excerpt from Iraq

Excerpt from a recent email update from my cousin Eric who’s in Basra, Iraq, with the Army.

We are out in the middle of nowhere, and when I say nowhere, I mean nowhere. The land is basically flat dirt as far as you can see no vegetation except for a tree or two planted near a house. The only thing that breaks up the horizon is either bunkers here on base that were built to protect planes but were bombed by us in 1991/2003 or oil refineries in the distance. I guess this is the heart of the Iraqi oil fields, people claim that you can dig down no more than 20 feet and hit oil. Everywhere you look, you can see the flames of them burning off the gas from these refineries. It gives off a really eerie glow at night, especially if there is fog since everything has kind of an orange tint to it. Where we live is right next to where the Iraqis live so I interact with my counterparts and the Iraqi Soldiers on a daily basis.


We work with an Iraqi Brigade, which has a few hundred Soldiers. For our team, I am the primary instructor for much of the training because of my experiences and what not. The training part can be very challenging but is also very rewarding. The Iraqis are more than excited to be trained and want to do well and grasp every aspect of what you are teaching. I’m actually learning a lot since it is one thing to train someone who speaks your language and has a basic understanding of what is going on but completely different trying to get someone to grasp a concept that is completely foreign to them, all the while saying it in terms that the interrupter knows how to translate. Also, many of these Soldiers have been actively fighting for the past six years so hard to say what they are doing is wrong since if it was completely wrong, they would be dead. Instead, just trying to expose them to a different way of doing something, a way that might more efficient. Often, when I pose a question in class, they answer with something that I would never think of but is still acceptable. For example, I was teaching them a surveillance class last week and one asked why you don’t just hang out on the street corner all day watching a suspect’s house instead of attempting to build a hide site and not be seen. This is something that we, as American with our looks, lack of language skills, etc, would never be able to pull off but would be no issue for them.


Thank you all for all the love and support that I (and especially my family) have received. I am truly enjoying myself and am glad that I volunteered to come back over and do this mission. I hope all is good wherever you are and if I don’t talk to you before hand, please have a wonderful holiday season and a great New Year.

Take Care,
Eric

And an Esquire story about him from last Feb.