PHOTOS BY BILLY ROHAN
A few weeks ago Billy Rohan went to Iraq to give some much needed moral support and entertainment to the troops. He was at Camp Woodward in Beijing when some BMX guys invited him to tag along as the sole skater on a trip they were doing called "Bikes Over Baghdad." He came back with photos of dilapidated buildings, palaces, and gigantic biker ramps. I had a chat with Billy about his adventure.
Hi Billy, where did you stay and how did you get around in Iraq?
When we flew in we started off in Kuwait, where one of the main bases within the entire region for the US military is located. Kuwait is super hot. On average, it's about 20 degrees hotter than Iraq. We stayed in military housing, and at first I was picturing tents or something very minimal, but the buildings were actually really nice and air conditioned. Throughout the trip we flew to different places--one of the coolest places we stayed was Saddam’s Palace in Baghdad. He named it "Camp Victory Over America" because we didn’t kick him out of power when he invaded Kuwait, so he chalked it up as a win.
What were the US soldiers like? How was your interaction with them?
The soldiers were super psyched when the shows went down. The guys I was with were bikers so they built huge ramps and did backflips over tanks and hummers. As a skater I could barely even get to the top of these giant ramps. I cruised them a bit, but mainly acted as the hype man. The troops are like regular people, like anyone you see around Williamsburg, Manhattan, or anywhere in New York, they just have a different job that they chose to do. It was really cool to see, because normally you picture soldiers as being super cut guys with a gun and camo, but it's really just their job and they're just people like the rest of us.
Did any of them skate?
Yeah, I remember filming two of them play a game of skate. One of them jumped on the board and busted out a nollie tre-flip in crazy army boots. Watching them skate in those boots I could tell they wished they were out skateboarding all the time. They aren’t normally allowed to skate on the bases because if they get hurt they can’t be in the war.What did you bring with you to give out to the troops?
We brought a ton of Supreme, Vans, Element, and Acapulco Gold shirts. We also brought a bunch of boards--we custom printed official presidential seals on a few of them. They were really psyched on all the free gear.So they were able to rock it on their off hours?
Yeah exactly. Its like a job, they do about nine hours and then get some free time for recreational stuff.
I can see from your photos that you were given a lot tours of their bases and equipment. What was that like?
We got to take tours of all the palaces and see where everything really started, like the bombed out headquarters and all that kind of stuff. It was crazy to see. I would say that the way Saddam designed stuff was sort of like a person who grew up in a trailer park and won the lottery. It looks kind of tacky and most of it was shittily built, but it was nuts to see. When I saw all the military bases, helicopters, aircrafts, and weapons that the US has I couldn't understand why anyone would test our country. In the United States we don’t really see what the military has, but the machinery and capabilities just made me wonder why any country would want to pick a fight with America. It’s like trying to mop up the ocean.Any last words to the skaters here, living in the lap of American luxury?
Yeah, take the hottest day here and put a blow dryer to your face--that’s how it feels in Iraq. There's definitely better skating going on in New York, but it was super nice to get the troops psyched and take their minds off the war. That was kind of the point of the whole thing. I would say that anybody out there who plays music or is some kind of entertainer should take a week or two out of their lives and go to Iraq or Afghanistan and perform for the troops. It's something they would really appreciate. They're just like us and everyone will treat you well when you're over there. You don’t have to support the war to support the troops.
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When we flew in we started off in Kuwait, where one of the main bases within the entire region for the US military is located. Kuwait is super hot. On average, it's about 20 degrees hotter than Iraq. We stayed in military housing, and at first I was picturing tents or something very minimal, but the buildings were actually really nice and air conditioned. Throughout the trip we flew to different places--one of the coolest places we stayed was Saddam’s Palace in Baghdad. He named it "Camp Victory Over America" because we didn’t kick him out of power when he invaded Kuwait, so he chalked it up as a win.
The soldiers were super psyched when the shows went down. The guys I was with were bikers so they built huge ramps and did backflips over tanks and hummers. As a skater I could barely even get to the top of these giant ramps. I cruised them a bit, but mainly acted as the hype man. The troops are like regular people, like anyone you see around Williamsburg, Manhattan, or anywhere in New York, they just have a different job that they chose to do. It was really cool to see, because normally you picture soldiers as being super cut guys with a gun and camo, but it's really just their job and they're just people like the rest of us.
Yeah, I remember filming two of them play a game of skate. One of them jumped on the board and busted out a nollie tre-flip in crazy army boots. Watching them skate in those boots I could tell they wished they were out skateboarding all the time. They aren’t normally allowed to skate on the bases because if they get hurt they can’t be in the war.
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We brought a ton of Supreme, Vans, Element, and Acapulco Gold shirts. We also brought a bunch of boards--we custom printed official presidential seals on a few of them. They were really psyched on all the free gear.So they were able to rock it on their off hours?
Yeah exactly. Its like a job, they do about nine hours and then get some free time for recreational stuff.
We got to take tours of all the palaces and see where everything really started, like the bombed out headquarters and all that kind of stuff. It was crazy to see. I would say that the way Saddam designed stuff was sort of like a person who grew up in a trailer park and won the lottery. It looks kind of tacky and most of it was shittily built, but it was nuts to see. When I saw all the military bases, helicopters, aircrafts, and weapons that the US has I couldn't understand why anyone would test our country. In the United States we don’t really see what the military has, but the machinery and capabilities just made me wonder why any country would want to pick a fight with America. It’s like trying to mop up the ocean.Any last words to the skaters here, living in the lap of American luxury?
Yeah, take the hottest day here and put a blow dryer to your face--that’s how it feels in Iraq. There's definitely better skating going on in New York, but it was super nice to get the troops psyched and take their minds off the war. That was kind of the point of the whole thing. I would say that anybody out there who plays music or is some kind of entertainer should take a week or two out of their lives and go to Iraq or Afghanistan and perform for the troops. It's something they would really appreciate. They're just like us and everyone will treat you well when you're over there. You don’t have to support the war to support the troops.