Rogue's Gallery: 0007 Hoss & Javier

Hoss and Javier are Ken Obi and my counterparts up in Al Asad. Hoss is a 30-year retired Marine. He was an intelligence analyst that spent time in Korea and Vietnam besides analysis he was on teams that had to go in the tunnels that would chase North Koreans that kidnapped South Koreans and brought them back to North Korea. He told us about how one squad was obliterated by a booby trap that the North Koreans set in one of the tunnels. They had gotten some Intel about a grab that the Koreans were going to do and when the crew went down there to chase them they set off a fuel air bomb killing everyone in the tunnels. Hoss, like all the vets I’ve met, is a real straight shooter. And I think that Southern/Good Ol’ Boy twang he has only enforces that. Hoss is maybe 6’ 3” (195 cm) still works out and can bench press more than me. The guy is good and 60. His role out here is probably best described as administrator he takes care of all the paperwork and make sure our asses are covered from unnecessary crap from the rear.

Javier is a young (25 or 26) Latin guy (maybe Puerto Rican). He looks like how humans will look after 20,000 years of race mixing. He has a model’s physique I think he is 6' 1" (185 cm) and is one of those guys that you would see on the in magazine ad like Boss or Polo where they have a group of extremely attractive, interracial, young, and apparently rich people watching polo or on the beach in some remote location. I don’t know, he is a guy who has the looks that appeals to three types of people. Coked out sorority girls, Sex and the City socialites, and gay men. All jokes aside he is the handyman of the group. He also is a former Marine who severed out here in the first part of OIF he got out, hooked up with my company and now he is doing basically the same thing he was doing a year ago for a lot more money. Textbook mercenary. He is the handyman of our crew. He keeps his own set of tools with him at all times and fix just about anything.

He and I went on a job (several jobs really) and I watched him work. I think if he stays with our company he has what it will take to go really far. One of the things about him is that he knows Marine protocol so working with him makes it better for me. He knows what to say and when to get us where we need to be. Unlike the rest of the group he is not much of a talker. That’s not to say he’s not friendly or won’t talk but he is more content to be in a book than he is to be chatting it up about Iraq or anything else. But, from what I could gleam from him he is very worldly and up on current events.

I have begun to notice that there is a common thread of having a body of knowledge that everyone that works with me has. We can talk about almost any subject and everyone can speak on it intelligently. It’s not something I’ve seen back in CONUS. It seems to me that many of my co-workers and associates back in CONUS want to know as little as possible about the world around them. Here it the opposite they want to know as much as they can it’s like an NPR class reunion or something.