Embedded: A Marine Corps Advisor Inside the Iraqi Army

Being around the MiTT my last few days in Iraq made me realize something: No matter how dicked up everyone is on our team, or how idiotic or lazy people are, I still love all of them and think we had the best adviser crew Iraq has ever seen. We may not have been blessed with the most talent or that much brainpower, but we sure as hell knew how to have fun and make things happen with limited resources. For all the bitching, complaining, fighting, and hatred I had seen between the members of our team, I think circumstances brought us together as brothers in the end.

On my last day in Kuwait I focused on the beauty of McDonald’s golden arches and the many women in camp. When you haven’t seen a McDonald’s or a woman in a long time, they do wonders for you.

Later on in the day, on our adventures around the Kuwaiti camp, Adams, Doc, Le Gette, and I went on a four-mile walk to visit the local market. We wanted to load up on pirated DVDs for the ride home and purchase gifts for family and friends. Four miles away from the main camp we tried to hitch a ride with one of the many U.S. Army or U.S. Air Force personnel that drove by. We were passed by no less than ten unloaded fifteen-person passenger vans. Nobody wanted to help the Marines. In all honesty, though, we didn’t really care. We had survived hell and lived to tell the tale.

We were the few. We were the proud. We were the Marines.

PHOTOS

^{Photo 1. Inside Al Faw Palace Major Gaines and Captain McShane sit in the chair Yasser Arafat gave Saddam Hussein as a gift.}

^{Photo 2. Early morning view of the MiTT camp. The rest of Camp Ali, including the Iraqi soldier swahuts, are left of the picture (not shown).}

^{Photo 3. The inside of the Iraqi chow hall at Camp Ali.}

^{Photo 4. The author explaining to the Iraqi soldiers how Marines conduct cordon operations.}

^{Photo 5. A destroyed bank in Bani Dahir, where the author chatted with a couple of Iraqi army medics.}

^{Photo 6. A discovered radio-controlled IED found along Route Bronze in the Haditha Triad.}

^{Photo 7. Searching Iraqi soldiers for contraband, weapons, and military property before they are sent on leave to Najaf.}

^{Photo 8. Typical scene along Route Bronze, the main route between Camp Ali and Asad Airbase.}

^{Photo 9. The standard operating procedure for the Iraqi army upon returning from leave: reunite with friends, tell war stories from back home, and wander aimlessly around the Iraqi brigade camp.}

^{Photo 10. Iraqi soldiers jammed into the Leylands, excited about catching the leave buses in Al Asad.}

^{Photo 11. [left to right] The author, Qatan, and Major Gaines fishing in the Euphrates to supplement the Iraqi diet.}

^{Photo 12. The author enjoying the company of Iraqi soldiers during a meal.}

^{Photo 13. The MiTT and the Iraqi army secure the Barwana market so the MiTT can purchase food to supplement the Iraqi soldiers’ diet.}

^{Photo 14. The convoy prepared to carry the Iraqi army to war has a malfunction along Route Bronze and the Iraqi soldiers try to solve the problem.}

^{Photo 15. During a combat patrol through Haditha, we stopped to conduct an overwatch mission in order to capture or kill IED emplacers along the main route through town. At the conclusion of our mission, a young boy [second from left] alerted us to an insurgent ambush awaiting us across the street. We quickly adjusted our patrol route and returned to base safely.}

^{Photo 16. Iraqi soldiers express their excitement before they conduct their first independent convoy.}

^{Photo 17. [Left to right] Ali Jabber, Mohammed, and the author on board a speedboat on Lake Qadisiyah.}

^{Photo 18. Ali Jabber directs the island inhabitants to line up and show their identification to his Iraqi soldiers in order to determine who the Egyptian insurgents are.}

^{Photo 19. The U.S. Marine embedded advisers and the leadership of 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 7th Division Iraqi army pose for a group photograph on Camp Ali.}

APPENDIX

GLOSSARY

2/3. 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines.

3/3. 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines.

Ali Babba. Arabic term for “thief” or “robber.”

berm. Large mound of dirt that acts as a protective barrier.

BIOP. Baghdad International Airport.

BOLO. Be on the lookout.

chemlight. Chemically activated light source similar to a glow stick.

CO. Commanding officer.

COC. Combat Operations Center.

comms. Short for communications.

CP. Control point; command post.

CWIED. Command-wire IED.

DoD. Department of Defense.

ECM. Electronic countermeasure.

EOD. Explosive Ordnance Disposal

FOB. Forward operating base.

GPR. Gunpowder residue test.

H&S Company. Headquarters and Service Company.

HET. Human Exploitation Team.

hooch. Living quarters; home.

HUMINT. Human intelligence.

IA. Iraqi army.

ID. Identification.

IED. Improvised explosive device.

IP. Iraqi police.

JDAM. Joint direct attack munition.

JIEDD TF. Joint IED Defeat Task Force.

jundi. Arabic for “soldier.”

KBR. Kellogg, Brown and Root, a former Halliburton subsidiary.

khubbis. Iraqi homemade bread.

MEDEVAC. Medical evacuation.

MiTT. Military transition team.

mm. Millimeter.

MOD. Iraqi Ministry of Defense.

MRE. Meal, ready-to-eat.

ODA. Operational Detachment Alpha (reference to U.S. Army Special Forces Team).

OIF. Operation Iraqi Freedom.

OP. Observation point.