February 13, 2005
Humanitarian Man
Alright, story time. It is not as thrilling as some of the other ones, but it makes you feel good on the inside being able to do it.
A week or so ago, a short older woman came to one of our OPs. She brought the soldiers a snack. We learned that she had little or no food. We started bringing her extra things from from our care packages.
I helped her carry some boxes to her house one cold night and discovered she had no fuel for her heater. So, I checked with my bosses to see if we could give her some fuel. I managed to get a 5 gal. can full and provide her heat for a few days. It has been cold here at night, getting down into the low 30's.
The next day, I showed up with six other guys to nail plywood over the empty holes where windows and doors use to be. Her and her family are squatting in an abandoned building. She had 7 daughters and 2 sons.
One (or two) daughters were assignated by some of Zarqawi's men because they were aiding the U.S. by translating.
She is now in love with me and considers me one of her son's. She is a cute older lady, only about 5' tall (if that). She has a son in Mosul, working with us, and her other daughters and sons do the same around Baghdad. Her 17 year old daughter is still in school.
I have been stopping by almost every day to check on them. I had a heart breaker the other day when I found out that they will most likely be evicted by the Iraqi Gov't. because they are opening the area as a public works yard. We are looking for a place for them to stay. Trouble is, there are about 5 or 6 families in the same area there. We have been checking on all of them, even providing medical care from my medic, SPC Jason Hurd.
She, Sabrina, loves to make us Chi. That is tea, Iraqi (as they like to call it) and it tastes good! It is like sweet tea, only hot. The other families have younger children and they are cute to watch. They all love Americans.
Well, on other news. We had a mortar land at the base of the Tomb of the Unknown tonight. I was dispatched to help secure the area. We secure the area so we can do a crater analysis and determine what type of round it is and where it came from.
When I arrived, the grass was on fire and we located the crater next to the sidewalk. Two Iraqi Facility Protection Services (FPS they are security for the monuments and stuff) run up to me and ask about the two gaurds that were suppose to be there. Their "guard shack" is only about 50 meters from the impact site. They were nowhere to be found.
After being on scene for about 30 mins, we were getting ready to leave when I checked back with the FPS guys. Then, here comes there buddies running from the opposite direction. They apparently conducted what we call a battle drill, react to indirect fire. Everyone was alright and the FPS guys huggd and kissed their co-workers (it is Arab culture!). I have some pictures and video of the scene.
That is about it for now! Talk to you all soon! Be safe!
Matt Cousins
SSG, INF
Staying Low, Checking 6!
3/19/2005
5/27/2005
6/12/2005
7/06/2005
7/30/2005