Gallery

This picture shows me shaking hands with Khalid Ibrahim Khalif after he had just won the first-ever mayoral election in Hamrin on July 20th, 2005. Members of his family and tribe surround us.

Here I am coordinating with the pilots of an OH-58D Kiowa Warrior. We were raiding a number of houses, and my soldiers had seen a young man run from the target to a neighboring house. The Kiowa was circling that house to ensure the insurgent didn’t get away.

I met regularly with several sheikhs and muktars in Hamrin to discuss whatever was on their minds. This might be information they had about insurgents operating in the area or help they needed for one of the local schools, but the main benefit for both sides was to get to know each other and develop trust. Here I am talking to Sheikh Salman (second from the right) and his brothers with Elvis (my interpreter) in his garden.

I noticed the men and boys in Hamrin didn’t have uniforms when they played soccer, and I couldn’t secure funding from the U.S. government to buy them new ones, so I contacted Ipswich Town F.C. in England and asked for any spare jerseys they might have. I’m a lifelong Town fan, but even I was surprised by the strength of the reaction. The club and my fellow supporters collected over 500 jerseys and shipped them out to Iraq. Here I am with some of the kids after we had given them their shirts. Here is a link to a story which the Stars and Stripes ran about it: https://www.stripes.com/news/captain-uses-gift-of-soccer-gear-to-reach-iraqi-kids-1.47256

Despite the billions in aid dollars sloshing into Iraq in 2005, most of it didn’t reach those of us who regularly interacted with the Iraqi people. Regardless, my family bought school supplies back home and sent them out to me in Iraq. Here I am distributing them to some children in Hamrin.

There was an abandoned MEK base outside Hamrin which we knew the enemy used to stage attacks on us, so we regularly patrolled there and set up ambushes. One of the buildings was on fire when we arrived one day, and this picture shows me checking it out.

Iraqi army vehicles are integrated into our convoy as we move to raid several insurgent houses in Hamrin. The intelligence to conduct such raids came from the villagers and we developed more the longer we worked with them.

During our foot patrols, I would stop and talk to any adults we came across and give toys or school supplies to the children. This little girl is clearly not impressed by the strange guy wearing body armor and speaking a foreign language who is trying to give her a coloring book. I think I gave it to her mom and left her alone.