Joint Base Balad

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Overview

Balad Air Base was built in 1983 as Al-Bakr Air Base, named for former Iraqi president Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. Many Iraqi officers considered it the Iraqi Air Force's most important airfield. It had two long runways and one of the most extensive dispersal networks in Iraq, with about 40 hardened aircraft shelters built by Yugoslav contractors during the Iran-Iraq War, and in the 1980s it hosted two squadrons of MiG-23 fighters.

U.S. forces captured the base in early April 2003, and it was taken over by the 4th Infantry Division. The Army called it both Balad Air Base and Logistics Support Area Anaconda. It was renamed Joint Base Balad on 15 June 2008, when overall control passed from the Army to the Air Force. Frequent insurgent mortar and rocket fire earned it the nickname 'Mortaritaville.'

Balad was the second-largest U.S. base in Iraq and the central logistics hub for coalition forces. It housed about 28,000 military personnel and 8,000 civilian contractors, and with about 27,500 takeoffs and landings a month it was described as one of the busiest airports in the world. The Army's 310th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) and the Air Force's 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing were headquartered there, and the Air Force Theater Hospital was a Level I trauma center with a reported 98 percent survival rate.

The base offered extensive amenities, including the Sustainer Theater, two exchanges, fast-food outlets, an Iraqi bazaar and both an Olympic-size and an indoor pool. It also had a large burn pit, still in use in the summer of 2010, that burned about 147 tons of waste a day, and a Temporary Screening Facility for interrogating high-value detainees was set up there in 2004.

On 8 November 2011 the base was handed back to the Iraqi Air Force and resumed the name Balad Air Base. It later became home to Iraq's F-16 fighters and came under ISIL mortar attack in 2014 and rocket attacks in 2020-2022.

Timeline

Units stationed at Joint Base Balad

Units documented in public sources as based at or operating from Joint Base Balad. This list is not complete; units rotated frequently and many smaller elements were never reported. Veterans can add their unit on the message board below.

Notable events and facts

• With about 27,500 takeoffs and landings a month, Balad was described as second only to London Heathrow in air traffic.
• The Air Force Theater Hospital at Balad was a Level I trauma center with a reported 98 percent survival rate for wounded Americans and Iraqis.
• The base burn pit consumed about 147 tons of waste a day and was still operating in the summer of 2010.
• On 9 January 2007 an An-26 airliner flying for the U.S. Air Force crashed on approach to the base, killing 34 people.
• USO visitors included the Charlie Daniels Band, Vince Vaughn, Carrie Underwood, Toby Keith and Gary Sinise.
• In December 2008 Iraqi Air Force Mi-17 helicopters flew their second aeromedical evacuation from the Air Force Theater Hospital at Balad.

Photographs

Message board: Joint Base Balad

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Sources

1. Balad Air Base - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balad_Air_Base
2. The gateway to Iraq - U.S. Air Forces Central. https://www.afcent.af.mil/News/Article/222084/the-gateway-to-iraq/
3. Wikimedia Commons: 'Black Jack' soldiers aid USAF in Joint Base Balad transition 111108-A-CJ112-584. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:'Black_Jack'_soldiers_aid_USAF_in_Joint_Base_Balad
4. Wikimedia Commons: Balad air base tower. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Balad_air_base_tower.jpg
5. Wikimedia Commons: Two Iraqi Mil Mi-17-V5 Hip Helicopters. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Two_Iraqi_Mil_Mi-17-V5_Hip_Helicopters.jpg
6. Wikimedia Commons: U.S. Soldiers with the 310th Expeditionary Sustainment Command perform maintenance at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, July 6, 2011 110706-A-MP618-176. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Soldiers_with_the_310th_Expeditionary_Sustain
7. Wikimedia Commons: Air Force Theater Hospital 'unleashes' New Recovery Program (DVIDS175111). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Air_Force_Theater_Hospital_'unleashes'_New_Recover
8. Wikimedia Commons: Maintaining the Honored (DVIDS152851). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maintaining_the_Honored_DVIDS152851.jpg
9. Wikimedia Commons: Flickr - The U.S. Army - Citizen-Soldiers. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flickr_-_The_U.S._Army_-_Citizen-Soldiers.jpg
10. Wikimedia Commons: Navy customs personnel inspect helicopters at Joint Base Balad (2010). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Navy_100415-F-5214M-058_Navy_customs_personnel_