COLUMN: Soccer with Iraqis
The following is a letter from Christopher Keeley, a USU student serving in the armed forces. His letters home will be published in The Utah Statesman as they are received.
Hello Family and Friends,
Daylight continues to dwindle as the sun retreats south. With fewer hours of sunlight Iraq seems to be cooling down. I see more people out in the markets or along the roads earlier in the afternoon where the city used to be a ghost town in the afternoon heat.
My work continues interesting and challenging. I worked with an Iraqi to bring in six shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles. He didn’t want to bring them in daylight hours for fear he’d be recognized and threatened and wanted to come at 5 am. We compromised and he brought the weapons at 6 am. It was a good catch. My team also raided an abandoned warehouse where a large Doshka machine gun was hidden under cooking oil cans. Earlier in the day a few soldiers had watched the place and deemed it safe to recover the weapon. We rolled in, pulled security, and recovered the gun along with a lot of ammo. It was dusk and my job was watching the road for cars or people who might come. The raid was uneventful- though quite exciting. Most days, though, I spend in an office talking to Iraqis who walk in off the street with information.
I’m now the official gunner for my team. If my team rolls out of the gate (not too often) I’m standing in the open bed of the last vehicle leaning over the cab. It’s ironic that I use a Russian made RPK machine gun because the army didn’t issue an American gun to the team, yet we can’t go out on a mission without a gun- catch twenty-two. I feel like I’m in a parade and enjoy the unobstructed view from my high vantage point and pray I never need to use the gun.
Since we have so little room in the middle of the city to exercise- we’ve adapted and run on the roof in the mornings. The breeze is refreshing and the pink to orange to yellow sunrises are beautiful. I also organized a 4 on 4 soccer game of American soldiers against Iraqi construction workers. We played in a patch of dirt about 15 meters wide by 30 meters long. The dust was thick and the play heated, but the Americans won the first game 3-0 and the second game ended 1-1 on a last minute American penalty kick. The Iraqis played barefoot because their work shoes aren’t suitable- so the Americans had an advantage. Now the workers ask me daily when we’ll play again.
One last word on Army acronyms. An aptly named new acronym is BOG- Boots On Ground. National Guard and reservists, who traditionally are deployed for 6 months, are now BOGed down in Iraq for a year. That doesn’t include the time spent deployed in the states- just one year BOG in Iraq (probably an extra 3-4 months of deployment for most soldiers). BOG- synonyms could be mired, slowed, pulled down, halted, etc. Only in the Army…
God bless,
Chris
Christopher Keeley is a graduate student at USU and was working as a staff assistant in Extension Conference Services when he was called to active duty. He is from Hyrum, Utah, and is a member of the Utah National Guard specializing in counterintelligence and is a Korean linguist.