JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq -- On his day off, Sergeant Monty Akeyson from Salem basks in the sun at the Olympic size pool on Joint Base Balad in Iraq.

Akeyson prefers his days at work.

“I don’t have a lot of time to dwell on my kids when I’m busy,” says Akeyson, who has an 18-year old son, a 13-year old daughter and a 6-year-old daughter back home who may wonder what life is like for dad over there in Iraq.

It’s easy to imagine soldiers on deployments digging foxholes and holing up in sandy tents with stiff cots for sleeping.

The truth is Balad, where Oregon National Guard soldiers from Western Oregon are on deployment, offers coffee shops, a Subway and Pizza Hut.

There is also a movie theater and large PXs (grocery stores) that supply anything from underwear to Cheetos.

And soldiers eat at dining facilities that serve steak and crab and go home to air-conditioned trailers with beds.

Despites these luxuries, soldiers still lack freedom.

Soldiers cannot take off for a fly-fishing trip over the weekend; they can’t even leave the airfield when they are on “First Up,” which is the first response team’s shift. They can’t enjoy a bottle of wine with friends or put on a shirt and jeans. They cannot hold their newborn babies or comfort teenage daughters or curl up to spouses after a stressful day.

The only thing Akeyson, a Blackhawk helicopter mechanic, can do is stay focused on his work.

A day in the life of a helicopter mechanic

At 7 a.m., Akeyson shows up for work for the daily meeting, which lays out the day’s agenda for the crew chiefs who maintain the aircrafts.

On this day, several crew chiefs change out a generator and perform preventative maintenance on the aircraft while it's grounded. Crew chiefs spend hours in the heat spraying off the dust that has collected on the aircrafts from a previous dust storm.

Near the end of his shift, Akeyson rides his bike across the airfield. It’s handy to have wheels considering maintainers are always going back and forth from aircrafts to the hangers, a distance of at least half a mile.

At 5 p.m., he’s usually off work and eats dinner at the DFAC (Dining Facility), watches movies or crashes early.

Akeyson’s CHU (Containerized Housing Unit) is one of a series of small trailers surrounded by concrete barricades.

The CHU holds two twin beds, plastic vinyl walls, a fridge and two TVs. Akeyson shares this space with Sergeant Ryan Cornelius, another crew chief. The two men placed their wall lockers in the middle of the room, creating a wall for privacy.

There are several portable toilets located nearby and a large trailer with rows of showers.

“It’s not bad here,” Akeyson says.

Unfortunately, no amount of shops, pools or hard days at work can change that.

“But," Akeyson says, "it's pretty hard being away from my kids.”

Cali Bagby is embedded with the Oregon Army National Guard from Charlie Company, 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation, a Medevac Unit based out of Salem, Ore., for KVAL.com. Her work has been published in the Washington Post and the Eugene Weekly.  | More stories | Visit her Web site