Hey Skar...how safe is the green zone in Baghdad?

[Skar]

Yes, but doing what?  

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

if he's fixing toilets in the embassy he's prolly ok, but if he's providing private security to the Mayor,... shudder......

[Brenna]

Sorry for not responding sooner--I was at work all day, then I had to eat dinner! My dad's a civilian working for the Army, so basically a government worker. He'll be doing budget analysis and other financial stuff, as far as I know.

My brother-in-law, however, will also probably be heading over to Iraq in the next year--and he's in the middle of his advanced training to become a cavalry scout.

Oh, and thanks for the responses. I appreciate it.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Your dad should be ok then, your brother in law may be out and about a good deal in the countryside. Cavalry Scouts are kind of JOATs (Jack of all Trades) in the army filling an mounted infantry, driver, and armor role interchangably. Hopefully he'll be in the motorpool, but most likely he'll be driving a bradley or armored HWMVEE, or in a turret or so on.

Good luck to both of them.

[Brenna]

Update, in case anyone's interested--my dad's *not* going to be in the Green Zone of Baghdad after all--he'll be going to Balad, to a place called Camp Anaconda. I hope it's not too bad there, either!

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Where's Balad?

[Brenna]

Northern Iraq, I believe. 68 km from Baghdad.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Check here http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/balad-ab.htm
to see what the status of the base is Brenna... it seems ok, but it does come under mortar fire...