Sunset on Taji, Iraq

Sunset on Taji, Iraq

During my a part of deployment I was stationed at Camp Taji, Iraq, also known as Camp Cooke, in honor of Command Sgt. Maj. Eric F. Cooke. It’s an area about 20 miles north of  Baghdad. The place is in the Sunni Triangle, was an Iraqi Republican Guard base and served as a manufacture center for chemical weapons.

Taji became the headquarters for the 29th Combat Aviation Brigade while deployed there, the U.S. last aviation brigade to control the airspace of Iraq. To help maintain my sanity, I decided to photograph Taji at sunset. I figured since we would be the last of the U.S. troops on the ground there, ending a more than eight-year occupation, I’d see what this place looked like. The sunset on our operations Dec.18, 2011.