4 Mar 07
Night flying tonight.
Adnan was telling me about his aunt’s family who lives out on the marsh. They built a home on poles above the water. They have strung net pens around the house and eat fish from the nets for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
In the early 80’s Basrah flooded. They built sandbag levies around the city but the desert became an ocean. Adnan and his father went to the flood plain on his father’s bicycle with their cast net and caught hundreds of fish and gave them to everyone around. They had so many fish they flopped out the box on the back of the bike and left a trail of fish behind them.
He commented that Basrah used to be a lot of fun until the Americans came in and brought to power the religious groups. They closed all the bars, started forcing everyone to prayers, etc. He said the religious groups are too stringent and he can’t understand why we aligned ourselves with them.
I mentioned that I am part of the 9-man Coalition Air Force Transition Team (CAFTT) here at Basrah. Everyone knows we’ve been rebuilding their army and police force—the Iraqi Army is at some 130,000 members now. However, there hasn’t been a big priority place on the Iraqi Air Force before now. The Iraqi Air Force is only 1,000-ish strong and they have only 3 C-130s and a small number of very, very light acft. The CAFTT is here to help rebuild the Iraqi Air Force to an end state of some 4,000. There is a much larger team in Taji helping to build the entire AF “pipeline” from entering the AF, attending basic military trng, technical trng/pilot trng, and fielding trained forces to operational units like Basrah. We were briefed that the mission is so important that Central Air Forces Commander, Lt General North made it the number one U.S. Air Force priority in the theater. I’m not certain how true that is but it certainly motivated the team.
Attacked 2 times today…once at 1400 then 8 rockets at around 1900; all in quick succession.
Contrary to the common myth that most Arabs how multiple wives and dozens of kids, only one of the maintenance technicians has two wives. The pilots explained that for most men, one wife with whom he is committed should be enough for a man. Furthermore most of them only have 3 or 4 kids. For example, tonight we were talking about how many kids we have tonight and Capt Ali said he had many kids. I thought 10 or 12 but it was only 5. Senior Master Sergeant Mike commented that one of his brothers has 12 kids. Mohsim said, “I think he is Iraqi.” Mike said his aunt had 23 kids…without ever cracking a smile, Asaad said “I think she is cat!” That cracked me up.
Went indij again…don’t know what it was, but it was good.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Snail Mail & Naming Conventions
2 Mar 07
Really bad dust storm last night. Other side of our small compound was barely visible. Windy still today.
Got snail mail for the first time yesterday. That was great…and only 8 days. While at the post office I struck up a conversation with an Army Master Sergeant Lamereaux. He was armed to the tooth. He explained that he is in the Army Corps of Engineers assigned to a British scout or patrol unit (i.e. “Rat Patrol”) to recon public works projects all around the southern part of the country which takes him into a lot of bad places. He’s been here for 5 months on the heels of a year long tour in Afghanistan. He enjoys going into the desert with the Brits because they are such great soldiers. They go into the desert for 3 weeks at a time and live in their vehicles. He said they’re amazing in a fight. Can’t beat that.
Worked for some time with Adnan yesterday. Discussed our military constructs. They have no noncommissioned officer corps so their military is divided between workers who read Arabic and officers who are trained as “engineers” and read Arabic and English. Their maintenance officers stay at the acft all day to make sure the enlistees have someone there to interpret and make decisions all day. There appears to be a large gap between their officers and enlistees as a result of having no professional “middle class” (i.e. noncommissioned officers). It is inconceivable to him that our maintenance officers don’t actually work on acft.
Everyone in the squadron calls Adnan, “Abu Ghassan” which means “Father of Ghassan.” Once you have children you can be called the father of the first child. However, if you have a girl first you would only be called by her name until you have your first son. For instance, I would have been called “Abu Mary Elizabeth” until we had Will. From then on, I would be called “Abu William” or by my name. There are other formal and informal ways to say all of their names. For instance, Adnan's son Ghassan's informal name might be Ghassan Adnan Abas (informal). But his formal name might be "Ghassan bin Adnan bin Abu Abas Al Tikriti" ("Ghassan, son of Adnan, father of Abas from the great Tikriti tribe"...bin & ibn = "son of" and Al = "the great"). I know...whatever. But it's funny that they are lost on the concept of our names though...they can't comprehend that Bill is a nickname of William. They think my name is "Bill William Forrest Ray."
Really bad dust storm last night. Other side of our small compound was barely visible. Windy still today.
