03 May 08 Locals Iraqis and Funerals

03 May 08 Locals Iraqis and Funerals
Today it's STILL warm and sunny and NO dust! With weather like this,
it just sucks a lot LESS being in Iraq. I'm emailing my blog
inputs so I can't see any comments until I am able to check the blog
about once a week from a non-Government computer. I do
appreciate comments and feedback though. There are lots of local
Iraqis who are glad that the US is very (for varying reasons).
The pic below is a local guy and here's his story as told by an Army
captain who knew him.
"This guy was a kid when I was here in 03. We picked him up on the
street, and he started by getting us stuff that we needed it at
the Bn. He also spoke English, so we used him as an interpreter at
times. My company took him about 60 miles away from his home to
work in a village called Domiz (in the north). He somehow found
Trans. To and from. My BDE commander didn't like this idea at all,
but he always came through for us. He eventually worked at BDE and
DIV staff. He was showing me pictures with GEN Petraeus and COL
Anderson. I was getting my haircut last night, and this kid said,
"were you in Speicher a week ago?" I said that I wasn't. When I
took a closer look at him, and a few minutes of telling stories to the
soldiers there, we figured out how we knew each other. This
was the kid that worked for us in 03. I told him that I preyed for
him and the other interpreters that worked for us. Many of them
were killed when we left. I asked him if he faced any punishment for
working with us. He said that several of his family members
have been killed, because he worked for us. He also said that he had
been hit by 3 VBIEDs, several IEDs, and had been ambushed
several times. He was set up by Iraqis to have him killed. He was
proud to work for us, and now works with Special Ops, and
Blackwater. When he worked for us in 03, they paid him $100 a month.
He said he now makes $2000 a month. I thought this was a
story worth sharing. I was really glad that we caught up. There are
a lot of Iraqis that are putting themselves on the line to
help us. Don't believe everything you see on T.V.
Thanks"
On another note, I found myself saying "Sergeant Major 'so-and-so'
must stil be away for a funeral" several times this last week.
Simply put, people die here (in Iraq) who normally wouldn't die until
much later in life in the states. Matt Maupin was such a
solder who was abducted in an ambush near Baghdad on 4/9/4 and his
memorial service was last week at the Great American Stadium in
Cinncinati OH. The service was attended by over 40,000 people and one
of those people was a solder who works here.