BAGHDAD – At home, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has cultivated a kind of regular-guy image.
So perhaps it was fitting that the private cabin in the C-17 cargo plane he flew to Iraq was the kind of rig that regular guys across the United States have coveted for decades: a Silver Bullet Airstream mobile home, the classic aluminum trailer that is an icon of the American roads.
Mr. Biden arrived at Andrews Air Force base at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday for a mission that, like all presidential and vice presidential trips, was shrouded in secrecy. Wearing a navy blue Ralph Lauren polo shirt (collar upturned), blue jeans, a brown leather belt and running shoes, he looked like a man about to go on vacation as he boarded his regular plane, Air Force Two.
But the snazzy Air Force jet took Mr. Biden only part of the way there, to Mildenhall Air Force base in England. There, Mr. Biden, accompanied by aides and a handful of journalists – including George Stephanopolous, the host of the ABC program “This Week’’ – boarded the C-17, where the gleaming Silver Bullet, outfitted with comfy white leather couches and faux teak cabinetry, was strapped and chained to the floor of the plane, looking kind of like a captured spaceship.
Mr. Biden, who walked onto the plane carrying a football (no one was quite certain why) looked at new quarters admiringly. The Silver Bullets are used frequently by the Air Force to transport high-level officials like Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates who need privacy while flying in the big open belly of a cargo plane. Mr. Biden – whose previous trips to Iraq occurred while he was a senator said he had never been in one before. He spent much of the flight holed up with advisers inside; toward the end, he let reporters in for a peek and a few questions.
Mr. Biden landed in Baghdad after dark, and his official duties here will begin on Friday, when he will visit with General Ray Odierno, the top American commander in Iraq, as well as Chris Hill, the ambassador here, and several Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

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