page_title: Balad Air Base
section_title: Units
hierarchical_section_title: Balad Air Base / History / Coalition use / Units
caption_attribution_description: English: 777th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron C-130 Hercules at Balad AB Iraq getting a power wash of the engines to ensure that built up dust does not get pulled into the intake during flight
context_page_description: Balad Air Base is an Iraqi Air Force base located near Balad in the Sunni Triangle 40 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq.
  Built in the early 1980s it was originally named Al-Bakr Air Base. In 2003 the base was occupied by the United States Armed Forces as part of the Iraq War and called both Balad Air Base by the United States Air Force and Anaconda Logistical Support Area by the United States Army before being renamed Joint Base Balad on 15 June 2008. The base was handed back to the Iraqi Air Force on 8 November 2011 during the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, after which it returned to being called Balad Air Base.
  During the Iraq War it was the second largest U.S. base in Iraq and today is home to the Iraqi Air Force's Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon.
context_section_description: 129th CSSB (101st Sustainment Brigade)
  372nd Transportation Company (129th CSSB)
  172nd Corps Support Group (CSG)
  1-142 Aviation Maintenance Battalion (AVIM) (172nd CSG)
  M/158 Aviation Regiment (AVIM)  (1-142 AVN BN)
  213th Area Support Group (ASG) (316th ESC)
  13th CSSB (213th ASG)
  142ND ECB (HEAVY) & 957 MRBC (NDANG) April 2003 - Feb 2004
caption: 777th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron C-130 Hercules at Balad AB Iraq getting a power wash of the engines to ensure that built up dust does not get pulled into the intake during flight.
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