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.

Rogue's Gallery: 0006 Ken Obi

Ken Obi is the other senior FE that is out here in Iraq, he is the guy that went to visit my family when he went home for vacation. I call him Ken Obi for several reasons first off at first glance he looks like a kindly old man I would suspect he is 50 or so. He is a bonified master of the system, he has a past that is surely filled with violence, and he is a strong believer in the force.

Ken was one of the last people that was drafted in the US to go to Vietnam they ended the draft a few weeks after he got his papers (talk about dumb luck). From my discussions with him I can tell that he has probably killed a lot of people and maybe some with his bare hands. I didn’t gather that from anything he has said directly however there is this lifelessness that you get from him (and people that I have met here that have been out fighting) when his mind takes him back to that time.

His teaching style is different from Shen’s, Ken is more apt to show you how to do something step by step or he will just do it himself to get it out of the way then explain it to you when time permits. That style is more akin to how I like to learn and teach. It was funny because as he was showing me how to clean this projector I couldn’t help thinking. Just let me do it and I’ll figure it out I’m sure the documents are here somewhere. That being said he and Shen are very capable and could probably run the show here in Iraq by themselves. Their styles much as their personalities complement each other. And they both have a power to them when you are around them. Watching them talk or being in the room with them would be like showing up to work and Michael Jordan and Joe Montana are in your cube having a chit-chat.

When I first got here we were in the process of getting to know each other and while I was unpacking I put my Bible on my nightstand. In reality the only reason it is here is because it is a gift from my parents and it has my Mom’s handwriting in it. He gets excited because he believes that I too am a man of faith. Turns out that Ken Obi is a conservative Christian and has been biting at the chops to have someone else he can speak faith to and with. I’m thinking I have to be here with this guy for six months and this can only spell trouble for me. I feared that he would attempt to proselytize and I quickly went into a defensive mode pulling my favorite quotes from Nietzsche from my mental hand basket. The idea of having to sleep in the same room with someone of his conviction bothered me. But, something strange happened. We agreed with each other on many issues social as well as spiritual.

I mean he is from Jesusland no doubt with his requisite hate of all things Ted Turner and a firm belief in destruction of the US from within via the conspiracy of the liberal left but, on the other side he also can respect that someone may have a different point of view than him. That to me is commendable, from watching TV in the states you wouldn’t think it could be possible for two people with divergent viewpoints on how the world works could agree on so many matters about the world. But, guess what when you actually talk to people then you can agree. The second day or third day I was here he told me the story of how he reconnected with God. And I don’t care how you feel about God or Church or Christianity, or Religion when someone finds something, someone, or some being that can help them find focus in their life you can’t do anything but respect that. He goes on to tell me about how when he was younger things between he and his wife weren’t always great and that she left him for another man. I won’t get explicit in the details but I could tell where he was coming from. In my mind I was like why is he telling me, at the time a complete stranger. I mean this is some highly personal stuff and I don’t know if I would have shared it with him. He said that when he was at his lowest he went back to Church and had a talk with his preacher about his situation and from there he was able to re-establish a connection with God and from there he was able to work on himself and with that new found self love through the Power of God™ he was able reconnect with his wife and they were able to work out their problems and they have just recently celebrated their 20^th anniversary.

Usually I tend to blow these testimonials off because I only see them on TV and usually they have some dude being cured from cancer or blindness or rickets or something like that. But, I could tell from his words that he reached a spiritual transformation and I don’t care what you believe or don’t believe when someone finds the strength to accept his missteps and move beyond that to better himself that is a good thing. As the days went by we talked more and he shared more about himself and his faith and I nodded in agreement never really commenting but I agreed with what he said. I’m never one to discuss what I really believe because I’ve found so few people that agree with my point of view. It’s too much effort so I usually just go about my business. We began discussing several hot button issues in the States and I thought he was going to go all Holy Roller on me. As I said we have pretty much agreed on several topics about the world. However, his response on these issues totally blew me out of the water. He said to me I don’t agree several things that some people do at all. It’s not for my family and me but, I think there is a real problem in the way the some of these debates are formed. He said that people that claim to be Christians forget that we are required to hate the sin and not the sinner. God loves his creations and as a Christian I should aspire to love his creations as He does. It is not his way to hate. For one to say that one sin is worse than the other sin means to me that you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be a Christian. I know what I want for my family and me and what I think we should do to meet him when we pass on but I can’t know his final wisdom. And it is for him and him alone to decide what is right or wrong. I have too many sins on my plate to worry about someone else’s.

