A Bravo Company Goodbye August 26, 2006
A Bravo Company Goodbye
August 26, 2006
Thousands of soldiers have spent a year away from their families and their friends in order to work on improving the situation for the people of Iraq. A year is a long time for a young soldier to be away from home. Many have spent as much or more time away from their wives and children as they have with them. And many soldiers have spent more time than they ever could have imagined with a network of Iraqi Forces during this yearlong deployment. Here in Kirkuk, where violence is not the order of the day every day, perhaps the soldiers have been luckier than they realize in the way they have been allowed to spend their time.
Sure, there is corruption on many levels throughout Iraq, and Kirkuk has its share of corrupt individuals in most of the offices and departments the soldiers deal with regularly. But there are good guys here too, and the men of the 101st Airborne Division’s Bravo Company, 1st Brigade, 2nd Battalion, have become their trusted and valued friends.
At the Arafa Police Station, where the soldiers have been served dinner and countless glasses of chai, there are good cops who see the soldiers almost every day, who trade jokes with them, and who rely on the soldiers in a way they cannot rely on members of their own police force. They are drawn to the soldiers and ask to have their picture taken with them. They know the soldiers appreciate their hard work, even if their countrymen do not.
Bravo Company also makes regular stops at the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) to make sure the cops are wearing their body armor and managing their weapons properly, and to listen to their concerns and make sure they have what they need to do their job. Once again, a handful of cops have risen to the surface and developed an attachment to the soldiers. Three policemen who flock to Sergeant Darren McQueen whenever he appears at ERU were conspicuously absent when he made the rounds recently. It looked like they were gone for the day when suddenly voices were heard coming from the jail cell on the premises. “Queen, Queen,” they called sadly. Darren walked up to a long, narrow window, and behind the bars were his IP friends, spending the day in jail because they had been late to work. He scolded them and made them laugh, and I am sure this was the highlight of their day.
It must be difficult to try to live and work with integrity at a time when integrity has no value. As important as it is for our soldiers to have allies among the Iraqi Forces, it may be even more critical for this noble and hardworking minority to have our support. They see our soldiers as their brothers in arms. They have met a new group of American soldiers every year since the war began, and I am sure they have worked well with all of them, but I cannot imagine they have ever had as much fun while doing their job as they have with their Bravo brothers. It will be very difficult for them to say goodbye to these soldiers.
It will not be as difficult for the soldiers to say goodbye; they cannot wait to get back to the United States. But they cannot just hop on a plane. There is work to be done to pave the way for their replacements, the 25th Infantry Division. For security reasons, the soldiers have not broadcast the exact date of their departure. Their Iraqi friends know they will be leaving soon, but they do not know how soon. The Bravo Company guys will bring the guys from the 25th out on patrols, and they will introduce them to the Iraqi Police, and they will all drink chai together, and they will share a laugh or two because the Bravo soldiers are funny and so are the cops. But there will be a certain amount of sadness in the air because the Iraqi Police know they have been in very good hands for the past year.
Bravo Company has also been in good hands. No convoy is complete without an interpreter, and there are several whom the soldiers have worked closely with and come to trust. A good interpreter is as important as any weapon in this war because so much of the soldiers’ work here involves words. The interpreters help the soldiers learn some basic Arabic and Kurdish phrases. And the soldiers teach the interpreters how to swear in English. Everybody wins. After a year of hanging on an interpreter’s every word, and vice versa, saying goodbye will not be so easy.
In addition to the working relationships that must come to an end, there are many relationships that have sprung up just because the soldiers are nice guys who make friends easily. There are children who have come to know many of the soldiers from their routine patrols through their neighborhoods. There is a little girl named Banaz who has been visited by the same group of soldiers many times over the past month. When they met her, she was shy and suffering from a bad burn. Now she lights up when she sees them, and her skin has almost completely healed. The kids know how it works. They know the soldiers cannot stay forever, but they will have a hard time accepting the fact that they will never see these guys again. How can I be so sure of this? Like the kids, I have had the privilege of getting to know the soldiers of Bravo Company, and I know how hard it will be for me to say goodbye to them. shelbymonroe@gmail.com
August 26, 2006
Thousands of soldiers have spent a year away from their families and their friends in order to work on improving the situation for the people of Iraq. A year is a long time for a young soldier to be away from home. Many have spent as much or more time away from their wives and children as they have with them. And many soldiers have spent more time than they ever could have imagined with a network of Iraqi Forces during this yearlong deployment. Here in Kirkuk, where violence is not the order of the day every day, perhaps the soldiers have been luckier than they realize in the way they have been allowed to spend their time.
