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Loud goodbye marks his last day in Mosul

Feb-11-2005 » Filed Under: TF Freedom

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By Steve Walsh / Post-Tribune staff writer

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait -- Waiting on the tarmac for a C-130, I had one last reminder of the danger I was leaving behind in Mosul.

On my first trip to Iraq, I came up with a rule of thumb that it takes at least three tries to get out of anywhere, especially hot spots like Baghdad and now Mosul.

As the sun set on Mosul Airport, I was starting to believe I was going to beat my rule.

Planes carrying passengers fly only after dark. I was on the manifest for the first C-130 of the evening. It was scheduled for 6:05 p.m., when it would unload a round of passengers from Baghdad, turn around and leave for Kuwait City by 6:20 p.m., to minimize the time spent on the ground.

The plane was running a little late, then, just before 6:15 p.m., there were an explosion and a flash just to the south, then another. The ground shook. A moment later the ground crew ushered the passengers into bunkers, just off the tarmac.

Over the radio, someone was saying an incoming mortar had hit the control tower, near the center of the runway. A second shot had landed nearby. At least one person was injured.

After a week of relative calm around the elections, violence appeared to be on the upswing in Mosul. Earlier in the day, around lunchtime, a suicide bomber had detonated himself inside a state hospital, on the northwest side of the city, killing at least 12 people.

After the mortar attack, the plane from Baghdad circled for more than 45 minutes before it was finally allowed to land. We were ushered on board and within minutes, the C-130 was in the sky and out of the city.

That is where I left the group of local soldiers from the Indiana National Guard 113th Engineer Battalion.


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