I was amazed at the wisdom of his statement but it came out as uh-huh, yeah I can see that. As the weeks have gone by I have come to respect him more and more not just from his wisdom and his professional demeanor but, also the fact that he is a really good person. He has made my stay here almost enjoyable. I think we make a good team.

From the Peanut gallery - 02/12/2005

They call me Lazarus.

Q: Where are you?

A:
At work. Where are you?

Q:
Are you ok?

A:
Yes.

Q:
Are you dead?

A:
No. Not to make light of your concern but, if I were dead email wouldn't be the best medium to contact me.

Pretty much that was the bulk of my 200+ messages over the past 10 days. I've been on business "travel" that will happen from time to time. Generally, when it does happen it's transparent to you all because I'm "there" and back before anyone notices.

I can't give out notices saying that I'll be gone for X amount of days or where I'm going. So there will be times when I just vanish. It's probably my fault for being so consistent. On top of that there come situations where all modes of communication are shut down for OPSEC (OPerational SECurity) and we are not allowed to communicate (well in most cases) that is called minimize. That doesn't necessarily mean something is bad that can mean they just want to control traffic so they can do maintence but, none the less. So there will be times where I will just vanish. I just hope that you all will be patient during those times. The good news is that I have a a lot of entries that I have finished. I have over 200 entries in my journal now. I'm trying to decide which ones to post, I've done a lot of self discovery in the past couple of days so I'm probably going to rant about my life in the next few posts. Basically I talked to my parents for the first time last night and you could tell that they just wanted to chat all night and they would have if I would have let them. The thing that was kinda funny (well not really) was that I got over 200 emails and none of them were from people that I would have expected them to be. It's funny how that works. It's wild that there was more concern from people that have never met me than it was from people that I have "known" for years. Weird. But, at anyrate I appreciate everyone's concern who did email me to ask of my whereabouts.

Q:
I see you say Black all the time. I thought the that your people pefered the term African American.

A:
Some, people do and some people don't. I happen to be one of those that don't. African American has 0 relevance to me. The term is illogical to me. I'm not African; I have no relationship to Africa. I was born in Florida. My ethnic background is American. The traditions that I revere and celebrate are American traditions not African. Besides it's only in America where you hear such silly terms, like African-American or Mexican-American or Japanese-American. You don’t hear terms like English-American, Korean-Mexican or Irish-Italian or Japanese-Peruvian.They sound silly off the rip but they should sound normal here? I’m proud to be Black, I’m proud to be American that’s the end of that. I don’t long to attach myself to the “old-land”. Blacks and Africans (Hatians, Dominicans, and Jamacians for that matter) have different culture systems they and they are different ethnicities as far as I’m concerned. I reserve the term African-American for people that are from the continent of Africa (and yes that includes Mrs. Kerry) and reside in America. Those who are from American and Black to me are Black.

Q:
It just seems like the resaon you don't like African American History Month is more about sour apples based on your experinces.

A:
No, I don't like African American History Month because it takes too long to say, let alone type. Now then if you are talking about Black History Month then I would say agree wholeheartedly that yes some of my disdane for it is based on my experinces when in school. But, more to the point I don't agree with the ham-fisted way it is approached. BHM only goes the most glaring parts of racism I mean who doesn't think that terrorising a individual by buring a cross in someone's yard or not letting someone entry because of their skin color is bad. Duh, everyone can see that. We need to think about the more subtle elements of racism. I don't know if America is ready to move in that direction but, I think it is going to have to with all the "new" cultures coming to the US it is going to be difficult to still be a melting pot. America is going to have to adapt and start becoming more inclusive as opposed to more exclusive. I think that all American history should be integrated into American history books to give a more well rounded view of how America got to be where it is and that is because of the inguenity of all it's people. I don't think that race is particularlly relevent when it comes to things like that.

Why did we let A Tribe Called Quest go out of style?

I'm just listening to their greatest hits. It's a shame that we allowed them to be replaced by Chingy and the Ying Yang Twins.

*tap* *tap*, hello? anyone there? Is this thing on?

Hi