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Vice President Cheney Makes Surprise Visit to Taji

Photo: DoD

TAJI, Iraq - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney paid a surprise visit to Iraqi and U.S. Soldiers Dec. 18 at Taji Military Training Base during his unannounced visit to Iraq.

The vice president was there to observe Iraqi and U.S. troops training together and to congratulate them for providing security for the successful elections on Dec. 15.

While on base, he was escorted and briefed by Lt. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq and Iraqi Maj. Gen. Bashar Mahmoud Ayoub, the commander of the 9th Iraqi Mechanized Divison, who discussed the unit's recent successes and their equipment.

This was followed by a demonstration of traffic control point training by Iraqi Soldiers and their U.S. advisors and lunch with U.S. and Iraqi Soldiers and Airmen assigned to the base.

Source: CENTCOM