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Shoot-out with the Kurds - Date with fate post 76 - Forty-third Job of Bob - In-country war-culture writer: Iraq, Kurdistan, Turkey Part V
This entry was posted on 11/17/2011 1:30 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob, Fate Fairies.
For the first time in my two visits to Northern Iraq I experienced gun fire. As always with my travels in Iraq I must remind the reader of the context of my work there. I am not a hardcore war journalist. I am a traveler if you will - I most certainly avoid hostilities the best I can. I am a cultural writer if you wish.
Military folks, hardcore Afghanistan and Iraq war correspondents, and contractors, please forgive my digression into what you experience daily ad nauseam. But I must defer to my audience who most of which I am thinking are like me - we do not experience gun fire every day.
It has been over 35 years since I was in the Combat Engineers. I am too busy to hunt. When I heard the bangs while waiting at one of a hundred checkpoints I had gone through I thought, "Damn, that sounds like an AK-47" - distinct sound. When I looked up from some notes I had taken, I saw a Peshmerga (Kurdish ) soldier fire a second volley of shots over a car about five cars up in the line. The soldiers apparently wanted a couple guys to exit the departing car.
My driver did not even flinch. This is a driver I originally had second thoughts about. When I met him, his young minions were trying to rebuild his carburetor with a jack knife. He looked a couple years younger than me. He was in full Kurdish head gear and native baggy pants with thick cloth belt. His full beard complimented the presentation. He wore bifocals.
In my mind I named him "Pops."
"Great," I thought, "I have been assigned an old driver my age with a junk car to go over the mountains. And, an old guy like this has probably never used a cell phone."
"Pops" never got under 75 miles per hour. He negotiated around truck after lumbering truck on blind mountain curves and knolls for 100 miles. He waited patiently while I was detained at three different mountain check points. He periodically used two different cell phones to stay in touch with his taxi-mafia people. When the shooting started, he kept his cool. His lit another cigarette and changed the Kurdish music track on the cassette player. The truck in front of us panicked and veered into the oncoming lane further irritating the Peshmerga guards.
The two perps were led into the guard shack at gun point. The vehicle in question was sent on its way - no guilt by association in Kurdistan I guess. I was detained one more time for posterity sake. The guard looked at my passport upside down. "Pops" spoke to the young soldier in quiet, calm words. The soldier smiled, "Pops" and I we were both sent on our way.
Later on down the road, at my safe little flophouse room above an Internet shop, I had a few moments to reflect at the reality of the situation. At the time of the shooting it was like watching television. I remember thinking, "Hey, a shoot-out. Wounder what's going to happen next?" In reality, I was only a few feet from the developing situation. A nervous perp with a pistol here, a bad guy with a machine gun there, a hand grenade added in; no doubt no one would be too surprised if several bystanders and their cars were..., "all blowed up."
Then as I got the television going in my tiny room by wiggling some wires, I thought about "Pops" in the context of his viewpoint. If I did not fall victim to any other shoot-outs, I would be heading home in a few weeks.
Here's to you "Pops." You're a better man than I am. You have to do it all over again tomorrow. You are already at home.
Note: This blog "Fate Fairies" Category does not list the brushes with fate chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older event. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Fate Fairies Page for an ordered chronology.
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Army Specialist Jakob James Roelli, 24, Darlington, Wisconsin, died on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 in Jawkari, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. Specialist Roelli was one of two soldiers killed when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire. He was assigned to Company A, 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, out of Fort Riley, Kansas. Specialist Roelli was a member of Special Forces which is often referred to a the Green Berets.
The Wisconsin State Journal noted Jakob Roelli was born on July 30, 1987, in Darlington, Wisconsin. He grew up on a farm near Darlington and graduated from Darlington High School in 2006. While in school, Jakob played football, ran cross country, wrestled, participated on the forensics team, and acted in school plays and musicals. The State Journal went on to say Roelli was a four-year member of the school's Odyssey of the Mind team, in which students compete in creative problem-solving exercises. The Darlington team won the state competition in its division in 2006. The paper also went on to mention Roelli spent a year at UW-Oshkosh.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted Roelli is remembered as a good singer, good actor, and "just a fun-loving kid." He had studied business and pre-law at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh; after a year of college he joined the Army.
Erickson Funeral Home in Darlington lists Roelli at the rank of Sergeant as does the Monroe Times from nearby Monroe, Wisconsin. At the time of his death Sergeant Jakob Roelli was survived by: his father Richard Roelli; his mother Dawn (Gill) Lacy; his brother Matthew (Eryn) Roelli; one niece Olivia; his fiancée Caitlin Pixler; uncle Greg Roelli; aunt Kathy Roelli; aunt Julie Gill; and, his maternal grandfather Robert Gill. Sergeant Jakob Roelli was laid to rest at Union Grove Cemetery in Darlington, Wisconsin.
Army Sergeant Jakob Roelli was the 36th Wisconsin military service person killed in the war in Afghanistan since October of 2001.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
103,472 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003 (actually documented).
10,125 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,485 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1833 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
966 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
1 American/Coalition casualty in Libyan "Operation Odyssey Dawn" since March, 2011.
32,224 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
592 Wisconsin military service persons have been wounded in Iraq since Spring 2003.
14,793 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
192 Wisconsin military service persons have been wounded in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
107 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
36 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
3 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in the U.S. related to "The War on Terror" since September, 2001.
150 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
22 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since September, 2001.
5 journalists (regional and independents) have been killed in Libya since March, 2011.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org .
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