News from the Front - Will Interest Some of You

In his own words [See below for a key to the acronyms]:

This morning I was part of a meeting with my PL and the COL of the IA company we work with. We talked, through our terp, about what’s going on in the area, what the threats are, what they need etc. It was cool to be a part of that and he was actually a very intelligent guy who, despite the language barrier, was very personable. A lot of the other IA guys are harder to talk to as they are less sociable despite any efforts they may have.

Anyway we even ate together which was an interesting and new experience for me too. It was me one other US guy, the terp, and our PL and then their CO and XO. We had eggs, some kind of Pita type sweet bread they make and Chi Tea which is sweet as hell. Their CO wanted to drink some whisky too but my PL had to decline despite the temptation; considering we had a joint operation to follow. Still a little bit a whiskey would have tasted just fine. It was funny too because the flies are really persistent here and when they land on the bread I was shooing them away. The guy quickly told me no, it’s okay the flies don’t hurt the bread. Oh well I guess, when in Rome right. Another thing that was funny too was when we were talking about where we were from I was making fun of my PL for being a “tree hugger” hippie from Oregon, which of course he is not he is just from there, but the IA guys really got a kick out of us explaining what a “tree hugger” hippie was. I think they are going to call him “Hippie Joe” from now on. All in all we are building good rapport with this group in particular. It’s some of the other guys that seem to be playing both sides; those are stories for other times though.

It was a cool experience all said and done and it is something I should get to do more often and be involved more in the different meetings we do.

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PL = Platoon Leader
COL = Colonel
IA = Iraqi Army
Terp = interpreter
CO = Commanding Officer
XO = Executive Officer