The Mayor Of Camp Anaconda

The former Mayor of Camp Anaconda, a large U.S. military base in Iraq, has returned home to his family — and his job at Hillyard Inc., a St. Joseph, Mo.-based manufacturer and distributor.

Mark Hampton, Hillyard’s vice president of strategic planning and corporate compliance, just spent a year as the commander of the 35th ASG (Area Support Group) Army National Guard unit that was mobilized to be the installation command for Camp Anaconda. Mark has been in the Army National Guard for 21 years, and prior to that was active duty in the Army for seven years.

Camp Anaconda (also commonly referred to as Balad Air Base) is about 40 miles north of Baghdad, nestled next to the Tigris River. It is the largest contingency operating base (COB) in Iraq, and has a population of about 25,000. The base covers 6,200 acres, which is about 12 square miles.

“Our mission was to be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the installation,” said Mark.

In a war zone, that includes the protection of — and support activities for — everybody inside of the base.

“We were responsible for all housing, food service (we prepared over 335,000 meals per week), the power grid, the commercial generators, the water purification, the waste water, the handling of trash, law and order, and morale activities, including USO shows, athletic facilities, and an education center that offered college-level courses,” said Mark.

Other duties included managing transportation and laundry service. “The installation is so big that there are nine bus routes, 88 buses, and a monthly ridership of 200,000 to 240,000,” Mark explained. “The military and civilian personnel use the buses to get to and from work sites.”

As for the laundry, Mark told me that the consolidated laundry did over 3,400 bags of laundry per day and 24,000 bags per week. “In an entire year, we never lost a sock,” according to Mark. “I don’t know how they do it.”

Because it is a war zone, there were some horrific moments. “The worst thing was when incoming mortars would cause casualties,” Mark said. “The nickname ‘Mortaritaville’ is rightfully named because of the frequency of mortar attacks on the base. Twelve square miles is a big open space, but occasionally a mortar would cause injuries.”

On the other hand, the best things about Mark’s time in Iraq were that all of the 135 people in his headquarters were successful at their life support and protection missions, and there were no deaths due to hostile fire on the base while they were there.

On Mark’s list of responsibilities was to welcome the VIP visitors, such as the secretary of defense, the Army chief of staff, and a lot of celebrities that came through on USO tours, including comedians, country music stars, the New England Patriot cheerleaders, Medal of Honor recipients from the Vietnam era, and members of the Tuskegee Airmen who served in World War II.

With the visits from Vietnam Medal of Honor recipients and the World War II-era Tuskegee Airmen, it sounds like a stellar collection of heroes. Mark doesn’t think of himself as a hero. “The true heroes are the family members,” Mark said. “It is through the support and sacrifices of the families that we are able to deploy and successfully accomplish our individual and unit missions.”

Well said, Colonel Hampton. We join your family in saying, “Welcome home.” Thanks for serving our country.

Gretchen Roufs, an 18-year janitorial supply industry veteran, owns a marketing and public relations company in San Antonio. To suggest someone you think should be featured in “freetime,” contact her at Gretchen@GretchenRoufs.com.