Airman James Bailey IV will be facing a lot of uncertainty when he is sent to Iraq later this month, but at least he’ll face it in style.

Bailey, a Selma High graduate and E-5 airman for the Air Force Office of Special Communications, will spend his 120-day tour inside a five-star Iraqi hotel.

That image surprises many who think of the country in terms of nomads and sand dunes.

But to Bailey, who has served in Saudi Arabia and South Korea, the Middle East is more than what gets shown on TV.

“They only show you the bad part of it, the cities are pretty much civilized,” he said. “As far as the culture, the public customs are different but the food is pretty much Americanized.”

Bailey will serve as support Staff Sgt. for intelligence workers in the North of the country.

An experienced soldier, Bailey admitted to being nervous about being sent into such an uncertain place.

“It helps to know I’m going to an area where the threat is not that high,” he said. “We will look out for each other and just trust in God to take me over there and bring me back safe.”

His father said it’s that faith in the Lord that keeps the family from becoming too worried.

“We’re a very religious family,” Bailey III said, adding that he and his wife, Teresa, are elders at Plain Truth Holiness Church. “He’s going to be in an area where anything can happen, but we have faith that God is able to keep him. It’s God’s will that he does whatever he has to do.”

What Bailey has to do for now is take his turn in a 130 day rotation that keeps members of his unit replacing each other in Iraq.

“The way my commander has it, we rotate a minimum of every 130 days, they try and keep it where you’re not going back-to-back,” he said.

Bailey, who was in four years of JROTC at Selma High, joined the Air Force in 1996 after his father urged him to stick with the high school program.

“After two years I encouraged him to stay in JROTC,” Bailey III said. “He said he was going to quit because he wasn’t going into the military.”

Bailey III encouraged his son to stick with it, believing the program would reinforce the discipline he and his wife instilled in their son.

“Everything he said he wasn’t going to do, he did.

And it paid off,” Bailey III said. “I feel good that it paid off.”

Having worked in the Middle East before and shared stories with his father, the religious convictions of the region amaze both father and son.

“One thing I like is when it’s prayer time, they close the doors (on businesses),” Bailey III said.

“They actually kick everybody out of the store and go pray,” Bailey IV added.

While many troops are sent over in large groups with fanfare, Bailey will be traveling with others like himself, but without a unit.

“I’m just actually going to replace one guy,” he said. “There’s not a massive amount of people that’s going.”

Bailey, who has received the Air Force Achievement Medal and the Air Force Commander Medal, was stationed at Andrews Air Force base, home of Air Force One.

With nine years of service in, Bailey is nearly halfway to retirement and is on course to be a career military man.