Talk here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tex_hHIqKE

  • RedArmor [he/him]
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    edit-2
    4 years ago

    I was in Camp Lemonier in Djibouti and Chabelley Airfield there under my battalion which we fell under AFRICOM while there. Ama

      • RedArmor [he/him]
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        edit-2
        4 years ago

        The ways the “COMS” work is just dividing up the world into theaters of war essentially. Divide and conquer. Of course, some of them bleed into each other. The airfield we would guard would launch the drones you’d hear about during Obama. Launch at night with missiles, land in the morning with none. These would go to Syria, Iraq, (CENTCOM) other places in Africa, etc. they wouldn’t always launch missiles, use them as recon and stuff.

      • RedArmor [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Some guys claim the south side of the airfield was haunted. There were a bunch of graves which essentially were just piles of rocks.

        Aside from stupid shit we had to do, nothing really in the horror realm.

        • Awoo [she/her]
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          4 years ago

          How mundane. Did you ever do anything off base? I've always wondered what kind of impact these bases have on nearby populations.

          • RedArmor [he/him]
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            4 years ago

            So my companies mission was to do security on chabelley airfield. So defending on the schedule we would stay a few days at the main camp, then convoy over to the airfield for a few to pull guard.

            We would go on a highway, then a dirt road that would go through a wadi or two. A lot of the road had trash piled up around it. A lot of huts and weird looking shelters were sheet metal and tires and trash. The dirt road has a water Buffalo we watched decompose over a few weeks. Trash was everywhere there as well.

            On the way to a range we went through a small town which was old brick, wood gathered, sheet meta, tires, etc. some market looking stalls and goats everywhere. We had kids chase the bus and wave at us (got a picture of one) and people once again generally seemed indifferent to us.

    • SomaliNomad2 [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      How did the base affect people in Djibouti and how often was your base used to launch attack into Somalia

      • RedArmor [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        The main camp is an old French military base. We essentially took it over and do operations in all of Africa from there, it’s our only naval port there I think? Japan has a bad across from us and now I think China has one there.

        On my interactions with locals they just seemed whatever. I would metal detect wand down workers into the airfield and sweep cars with a mirror for ieds, we weren’t allowed to give them water, and our interpreters were tight (except for one). Maybe they were just so used to it being there it has never been any different?

        I’m sure we launched into Somalia and everywhere from there. We talked to explicitly an air force pararescuemen who couldn’t talk about where he operated in because it’s classified. There were a bunch of other countries brass and officers who would go there too. Special forces, seals, pjs, all had there own areas that I was never near.