Trip to Ramadi

One of the trips Ty hauls supplies to is a place called Ramadi. Please keep in mind when looking at these pictures that Ty can only take the pictures when the truck is moving so a few of them are blurry. He also has to take the pictures through the windows because they cannot be opened.


The metal grating you see him looking through is on the passenger's side window of his truck. It helps protect the window when rocks are thrown at them. This is the staging area where they get ready to leave to go outside of the wire. You can also see the line of trucks behind him in his rear view mirror.This is the line of trucks following him.

The view through the driver's side window.

The gear Ty is required to wear when he drives outside of the wire or when they are getting frequent mortar attacks.

He also wears a camouflage bulletproof vest.

One of the military escort vehicles with a mounted .50 caliber machine gun.

Another escort vehicle.

This is the truck beside Ty in the staging area.

This is the convoy leaving, heading to Ramadi. There is one gun truck for approximately every five KBR trucks.

A blown up tanker beside the road.

About a mile outside of Camp TQ is a place called Pancake Village. This used to be a hot spot for terrorists to ambush the convoys until our military went in and blew up the buildings, flattening most of it, giving it the name "Pancake Village".

These trucks are Iraqi nationals heading toward Camp TQ.

Two more blown up tankers along the road.

This was taken during one of the security halts. They stop and make sure things are still strapped down so nothing falls off. They usually stop once along the way and once on the way back.

Military Police are pushing to the front of the convoy so they can block off any other traffic at the next intersection so no civilian vehicles intermingle with the convoy.

A small Iraqi business to the right.

This is an example of what they look for when looking for IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device) alongside the road. This particular bag isn't one.

Some of the landscape. This is the main highway heading into Ramadi. The outer part of Ramadi.

The Iraqi flag on one of the overpasses going into Ramadi.

Freight sometimes falls because the roads are so bumpy. Some parts of the road are good, other parts have big potholes from IEDs, mortar, etc. This was taken in Ramadi when they arrived.

This is leaving Ramadi. There is some construction going on in the distance where the Iraqis are rebuilding.

This is an Iraqi truck stop. It used to be a hot spot where the convoys would get ambushed after they went through. Insurgents would sit at the truck stop and let other insurgents know there was a convoy coming.

The only thing Ty really has to worry about now are the donkeys that roam around through the truck stop. They belong to someone but apparently they are free to run around.

A close-up view of the military escort vehicle in front of Ty.

Below is the never-ending road back to Camp TQ. It's kind of hard to see, but the road goes on and on in the back of this photo.

Iraqi children hang out beside the road with their sheep waiting on the trucks to come by because they know that the guys will throw them candy and bottled water. One of the guys even threw them a soccer ball. They seem to come out of nowhere. At one point Ty said there were 20 or so kids hanging out, just waiting. On this particular day that Ty could take pictures, there were only a few. They have to throw everything while their trucks are still moving so they open their doors slightly in order to do so.

Getting bottled water really makes their day because they know there is no bacteria in it and they can drink it without getting sick. You can see the boys carrying water in the picture below, waving to the drivers.

The boys tending their sheep.

The sheep....kind of makes you wonder what they eat, doesn't it?