Al-Taqaddum Air Base
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Al Taqaddum Airbase Habbaniyah Plateau |
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Military: Airbase | ||||||||||||||
| Operator | Iraqi Armed Forces | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | Al Fallujah, Iraq | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Habbaniyah | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 275 ft / 84 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 33°20′22″N 043°35′24″E / 33.33944°N 43.59000°E | ||||||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||||||
 Al Taqaddum Airbase
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No ILS
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Al Taqaddum Airbase (Arabic: قاعدة التقدم الجوية), or Al Taqaddum AB (IATA: TQD, ICAO: ORAT), (Called TQ in military shorthand slang), is an airbase that is located in central Iraq, approximately 74 kilometers west of Baghdad, at Habbaniyah. The airfield is served by two runways 13,000 and 12,000 feet (3,700 m) long. Since 2004, it has been known as Camp Taqaddum. ("Taqaddum" is an Arabic word which means "progress".)
The airbase was originally built by the RAF in 1952 as the subsidiary PLATEAU AIRFIELD of nearby RAF Habbaniya, whose runway was inadequate for the larger long range and jet aircraft being introduced. The original RAF runway was subsequently extended by the Iraqis and a parallel runway added. Some of the RAF buildings (Nissen huts) were still standing in 2003.
The Iraqi airbase was long-time abandoned when U.S. forces occupied it in March 2003. The U.S. Army started to refer to the base as Forward Operating Base (FOB) Ridgway. The first U.S. Battalion to occupy the base was the 142nd Corps Support Battalion. The primary mission of the 142nd was to provide logistical support to nearby non-divisional Army units. However, a consequential mission of the 800 soldier battalion was to guard the local Iraqi ammunition storage area that at one time supplied the ammunition requirements of the defunct Iraqi airbase. Aviation elements of the 3rd ACR occupied the airfield from April 2003 until replaced by 82nd Airborne Division in July 2003.
In 2004, the base name was changed to Camp Taqaddum to keep a more Iraqi face on the local military mission. On August 22, 2004, a group of Marines dedicated the airfield at Al Taqaddum to Lt. Col. David S. Greene, a reserve Marine AH-1W Super Cobra pilot with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 775 who was killed in action earlier in the year. "TQ" is a major hub of men and matériel moving into Anbar province by coalition forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
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