Got snail mail for the first time yesterday. That was great…and only 8 days. While at the post office I struck up a conversation with an Army Master Sergeant Lamereaux. He was armed to the tooth. He explained that he is in the Army Corps of Engineers assigned to a British scout or patrol unit (i.e. “Rat Patrol”) to recon public works projects all around the southern part of the country which takes him into a lot of bad places. He’s been here for 5 months on the heels of a year long tour in Afghanistan. He enjoys going into the desert with the Brits because they are such great soldiers. They go into the desert for 3 weeks at a time and live in their vehicles. He said they’re amazing in a fight. Can’t beat that.
Worked for some time with Adnan yesterday. Discussed our military constructs. They have no noncommissioned officer corps so their military is divided between workers who read Arabic and officers who are trained as “engineers” and read Arabic and English. Their maintenance officers stay at the acft all day to make sure the enlistees have someone there to interpret and make decisions all day. There appears to be a large gap between their officers and enlistees as a result of having no professional “middle class” (i.e. noncommissioned officers). It is inconceivable to him that our maintenance officers don’t actually work on acft.
Everyone in the squadron calls Adnan, “Abu Ghassan” which means “Father of Ghassan.” Once you have children you can be called the father of the first child. However, if you have a girl first you would only be called by her name until you have your first son. For instance, I would have been called “Abu Mary Elizabeth” until we had Will. From then on, I would be called “Abu William” or by my name. There are other formal and informal ways to say all of their names. For instance, Adnan's son Ghassan's informal name might be Ghassan Adnan Abas (informal). But his formal name might be "Ghassan bin Adnan bin Abu Abas Al Tikriti" ("Ghassan, son of Adnan, father of Abas from the great Tikriti tribe"...bin & ibn = "son of" and Al = "the great"). I know...whatever. But it's funny that they are lost on the concept of our names though...they can't comprehend that Bill is a nickname of William. They think my name is "Bill William Forrest Ray."
Going Indij & Ensha Allah
28 Feb 07
Adnan is 43 years old and has an 18 month old daughter. I commented that 43 is considered slightly old to have such a young child in the U.S. He said it is normal/the standard in Iraq. Men have so much work to do to prepare for adulthood and marriage like going to college, getting trained, finding a job, saving money, etc. that men are normally older when they marry. Additionally (and probably more to the point) everything is so expensive and Iraqis are so poor that men must save for a long time in order to afford to get married. A lieutenant in the Iraqi Air Force makes $500/month. Adnan knows several men in their 40s that cannot afford to marry and will likely never marry. Adnan married when he was 30 yrs old and his wife was 23. As is customary in Arab cultures, their marriage was arranged by his family. Before then, they had never even been on a date or alone together.
While talking with Col Sami today one of the maintenance technicians, Qasim, approached and asked Sami if he would hire his son to work at the base. Sami said, “na’am, ensha allah” (“yes, God willing”…or “it will happen if God makes it happen”…or “not unless God makes it happen will it happen”).
Sami hired his own brother to work here so they can protect one another. Sami uses disguises when he gets to the gates of the base and removes his Iraqi Air Force pass “for to confuse bad guys.” Everyday when he leaves his house he believes that he will be killed. His wife wants him to go to Jordan to fly private IL-76’s there. He refuses and explains that he wants to be apart of the Iraqi Air Force, that he wants to live near his family, and, most importantly, that Iraq is his country and he wants to help rebuild it. There are patriots all around the world!
Went to dinner tonight in the Iraqi “restaurant” (chow hall). The guys call it going “indij” or “indigenous.” Was interesting. We ate with Capt Dhiaa (aka “Dale Earnhart”), Capt Ali and Maj Uday. The food was very good…we had a large piece of flat bread, sliced/fried potatoes, meatballs in a sort of soup, tomatoes, cucumbers and some sort of beans. They put the meatball, cucumber and tomato in the bread to make an “Iraqi burrito.” The beans were similar to pinto beans but they had a thick skin. They eat them with their hands, squeezing them then eating the inside and discarding the skin. I was very conscientious of eating with my right hand but despite everything I'd heard, I saw them eating with their left hand as much as their right.
The Iraqis are regular guys and enjoy goofing off. They have a sense of humor very much like ours so dinner was a lot of poking fun at one another. Ali used to fly French Mirage F-1s and spent 2 years in Cognac in Bourdeaux, France. His French accent trickles over into his English. Uday speaks Korean and worked for 2 years as an interpreter in the South Korean Embassy in Baghdad. Dhiaa lives in Baghdad and commutes to Basrah for 3 weeks before returning to Baghdad…very dangerous.
Dhiaa explained a little about the headdress the men wear (can’t remember name) but explained that the colors indicate what region they are from. Red seems to be universal while blue is worn in the west, and white is worn in the south like Saudi. Black with the large round headdress indicates that the individual is a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed. Muqtada Al Sadr wears the black headdress.
