AH-64 Apache ready-line at FOB Q-West. Oakes' unit's compound is just off to the right of the picture.

FOB Q-West from the air. The white object in the middle ground is water palletized at the end of the runway.

A flock of sheep and their herders.

Gypsy farmers in a field between Mosul and FOB Q-West

DURMO yard at FOB Balad. This is the area where all the discarded equipment is brought; everything from tanks to refrigerators.

Armored HUMVEE gun truck escorts from the convoy. The sign on the back warns of danger to stay back in both Arabic and English.

Convoy traveling down MSR Tampa. On-coming traffic has stopped to permit the convoy to go. Note that the convoy travels down the center of the road to avoid IEDs on the edge of the road.

Part of the Samarra bypass, a wall built around a hostile Iraqi town for protection of the convoys.

Iraqi cemetery along MSR Tampa between FOB Q-West and FOB Balad.

Iraqi civilians looking for work just outside the gate of FOB Q-West.

Oakes and his men preparing for their first convoy from FOB Q-West to Balad in April 2005.

The former Iraqi VIP building on FOB Q-West showing Cruise missile damage.

Iraqi ammo dump just outside the wire of FOB Q-West. Most of the bunkers are abandoned and people are living in some of them.

MSR Tampa from the air. The MSR is the Main Supply Route coming out of Turkey extending all the way to Badaq.

Unmanned aerial drone in the center of the picture on the airfield at FOB Diamondback.

Captured Iraqi armor sitting at FOB Morez.

Captured Iraqi armor just outside the wire of FOB Diamondback.

Civilians houses overlooking FOB Diamondback in Mosul.

Albanian soldiers stationed at FOB Diamondback.

Interior of the living quarters at the airfield in Mosul (FOB Diamondback).

Constructing a perimeter of rails around the motor pool at the HHD 1225th Battalion HQ.

Area 51, the parking / staging area for civilian 7,500 gallon tanker trucks.

Entrance ramp to an underground power plant at FOB Q-West. In the background is Area 51, where civilian fuel trucks from Turkey would wait to be unloaded.

FOB Q-West perimeter consisting of a chain-link fence topped with barbwire backed up by a dirt berm. Notice the dump on the left consisting of destroyed Iraqi vehicles.