Range Day

27 Jul 07
For my 5+ month tour we have tried to get to the range to fire a bunch of ammo our predecessors left for us. Today our British friend, Lee, arranged a day at the range for us alongside the RAF Regiment who was qualifying on their weapons. It was no ordinary day though. The Brits were keen to fire their heavy and light weapons also and they had a bunch of ammo from their predecessors as well.

We all met at the range at 0830 and took inventory. We Americans brought our M‑16A2s, Beretta 9mm pistols, and an Iraqi AK-47 with all the ammo we could stand to shoot. The Brits brought their General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) aka “the General”, as well as the SA80A2 with a SUSAT scope and their Browning 9mm pistols and all the ammo we could stand to shoot.

We all took firing positions with our own weapons and for the first time all of us fired our M-16A2s in “burst” mode (USAF range officials only let us fire in semiautomatic). For the second volley we started to switch around and I stayed with the M-16 briefly showing the Brits how to fire it then supervising as they fired off magazine after magazine. I was surprised at how good of a shot they were with just the iron sites (no scope). Shooter after shooter destroyed the target in both semi and burst mode. To a man, when they were done they said, “I want one!”

After several rounds supervising the M-16, Lee arranged for him and me to go to the end of the range where he had 4 x 30 round magazines of SA80 ammo for us to shoot up. We wouldn’t have paper targets so we would be shooting at rocks on the range. It was a great weapon; very compact (“bull and pup” design), smooth and exceptionally accurate. Grp Capt Burt told us later that the SUSAT takes a good shot and makes it great. I want one!

After Lee and I finished with the SAs I moved to the General. I fired some 4 belts of ammo on it. For a heavy machine gun we were surprised what a smooth action machine gun it was. It had very little kick and always came back on target for the next round. Each of us found a spot on the target to bore out a large hole…I put a 4 in hole in the target’s head. After so many people firing it, there was a large collection of ammo beneath the weapon and I rested my arm as I got up…the hot rounds all about burned the dickens out of me.



Finally, I moved to the AK-47. It fires well on semiautomatic but it’s a terrible automatic weapon. When firing on auto, the first round will take down a target but after that it simply jumps all around the place and is nearly impossible to control. The weapon's saving graces are the fact that it’s reliable (it never fails) and it’s so easy to produce. Each of us said we’d take an M-16 or an SA over the AK any day.

Women!

26 Jul 07
Lt Diya (not to be confused with my other friend Dhiaa…we call this one “Diya, Jr”) brought a cake in the other day to announce that he is getting married. A few days later one of our maintenance officers, Lt Ali (also not to be confused with my friend Major Ali), came back from his home town and announced the same. They are both in their late 20s and are very excited about getting married.

Earlier in the month we received a Bilingual/Bicultural Advisor (BBA). Ali (because three Ali's in the squadron wasn't enough) is an Iraqi who immigrated to Canada in the early 90s but recently returned to Iraq to be a BBA. Much like Mustafa, Ali found his own wife. However, his brother’s marriage was arranged…sort of.

Ali’s brother had seen the “woman of his dreams” at the university during his senior year. He followed her here and there for several weeks collecting tidbits of information about the girl including her family name, where she lived, what sort of family she came from, etc. Finally, he went to his parents and asked them to go to her family and ask for her hand.

Ali says his family is very respected in his town so no family could say no if someone from his family came to them proposing marriage so his parents went to visit hers. Once there the two mothers went off to the side to discuss the arrangement. Ali’s mother explained that she would like her son to marry the other woman’s daughter. The woman said yes but explained she had four young, single daughters so asked which daughter. Ali’s brother had collected all sorts of information about the girl but never thought to get her first name. The mothers agreed it must be the oldest daughter so settled upon her. His brother was horrified to learn it was not the girl he had dreamt of but the arrangement was made. He had never seen the older sister so went to find her. When he saw her he was satisfied that she was equally as beautiful. Years later he confessed the mix up to his wife but to this day her sister has no idea that the boy had secretly been eyeing her.

In a later discussion Ali talked about the custom of multiple wives and its popularity in Islam. At times Ali said he has become dissatisfied with his own wife but would not take another wife explaining that to bring another woman into their home would be an insult to the woman who has already given so much of her life to him. However, he explained, Shiia Islam allows for temporary/short term marriages that can last for one hour, one week, one year, etc. Both the man and woman must agree to the conditions and term limit of the marriage. Additionally, the woman cannot be a virgin. Furthermore, though the marriage can be over within hours, the woman must agree that she will not take another husband within the same menstruation cycle to ensure there is no question of paternity if the temporary marriage were to result in a pregnancy. Ali is very interested in taking a temporary wife.

Single Iraqi men are really funny when you talk to them about women…they’re actually quite immature. Lt Anees is one of the maintenance officers in the squadron. He is in his late 20s. I asked him if he had a girlfriend. He laughed and giggled like a 13 year old boy afraid of admitting that he might actually like to catch kooties from the right lady… “no, no, Bill [shaking head, looking down and smiling/giggling]. I don’t have a girlfriend.”

We talked about dating customs in Iraq, most of which I’ve already discussed. Anees is waiting for his family to find the right woman. When they do, they will approach her family and arrange the marriage. Then Anees will be allowed to court his wife-to-be. Until then he only hopes for a beautiful wife.

