Balad is also where that Minnesota National Guard family was -- daddy was a senior sergeant, two of his daughters were there with him in the same base area, serving in the same Minnesota-based support company; and on top of that, the girls' two boyfriends were also in that Guard unit and posted to the same base area, although they didn't get to see a whole lot of one another since everyone was super-busy.
And to top it all off, the family had yet another daughter aged 17 or 18, three girls in all, in that same Guard unit, but the young one was still at home with the base element and due to rotate to Iraq in a few weeks after completing additional training.
What a family!
There was a press release about that family posted up with a link here somewhere on FR.