Posted on 03/27/2003 5:14:51 PM PST by Sub-Driver
First Flight Lands At 'Bush International'
Captured Iraqi Airfield Renamed In Honor Of The President Mar 27, 2003 3:35 pm US/Eastern (AP) (TALLIL AIRFIELD, Southern Iraq) The first U.S. airplane landed Thursday at a key Iraqi airfield, which forces informally renamed "Bush International Airport."
The captured airfield is expected to be a major resupply base and transport hub for American forces.
A C-130 transport plane glided down onto a 12,000-foot runway newly cleared of concrete blocks, wrecked vehicles and other barriers placed on the strip by the Iraqi military to prevent its use.
A hastily erected sign at the airfield's entrance read "Bush International Airport" for the U.S. president.
The sprawling base is located four miles from Nasiriyah where U.S. Marines are trying to root out resistance by groups loyal to Saddam Hussein's regime, such as the Fedayeen militia.
The airfield, second in size only to Saddam International Airport in Baghdad, had been out of use since the establishment of the no-fly zone following the 1991 Gulf War. The zones were set up to protect Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims in the south of the country and the Kurds in the north.
Tallil's main runway, once used by Iraqi jet fighters, is long enough to take the military's largest transport planes, as well as civilian jumbo jets.
Tallil sits astride a major logistics corridor for U.S. forces, running from Kuwait toward Baghdad. Aircraft flying in could help speed the flow of supplies from Kuwait to troops in the field.
"It's been sitting in a time warp, waiting for someone to wake it up," said Col. A. Myers of the U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command. His unit, from Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, had the mission to revive it.
The airbase, overrun by the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division on March 22, had been only partially occupied and maintained in the past decade. Jumbles of rusting equipment were strewn around the derelict control tower and U.S. troops were clearing out ramshackle buildings before moving in.
Regular air traffic was expected in coming days, weather permitting.
Anyone seen a picture of the sign?
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I am all for naming everything over there after Bush for awhile... just to annoy the Saddam lovers over there... and OVER HERE!
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