Chet and Sci Fi are in Baghdad flying missions up there. Chet got intercepted by an F‑16 fighter aircraft on the way up…very tense I’m sure. They are not excited about the missions, especially Chet. He asked to go with Sci Fi to see BGen Hoog about canceling the missions or at least state their concerns…think they got the “noted.” Huge potential for being shot down via small arms, RPG, and/or shoulder fired SA-7s. I wouldn’t want to be them.
Our internet has been down for some time. We went to the Brit compound to use their computers but they went into "Ops Minimized" as soon as we got there. Ops Minimized means no computer or phone use and occurs every time a British soldier is wounded. Apparently early in the operation a British soldier was killed. Someone heard his name and thought it was his friend from his hometown. He called the dead soldier’s parents to tell them except it was a different guy by the same name so it took some cleaning up. We go into Ops Minimized almost daily and can last in excess of 24 hours. It’s a somber period to say the least.
Adnan is 43 years old and has an 18 month old daughter. I commented that 43 is considered slightly old to have such a young child in the U.S. He said it is normal/the standard in Iraq. Men have so much work to do to prepare for adulthood and marriage like going to college, getting trained, finding a job, saving money, etc. that men are normally older when they marry. Additionally (and probably more to the point) everything is so expensive and Iraqis are so poor that men must save for a long time in order to afford to get married. A lieutenant in the Iraqi Air Force makes $500/month. Adnan knows several men in their 40s that cannot afford to marry and will likely never marry. Adnan married when he was 30 yrs old and his wife was 23. As is customary in Arab cultures, their marriage was arranged by his family. Before then, they had never even been on a date or alone together.
While talking with Col Sami today one of the maintenance technicians, Qasim, approached and asked Sami if he would hire his son to work at the base. Sami said, “na’am, ensha allah” (“yes, God willing”…or “it will happen if God makes it happen”…or “not unless God makes it happen will it happen”).
Sami hired his own brother to work here so they can protect one another. Sami uses disguises when he gets to the gates of the base and removes his Iraqi Air Force pass “for to confuse bad guys.” Everyday when he leaves his house he believes that he will be killed. His wife wants him to go to Jordan to fly private IL-76’s there. He refuses and explains that he wants to be apart of the Iraqi Air Force, that he wants to live near his family, and, most importantly, that Iraq is his country and he wants to help rebuild it. There are patriots all around the world!
Went to dinner tonight in the Iraqi “restaurant” (chow hall). The guys call it going “indij” or “indigenous.” Was interesting. We ate with Capt Dhiaa (aka “Dale Earnhart”), Capt Ali and Maj Uday. The food was very good…we had a large piece of flat bread, sliced/fried potatoes, meatballs in a sort of soup, tomatoes, cucumbers and some sort of beans. They put the meatball, cucumber and tomato in the bread to make an “Iraqi burrito.” The beans were similar to pinto beans but they had a thick skin. They eat them with their hands, squeezing them then eating the inside and discarding the skin. I was very conscientious of eating with my right hand but despite everything I'd heard, I saw them eating with their left hand as much as their right.
The Iraqis are regular guys and enjoy goofing off. They have a sense of humor very much like ours so dinner was a lot of poking fun at one another. Ali used to fly French Mirage F-1s and spent 2 years in Cognac in Bourdeaux, France. His French accent trickles over into his English. Uday speaks Korean and worked for 2 years as an interpreter in the South Korean Embassy in Baghdad. Dhiaa lives in Baghdad and commutes to Basrah for 3 weeks before returning to Baghdad…very dangerous.
Dhiaa explained a little about the headdress the men wear (can’t remember name) but explained that the colors indicate what region they are from. Red seems to be universal while blue is worn in the west, and white is worn in the south like Saudi. Black with the large round headdress indicates that the individual is a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed. Muqtada Al Sadr wears the black headdress.
Chet and Sci Fi are in Baghdad flying missions up there. Chet got intercepted by an F‑16 fighter aircraft on the way up…very tense I’m sure. They are not excited about the missions, especially Chet. He asked to go with Sci Fi to see BGen Hoog about canceling the missions or at least state their concerns…think they got the “noted.” Huge potential for being shot down via small arms, RPG, and/or shoulder fired SA-7s. I wouldn’t want to be them.
