Posted: 11/11/2008 5:55:21 PM EDT
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.. these are Joann's girls, who visited in Fla with me....R
Security Patrol Photo taken May 2006 just before Natalie was commissioned a 2nd Lt in the Marine Corps, that’s big sister Samantha who is now out of the Corps but was just called back in with a promotion to Captain… –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Hi there, Yesterday I had the opportunity to go out with a patrol to some of the cities and towns in our AO (area of operation). We were out for a little over 10 hours during which we patrolled MSRs (main supply route), set up a snap VCPs (vehicle check point), met with local leaders, and visited some locals who had intelligence information. While there are still many enemy threats, the Marine Corps is making a big push to hand authority over to the local Iraqis. One way in which we are supporting this is that we no longer do any humanitarian work for them. Instead, we contract local Iraqis to do the task and pay them for it. We also no longer give anything straight to the people, now it goes to the local leaders and from there it is distributed down. Even though the product and plans are still coming from us, it is putting more on the Iraqis as well as building up the confidence and trust in the local leaders. That being said, the first town we went to on our patrol was to meet with an Iraqi contractor that was doing some work inside the city. I was not in on this meeting as I was outside providing security around the building in which the meeting was taking place. We were there for about 3 hours, a long time, but a great deal of intel was gathered about new insurgents' tactics. The next town we went to was very small and very poor, no more than about 50-100 people living there. Our purpose here was to meet with the leader (i.e. the one who had lived there the longest) and the Imam (religious leader) as well as talk to the people of the town. When we first arrived, we went over to the home of the local leader. He was not home but his wife let us in. She lead us into their living room and asked us to take a seat and make ourselves comfortable (we had a translator with us). She then poked her head back in and asked our translator if she could meet me. When she said this, I got up and went over to her, shook her hand and told her I was happy to meet her. She was very excited to shake my hand and even kissed my cheek. Iraqi women will never touch a man other than her husband, even to shake their hand. Her husband arrived shortly after and we started talking about business while his wife started cooking and preparing a meal. We talked for a while in their home and then went over and met the Imam. We were outside when we met him and therefore had all of our gear on. The Imam started shaking everyones hand and didn't realize I was a female until after he shook mine, I guess my gear was temporarily covering up my gender! Imam's are not allowed to touch another woman besides his wife, including shaking hands, so he was a bit taken back and apologized for offending me. He offered his hand out to me so I shook it, guess I will know for next time! After talking to the Imam, we went and over to another house that belonged to a husband and wife with 5 kids, 1 boy and 4 little girls. We went inside but still had all of our gear on. The girls were looking at me with wide eyes and big smiles on their faces. They started walking over to me, and the patrol leader told me to take my helmet off so they could see my hair, he said they love blond hair! When I took my helmet off, their wide eyes got even wider and the smiles only got bigger! They came over and shook my hand and said hello. Even though the oldest was at most 8 or 9 years old, they too cannot touch a man, even to shake their hand. So needless to say, they were very excited to shake mine. As we talked with their dad, they went out of the room but kept poking their heads in and looking at me. I would give them a smile and their face would immediately light up and start waiving at me with huge smiles! When our business was done there, the girls came up to me again, shook my hand, and said good bye. We then went back over to the leaders home where there was a feast waiting for us. I could not believe how much food the wife had prepared. There were 7 of us Marines and we didn't even dent the food, it was crazy. The interpreter translated that it was a special feast because I was there. The food was delicious and I ate way too much because the wife kept telling her husband something and then he would come over and put more food on my plate. I later found out that she was doing this because she thought that even if I wanted more food, I would not take any more than what was on my plate because I was a female. So after stuffing myself, they cleared the food and then brought out the tea and deserts...wow! The tea was delicious, mostly due to the 5 large spoons of sugar they put into a little tea cup. She brought in a cake and two trays of cookies. She dished up a plate that contained 2 large pieces of cake and about 10-15 cookies. I thought this was for all of us to share, but no, it came straight to me! And everyone else received the same proportions! All of the food was very good, and all homemade! Many Marines get sick after they eat the local food due to the way it is prepared, but so far I am good! After the meal we talked some more and were able to pull out some very useful information as well as talked about some future projects/plans for the town. We then loaded up and headed back to base. I didn't realize until after we were back that there is a very good chance that the people in these towns had not seen a female in uniform pass through there in a very long time, if ever. The unit we replaced out here did not have any females, and neither did the two units before them. I guess it made sense on why the females were so happy to meet me and were staring at me with big smiles on their faces. This patrol was a very interesting experience for me and I am grateful to have experienced it. It is definitely a very different atmosphere over here than when Sam was here, but in a good way. Although there are still enemy threats, things are moving in a positive direction. The Iraqi Army is very involved as well as the IPs (Iraqi Police), although most of the IPs are corrupt. I apologize for the long email, but I wanted to share this experience with all of you. Please feel free to pass along to anyone who may be interested. Love, Natalie 1 Attached Images |