When I was in Iraq, in 2003, as the CPA Airport Director of Basrah International Airport there were about 400 Iraqi airport employees who officially worked on the airport. Two of those employees worked in my office.
One served as my secretary and the other as bookkeeper. They were young women in their twenties who, before our arrival, had never even seen an American, let alone worked for one. They were bright, highly educated, friendly, spoke English and their clerical skills were beyond reproach. Both were filled with enthusiasm and the desire to learn as much as they could about the new job and about the foreigners, British and American, who had come to rescue them from the clutches of Saddam Hussain. One died later.
They would arrive to the Airport gate, on the Airport Employee bus, at about 7:00AM Saturday through Thursday, endure the humiliating conduct of the British who would hold them at the gate in the hot and sometimes sweltering heat until someone decided the Iraqis in the bus had been humiliated enough and usually between 9:00 - 10:00AM they would be allowed to proceed into the airport to report for work. (On many occasions I would go to the gate simply to ensure that the soldiers would not mistreat the workers.) I do not recall ever hearing the Iraqi employees complain of the disrespect shown them by the British. Maybe that is what made it so easy for the British soldiers to mistreat them.
Almost every morning I would make sure to walk throughout the Airport. I would greet the workers who had already begun their work-day and they would always return my greeting with smile and handshakes. Some would tell me of a death in the family, or of the birth of a new child, or of a marriage. They were a lot like you and me.
At about 3:30 every afternoon the Iraqi Airport Employee of Basrah Airport would board the buses with no air-conditioning, in sometimes 125 degree weather, to return to their homes. Cheerful and talkative they would wave goodbye to anyone who happen to be in the vicinity of the bus as it pulled away. I often was.
On many occasions when they would arrive at their homes in Basrah city, they would find notes on their doors, or handed to them from a neighbor, or passerby. The notes were usually threatening and ominous.
Death and destruction was promised if they continued to support the American and British invaders. On the next day, they would all board the buses again, only to come home to more notes promising their imminent demise in name of Allah.
My secretary and the clerk, Janet, would regularly receive these messages of death, but, as the others, continued to come to work. One day in July 2003 my secretary was handed a note when she boarded the bus. The note told her to stop riding the bus or she would be killed. It came, I later found out, from the Bus driver who did not want any non-Muslims on the bus. She is Christian.
Being very worried for her safety and the safety of her well known father, I told her to stay home for a week or two, with pay, until things cooled down. To my surprise, she refused and continued to come to work. When I asked her why, she said;
"Mr. Marshall, if they are going to kill me they will do it if I am at home, or if I am at work. If I am to die, I will die standing. I will die as a free Iraqi Christian woman".
Until that moment, I really did not understand the real life bravery of these people. Summed up in the words of my secretary was the day to day "life and death" reality of the people of Basrah and probably of Iraq.
About two months after that incident a knock came to the front door at the home of the twenty-one year old female clerk, Janet, who worked in my office. With her ten year old little sister at her side they answered the door and were met by a volley of bullets from a Shia militia AK47. Both were killed instantly.
My secretary came to work the very next day.
I do not really know how to convey what it is like to actually be there to experience such a gruesome experience. I cannot articulate the feelings inside of me when I learned of Janet's murder and the murder of her little sister. Janet's surviving family had to flee Basrah and then Iraq shortly there after.
I am mentally aware that throughout the world there are people who struggle just to survive. Who press through everyday just to wake up the next morning. Some very hopeful for the future and what it might bring, and some very hopeless and in despair, who can see no way out and no way up.
The people of Basrah taught me something about bravery. That Bravery can be a common and shared virtue in the midst of some very uncommon, courageous people who share their adversity and stand together in overcoming it.
Janet and her sister did not die in vain. Real courage is never in vain. Her bravery will be remembered and her memory cherished by many Iraqis and Americans alike. Janet's life is now part of my own. I still see her big smile in my minds eye. My secretary, who's name I cannot say in this writing, still lives and works in Basrah. I promised her father that I will do everything in my power to help get her into a neighboring Arab country or into America to go to school and live until the day Iraq is in peace when she can return to the home she loves.
I will always pray for the people of Iraq, but I will forever love and respect the people of Basrah. When I left Iraq in August of 2006 I brought a piece of Basrah, Iraq home with me. Airport security would not have found it. It is hidden in my heart.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marshall is a retired US Marine Vietnam veteran who became an Aviation Management/Logistics consultant in 1992.
Marshall worked in the Kuwait recovery of 1992-93.
He was the Senior Aviation Logistics Manager for Kaman Aerospace in Egypt US Government programs for four years.
Marshall was in Iraq from mid-2003 until late-2006 where:
In 2003 he was the US Coalition Airport Director for Basrah Int'l Airport in Iraq.
In 2004 he was VP for Aviation Development with The Sandi Group Int'l, Iraq.
In 2005 Marshall was a Department of State US Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and with the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) where he was on the staff of the National Coordination Team (NCT) in Baghdad.
Marshall returned to the USA in September 2006 and is currently on staff as a Senior Analyst for a DOD project.
Marshall and his wife Becky (3rd grade teacher) have been married for 37 years and have four children, Paul, Veronica, William and Benjamin, and eleven grandchildren.
Their sons William and Benjamin, served in Iraq in the US Army. William was wounded in action on July 2nd 2006.
Marshall and Becky reside in Jacksonville North Carolina. marshall_adame@yahoo.com
Note: Marshall Adame will be a 2008 Democratic candidate for Congress in NC and is a supporter of John Edwards for President
Thank you for sharing such a personal story.
I look forward to updated accounts of your campaign.
I really appreciate your posts. These (your) diaries are among the very best in the blogosphere.