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He had already performed the root canal and inserted a tiny amount of titanium to fill the cavity. Fong has no time to talk. Three patients are waiting in the lobby, watching infomercials on an Arabic TV channel, and Salamemora, who is from Hawaii, is waiting to be fitted for a crown. Fong ducks slightly as he passes by. The tent marked " Females" is dark. That doesn't mean that it's still too early to wake up, however. Despite official lights out at 10 p.
At around 1 a.
After shining a light in this confused, jet-lagged journalist's face, she apologizes and goes away. Getting back to sleep is not the easiest, not with soldiers sauntering in and out, their Ms pointing inadvertently, but unnervingly, in your face, and by dawn, I'm wide awake. I stumble out of the tent into the early Iraqi morning, not quite understanding where I am. Outside, the sun is just above the horizon.
It is already hot and I'm sweating before reaching the shipping container marked "Ladies' Showers. We tour the facilities, gawking at the carp teeming in the artificial lake outside Saddam Hussein's former palace that dominates the base. We watch Black Hawk helicopters do pirouettes in the sky. Neele Brus, an Estonian press officer with the coalition forces, greets us in the degree heat outside the Baghdad airport and escorts us to the optimistically named Camp Victory just outside the airport.
Brus said. Camp Victory is an expansive military base just outside the airport where 10, international troops and contractors live in air-conditioned tents and shipping containers adjacent to one of Saddam Hussein's many former palaces. Komenich is staying at tent I'm staying in a tent marked " Sandbags, piled three deep and chest-high, surround every tent, forming anti-blast fortifications. There is also a Pizza Hut, a beauty parlor, barber shop, and a gift shop where contractors from India sell cheap Iraqi knick-knacks that include mosque-shaped alarm clocks and abaya robes that many Iraqi women wear.
The shops shape an "O" around a gravel-strewn square. Soldiers, some in full uniform, others in grey Army t-shirts sit around at picnic tables, chatting. We sit down at a table on which someone has inscribedin black pen: "In memory of the poor bastard that just got blown up on Irish.
The pilot welcomes us aboard, wishes us a pleasant flight, and flight attendants hand out sandwiches, water and juice as we fly over the black basalt desert of eastern Jordan and the dry wadis of western Iraq. But there the similarities end. The plane's passengers are mostly reporters, military contractors and humanitarian workers.
We swap stories about past and future assignments and friends killed in wars. Underneath, dust roads dissect the desert into different shades of brown. Yellow blotches mark the spots where sulphur oozes to the surface of the mineral-rich earth. A little over an hour in the air, the South African pilot takes the plane over a column of thick black smoke billowing over a small settlement on the west bank of the green Euphrates River.
Soon, the sprawling, dusty suburbs of Baghdad come into view. No planes have been hit so far. Chronicle photographer Kim Komenich wants to take pictures of the descent, and before boarding the plane he has asked the flight attendant to let him know which side the plane will be tilted as it goes down. Now, the flight attendant advises Kim, who sits on the left side of the plane, to "stay right where you are.
We will be spiraling to the left. The descent is not quite as ear-popping, or heart-stopping, as I had expected. Just a few turns of the corkscrew and we're screeching to a halt on the tarmac. Fourteen old, beat-up planes are parked near the diamond-shaped terminal of Baghdad International Airport.
Have a pleasant stay. Anna Badkhen, 29, has been on The Chronicle staff since Currently based on the East Coast, she has also reported on numerous national stories, including the Terry Schiavo controversy and the presidential election. Petersburg Times and the Moscow Times. This photo to accompany blog on random mortar attacks around the building. Wood and Anna Badkhen walk on the bluffs. We then visit some villages where soldiers distribute toys.
At one of the villages some unexploded munitions are discovered. Our group guards the explosives until they are relieved.
Here they jump for a stuffed rabbit. He is in the same area where the kids mobbed the humvee looking for toys. Some of the buildings were painted with messages like this "loose lips sink ships" message. San Francisco Chronicle photo by Kim Komenich Kim Komenich Show More Show Less 10 of 33 Soldiers' flashlights illuminate the impact area of the mortar, which hit near where we were stayint Late night mortar near our building and a visit with the mayor of Tikrit. Detail of a soldier posing for a souvenir picture with his foot on the grave of Qusay Hussein.
Army Lt. Garry is the Army's liason to the Ajua area. We visit Auja Village pop. We visit a hospital that was originally built for Sadaam and his family which is scheduled to open as a public hospital on June He is the Army's liason to the Ajua area.
Man at far left is not identified. Man second from left is Sheikh Thaad Al Hazza. It shows an eagle and and a painting of a burning city. Staff Sgt. We then visit the Auja City Council, where area sheikhs and sub-sheikhs meet with U. We visit the Auja City Council, where area sheikhs and sub-sheikhs meet with U. He is the Army's liason to the Ajua area, on his way to Auja Village pop.
We watch boys swimming in an irrigation canal near Auja.
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Christopher P. The Department of Defense announced today it has changed the status of the following Marine casualties from missing in action to killed in action. Smith , 21, of Allendale, S. It is already hot and I'm sweating before reaching the shipping container marked "Ladies' Showers. Dent died of his injuries. Travis J. Nott died of wounds received from hostile fire.
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