G'DAY OVER BAGHDAD

The Aussies control the Baghdad airspace.

There are two runways at the airport and the plan is to shift all military operations to one side and have civilian craft use the other.

For someone who’s been putting in constant 14-hour days in the tower, Squadron Leader Stephen Edgeley seems to smile way too much. He says that’s because he’s doing a job he likes.

“And we don’t have the same amount of constant traffic you would at, say, a large American airport,” he added.

But Browning, whose unit consists of personnel taken from across Australia, says there’s probably only three airports in his country — Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane — that regularly handle as much traffic as his controllers do in Baghdad.

Read it all here.

UPDATE: More Baghdad-based Aussies in the press here.

The worst thing about the Iraqi summer is not being able to drink a cold Australian beer, they said. Iraq is an alcohol-free zone for the Australian Defense Force.

I bet.