He followed the discussion of Arab/Iraqi customs by saying that he believed the same customs are true in the U.S. He believes the big cities are faster more free but that small towns in the U.S. observed the same customs and traditions where families arranged marriages. I tried hard to convice him that arranged marriages are an extremely rare event (I've only met one Korean-American couple whose marriage was arranged). Frankly, I'm not certain he believed me.

Caught In A Quandary

18 Jul 07
If you haven't figured it out, I’ve come to be quite good friends with many of the Iraqis and they tell me they have great respect for me and what I do for them. Not every day is a picnic working with them (some days are far from it) but we have all agreed that business is business and not to be confused with the person.

I try to help them out in small ways and, of course, I share everything sent to me with them. However, the ones I’m closest with inevitably come to me and ask for assistance in some large manner. It might be something somewhat difficult but achievable. Dhiaa asked me to help him get a used laptop computer and Susan’s family stepped up and helped a ton to get him one (he loves it!). But they often ask for something far more complicated. Abdul Aziz asked me to help get his father a job with the U.S. forces in Baghdad. I have very few contacts outside of the military and even fewer contacts in Baghdad so there was really nothing I could do. Ali also asked me to help get his nephew a job with the Coalition. His nephew was born in California back in the mid-80s while his father was a college professor there so is a U.S. citizen. He wants to improve his English and save money before immigrating to the U.S. Of course he will help the rest of his family immigrate.

None of them have asked any of us to help them immigrate to the U.S. but you can sense they want to ask us. They tell us all the time that they dream of going to the U.S. Recently the Iraqi MoD disallowed all travel outside of Iraq for all Iraqi service members because there was such a huge attrition from guys not returning.

Most of us would love to help any one of them immigrate and the ones we would help would genuinely make great Americans but we’re caught in a quandary. There is a large exodus occurring in Iraq particularly amongst educated Iraqis fleeing to other countries in the Middle East or Europe (i.e., Ghassan fleeing to Norway). Additionally, educated professionals are far more likely to support/work with the Coalition so they become targets by the militia within Iraq. Case in point is the bravery our guys show by simply serving in the Iraqi Air Force. The result, we think, is a large "brain-drain" occurring in Iraq. There are fewer and fewer educated people left in the country to take charge and build a friendly, responsible government. The quandary we perceive is that if we helped our guys immigrate who would rebuild (save?) Iraq?

Gym Time

12 Jul 07
Before I went on R&R I worked with the British to allow our IqAF members to come on the RAF camp to use their gym. First though I wanted to set some ground rules for the Iraqis to make sure they didn't abuse the RAF's generosity or get themselves hurt. Before they could use the gym they had to do a safety brief on how to use the equipment and secondly they would only come to the gym during appointed hours to ensure they didn't conflict with British workout times.

I thought the safety brief would simply be a formality but many of them were seeing gym equipment for the first time. Abdul Aziz drove the point home fore me when he and I went back to the gym in the afternoon to work out. He was obviously worried about hurting himself so did each exercise with the smallest weights he could find for the exercise (essentially the 2.5 lbs weights).

We got on the treadmills and Abdul Aziz asked me to show him again how to start the machine. After I showed him which button to push he pushed the speed button just one time to get the machine started and quickly took his finger off the button. He was at 0.8 kmh and intended to stay there (yes, point 8 kmh). Abdul Aziz is a young, fit guy and by comparison, beginning runners start at 7.5 kmh. Point 8 kmh is literally "little old lady with a walker" speed. It was really funny when Aziz began to jog on the machine at that speed.

I thought eventually he would figure the machine out and speed up. After maybe a minute at 0.8 kmh I encouraged him to speed up...he pushed the button one more time taking him to 0.9 kmh. Again I looked at him and said "more" then reached over and pushed the speed button myself intending to at least get him to a very slow trot pace. His eyes got huge like saucers and at 4.5 kmh he became emphatic, "o....o...okay, Bill. That is enough. Please, Bill." It dawned on me that before that day he had never seen a treadmill much less been on one. Abdul Aziz would have to learn to crawl on the machine before he was confident enough to run on it.

I was pleased yesterday when I went to the gym with Abdul Aziz that he ran at 9.5 kmh. It wasn't fast but it wasn't .8 either.

I finished my run then sat on the side and talked to Lt Col Jasim. Jasim recently came to the squadron from another squadron in the IqAF. We talked about where he was from and his IqAF career. He had just become qualified in the IL-76 when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1991. Of course Iraq flew most of the aircraft to Iran and never got them back so Jasim's days flying IL-76s were short lived.

Shortly after GW1 ended, Jasim's uncle was convicted of speaking out against Saddam's regime (sedition) and was subsequently hanged. Additionally, to make an example for others, Saddam had all of the dead man's family members fired if they had government jobs. Jasim was thrown out of the IqAF and made a living the next few years as a construction worker. Needless to say Jasim hated Saddam.

When Jasim came back into the IqAF it had been some 14 years since he had flown but still the IqAF brought him in as a Lt Col and placed him in the premier C-130 program. He was sent to Little Rock AFB for pilot training, however, his language skills weren't good enough and like most former IqAF pilots, his flying skills had atrophied. He struggled in the program and was eventually dropped. When I asked him about the program he was nostalgic..."I met so many good friends in Arkansas and it was so beautiful. I also spent 3 days in Charleston [SC] on my way home and I saw the ocean. It was so nice. Before, I only dream of visiting [the] United States." Of course, we had to talk more in depth about Charleston too.