Sure, there is corruption on many levels throughout Iraq, and Kirkuk has its share of corrupt individuals in most of the offices and departments the soldiers deal with regularly. But there are good guys here too, and the men of the 101st Airborne Division’s Bravo Company, 1st Brigade, 2nd Battalion, have become their trusted and valued friends.
At the Arafa Police Station, where the soldiers have been served dinner and countless glasses of chai, there are good cops who see the soldiers almost every day, who trade jokes with them, and who rely on the soldiers in a way they cannot rely on members of their own police force. They are drawn to the soldiers and ask to have their picture taken with them. They know the soldiers appreciate their hard work, even if their countrymen do not.
Bravo Company also makes regular stops at the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) to make sure the cops are wearing their body armor and managing their weapons properly, and to listen to their concerns and make sure they have what they need to do their job. Once again, a handful of cops have risen to the surface and developed an attachment to the soldiers. Three policemen who flock to Sergeant Darren McQueen whenever he appears at ERU were conspicuously absent when he made the rounds recently. It looked like they were gone for the day when suddenly voices were heard coming from the jail cell on the premises. “Queen, Queen,” they called sadly. Darren walked up to a long, narrow window, and behind the bars were his IP friends, spending the day in jail because they had been late to work. He scolded them and made them laugh, and I am sure this was the highlight of their day.
It must be difficult to try to live and work with integrity at a time when integrity has no value. As important as it is for our soldiers to have allies among the Iraqi Forces, it may be even more critical for this noble and hardworking minority to have our support. They see our soldiers as their brothers in arms. They have met a new group of American soldiers every year since the war began, and I am sure they have worked well with all of them, but I cannot imagine they have ever had as much fun while doing their job as they have with their Bravo brothers. It will be very difficult for them to say goodbye to these soldiers.
It will not be as difficult for the soldiers to say goodbye; they cannot wait to get back to the United States. But they cannot just hop on a plane. There is work to be done to pave the way for their replacements, the 25th Infantry Division. For security reasons, the soldiers have not broadcast the exact date of their departure. Their Iraqi friends know they will be leaving soon, but they do not know how soon. The Bravo Company guys will bring the guys from the 25th out on patrols, and they will introduce them to the Iraqi Police, and they will all drink chai together, and they will share a laugh or two because the Bravo soldiers are funny and so are the cops. But there will be a certain amount of sadness in the air because the Iraqi Police know they have been in very good hands for the past year.
Bravo Company has also been in good hands. No convoy is complete without an interpreter, and there are several whom the soldiers have worked closely with and come to trust. A good interpreter is as important as any weapon in this war because so much of the soldiers’ work here involves words. The interpreters help the soldiers learn some basic Arabic and Kurdish phrases. And the soldiers teach the interpreters how to swear in English. Everybody wins. After a year of hanging on an interpreter’s every word, and vice versa, saying goodbye will not be so easy.
In addition to the working relationships that must come to an end, there are many relationships that have sprung up just because the soldiers are nice guys who make friends easily. There are children who have come to know many of the soldiers from their routine patrols through their neighborhoods. There is a little girl named Banaz who has been visited by the same group of soldiers many times over the past month. When they met her, she was shy and suffering from a bad burn. Now she lights up when she sees them, and her skin has almost completely healed. The kids know how it works. They know the soldiers cannot stay forever, but they will have a hard time accepting the fact that they will never see these guys again. How can I be so sure of this? Like the kids, I have had the privilege of getting to know the soldiers of Bravo Company, and I know how hard it will be for me to say goodbye to them. shelbymonroe@gmail.com
posted by Shelby Monroe at 7:12 AM
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