer in the middle for us to jump over. It felt like I was on the set up extreme home makeover or something. Extreme Base Makeover? Now that would make a god TV show.

The show started just after sunset and the only lights on base were those mounted on MRAPS. They pulled a few up and that would be our only lights for this impromptu demo. Hummers got jumped, T-walls were ridden and Dan even took a few runs on my bike. The soldiers were so stoked and this had been their only entertainment in months. They screamed as Dan jumped the box, they had no idea that their fellow soldier had crazy BMX skills! Dan came away with a brand new DK and some wessel-built ramps to ride. He’s gotta be stoked. When he woke up that day he probably never thought his day would shape up like it did.

It was time to head back to Basrah after an amazing day at FOB Hunter. We took helicopters once again but this time it was a Chinook. These dual-blade helicopters are huge, blacked out, and only fly at night.

The runway was pitch black as we got the word that the choppers were 2 minutes away. Before we know it we looked up to see this massive helicopter coming down on top of use. It was about 50 feet away and it looked like Batman had come to get us or something. The wind from the blades was so intense that we were all blown back about 10-20 feet. Luggage was flying everywhere and we could barely stand as we got into formation to board. We boarded through the back cargo door and shortly after being seated the cabin turned pitch black for take off. I couldn’t even see the people sitting across from me.

It was completely dark but you could feel the power of that massive thing taking off and we headed back over the desert to Basrah. The only time I could see was as we passed over the flame from oil fields. I looked back to the rear of the chopper and could only see the flame and the sillioute of the gunner perched and ready with his night vision goggles on and finger on the trigger. I felt like I was in a movie.

We returned to Basrah safe and sound after a peacefully intense (oxymoron?) ride in one of the world’s largest helicopters.

To be continued….