Life at Tallil -- the buzz of planes, the thump of music

TALLIL AIR BASE, Iraq -- The largest U.S. military base inside Iraq buzzes with activity: C-130 transport planes land around-the- clock and truck convoys are loaded with supplies.

But as this decrepit installation is transformed into a major postwar hub, daily routine is already setting in -- with the thump of rap music and the first groans of boredom among the troops.

Sgt. Alan T. Jiminez wiggles out of his sleeping bag at 7 a.m. and hands out the daily ration of ready-to-eat meals. In the afternoon, he picks up more food and water for his unit, the 709th Military Police Battalion, cleans his M-16 rifle and usually gets off duty at 6 p.m.

Then Jiminez, of Aurora, Ill., reads the Bible, writes his wife and 7-month-old son ("So when he's older he'll know I thought about him") and watches a DVD movie or two on his laptop.

"Life's a lot better than I thought it would be. You make do, improvise," says Cpl. Joshua Crimmins, one of eight soldiers running what is the first U.S. military post office in Iraq. All eight were yanked from civilian life and called up from the U.S Army Reserve or National Guard.

Truckloads of letters and packages, containing everything from homemade pickles to catalogue orders from Disney, are arriving across the desert from Kuwait or aboard medical evacuation helicopters for both Tallil and forward units.

The volume of outgoing letters, mailed free, is also increasing, says Crimmins, of Richmond, Va., and the post office, housed in a tent, will soon be able to send out packages as long as they don't contain war souvenirs; pork, which is offensive to Muslims; or Iraqi sand, a possible health hazard.

Life behind the lines offers other rewards.

Field kitchens serving hot food are expected in coming days, sleeping tents with floors are also being shipped and proper latrines are replacing slit trenches. A laundry service tent will be operating soon.

Not long from now, Tallil will also have a Post Exchange, barber shop, gymnasium and other standard amenities of American military life. "We might even get a Burger King trailer," said Brig. Gen. Jack Stultz, the base commander.

Greeted with perhaps the most enthusiasm were showers, although there are now just 12 shower heads for some 6,000 base personnel.

"They can only take seven minutes inside the shower tent and then I kick them out," said Sgt. Jenny Canlas of Virginia Beach, Va., of the long lines Friday.

Stultz, a U.S. Army Reserve officer from Orlando, Fla., said that after the war, Tallil will also serve as a base for humanitarian relief flowing into Iraq by air and overland from Kuwait. The airfield is the second-largest in the country, after Baghdad's international airport.

Military civil affairs teams are already poised to fan out into local communities and the base has begun distributing water to surrounding villages.

For many troops, Tallil, about a third of the way between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, is the end of the line in the war. And it's a foretaste of the kind of daily life thousands of U.S. soldiers will face when the shooting stops.

Many support units expect to remain behind after the combat soldiers have returned home.

So off-duty soldiers, swatting flies and seeking shelter from the scorching sun, talk of the number of days before their enlistment ends, cold beer, spending the tax-free pay they saved and why they still have to wear sweltering chemical suits and body armor when Tallil is safer than some mean streets in New York.

Music is a great escape, and portable CD players almost seem like standard Army issue. Wafting out of tents and Humvees are songs by groups like Godsmack, Papa Roach and the Dixie Chicks, whose "Travellin' Soldier" ranks high among favorites.

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