Our internet has been down for some time. We went to the Brit compound to use their computers but they went into "Ops Minimized" as soon as we got there. Ops Minimized means no computer or phone use and occurs every time a British soldier is wounded. Apparently early in the operation a British soldier was killed. Someone heard his name and thought it was his friend from his hometown. He called the dead soldier’s parents to tell them except it was a different guy by the same name so it took some cleaning up. We go into Ops Minimized almost daily and can last in excess of 24 hours. It’s a somber period to say the least.
MND-SE & Op Telic
27 Feb 07
We live on the Multi-National Division-Southeast (MND-SE) compound at Basrah International Airport. On the compound we have British, Aussie, Danish, Czech, Ghurka, Contract, Latvian, Lithuanian, Iraqi, and US forces. I’m told that nearby there are Japanese and Korean compounds as well. The British are the largest with over 7,000 troops on the ground and have Army, Royal Air Force (RAF), Royal Navy, and Royal Marines here. The Japanese and Koreans have some 2,000 each. The others have 500 or less each.
Tony Blair recently announced the British will reduce their forces here to something like 5,500. However, they are increasing their operations in Afghanistan by over 1,000 so it’s almost a wash. For perspective, we have around 1 million in all our armed forces. The Brits have just more than 100,000 in all their services combined.
The US calls the operation here, “Operation Iraqi Freedom” while the Brits call it “Operation Telic,” and the Danish call it “Dancon.” Not certain if the differences are in name only or if there’s some political/rule of engagement differences as well.
Someone asked why the majority population (Shiias) is getting attacked so much by the minority (Sunnis). The answer is the religious head of the Shiias in Iraq—Grand Ayatollah Sistani. To try to draw a western similarity, a “Grand Ayatollah” is like the Pope. A simple “Ayatollah” is like a cardinal and is under the Grand Ayatollah. Grand Ayatollah Sistani issued a “fatwah”—a religious mandate—that the Shiias would not take up arms and would work with Coalition powers in order to expedite rebuilding Iraq.
Sunni insurgents from Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and other Sunni nations have capitalized on the Shiia fatwah and have begun attacking Shiias, one because they hate Shiias, two to discredit the western powers (esp the US), three to create a terrorist stronghold in Iraq, and four to maintain their social standing at the top of the Iraqi hierarchy.
Muqtada Al Sadr is a Shiia cleric or priest who rose to fame on his father’s coat tails. His father was a religious leader and had become a Grand Ayatollah before being assassinated. Muqtada ignored Sistani’s fatwah and created the “Mahdi Army,” a growing militia group, to fight the insurgents, to fight the US, and to grab the power left unguarded by other clerics who obey the fatwah. He’s been fairly successful.
We live on the Multi-National Division-Southeast (MND-SE) compound at Basrah International Airport. On the compound we have British, Aussie, Danish, Czech, Ghurka, Contract, Latvian, Lithuanian, Iraqi, and US forces. I’m told that nearby there are Japanese and Korean compounds as well. The British are the largest with over 7,000 troops on the ground and have Army, Royal Air Force (RAF), Royal Navy, and Royal Marines here. The Japanese and Koreans have some 2,000 each. The others have 500 or less each.
Tony Blair recently announced the British will reduce their forces here to something like 5,500. However, they are increasing their operations in Afghanistan by over 1,000 so it’s almost a wash. For perspective, we have around 1 million in all our armed forces. The Brits have just more than 100,000 in all their services combined.
The US calls the operation here, “Operation Iraqi Freedom” while the Brits call it “Operation Telic,” and the Danish call it “Dancon.” Not certain if the differences are in name only or if there’s some political/rule of engagement differences as well.
Someone asked why the majority population (Shiias) is getting attacked so much by the minority (Sunnis). The answer is the religious head of the Shiias in Iraq—Grand Ayatollah Sistani. To try to draw a western similarity, a “Grand Ayatollah” is like the Pope. A simple “Ayatollah” is like a cardinal and is under the Grand Ayatollah. Grand Ayatollah Sistani issued a “fatwah”—a religious mandate—that the Shiias would not take up arms and would work with Coalition powers in order to expedite rebuilding Iraq.
Sunni insurgents from Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and other Sunni nations have capitalized on the Shiia fatwah and have begun attacking Shiias, one because they hate Shiias, two to discredit the western powers (esp the US), three to create a terrorist stronghold in Iraq, and four to maintain their social standing at the top of the Iraqi hierarchy.
Muqtada Al Sadr is a Shiia cleric or priest who rose to fame on his father’s coat tails. His father was a religious leader and had become a Grand Ayatollah before being assassinated. Muqtada ignored Sistani’s fatwah and created the “Mahdi Army,” a growing militia group, to fight the insurgents, to fight the US, and to grab the power left unguarded by other clerics who obey the fatwah. He’s been fairly successful.
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