4/8/2007
Easter in Baghdad
Red2Alpha says,
I probably should have something important to say today, it is Easter after all, but I don’t. Easter has never really been an important holiday for me. As a kid I colored Easter Eggs and all that. Thinking back I can remember looking for brightly colored eggs with my cousins at Grandma’s house, lots of candy in baskets with that fake grass in them. One year I received a Turok Son of Stone comic in it. I was more interested in the drawings of Dinosaurs than anything else. Years later I colored eggs with ‘the girlfriend I can’t get over’, Chris - the one true love of my life - at her dinning room table. I drew a B-29 on my egg. Chris, always the better artist then I could ever dream of being drew RD-D2 on her egg. The next day we went to her grandparents and I watched while her little cousins found the eggs. My Dad tried to save the shells that Chris and I designed. I can’t think of her, that day, or any day with her, that I don’t feel regret. I should have married her…
Back in 2005 I was in Baghdad. C for Charlie Company was providing security for the Al Sader Hotel. We had been pulled off of patrol to cover the mission at the hotel and seat of the government. My platoon had the night shift. We would all assume our posts, drink Red Bulls, listen to AFN, and the firefights on nearby Haifa Street. Those nights I smoked a lot of Camels and tried to figure out my odds of living through the year. It was boring duty. The company had moved north, out of FOB Falcon to FOB Union III. We took up residence in what was going to be the new Ba’ath Party headquarters, one room to a squad or two, all dusty and cold. The bathrooms smelling of piss. Outside the windows were piles of trash, MREs, cardboard, and anything else you can imagine- or don’t want to- remisant of Upton Sinclair’s ‘The Jungle’.
This Sunday morning we were off duty and made our way to the chowhall, the morning light bright in our eyes, they way it always is after a full night on duty. Inside were decorations, bunnies and colored eggs. The ’spoons’ had gone all out today, laying on a full feast, ham, turkey, cake. It was Easter Sunday in Iraq. I remember being stunned. I didn’t even realize it was Easter. The big screen TV, no doubt brought over by the Air Force, showed Easter concerts. At one point the TV was switched over to a music video channel that showed a woman, a very attractive woman, singing a song fully nude. The station was quickly switched to religious programing by the black girl on head count much to boos and hisses of us Grunts. A week or so later we were back on the streets, patrolling again. That entire week we were greeted by the Christians of our sector with wished of,”Happy Easter!”, in halting English, most often accompanied with glasses of cold water. I never refused those glasses. I was happy to receive them from the people. That was the same week that I heard an old man talk about,”the day of liberation, the day the Americans arrived”. He had tears in his eyes.
All my memories of Easter with my family, cousins, girlfriends, the days in the future, I will always remember my Easter in Iraq as something special, something beyond all other Easter. Perhaps that will change when I have children but somehow I don’t think so. That was once in a lifetime and I am glad it happened.
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6 Responses to “Easter in Baghdad”
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(((HUGS))) I’m so glad that easter was so meaningful for you… you are right, a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will always be a part of you…..
Easter has always been a special holiday for me, both religiously and traditionally. But I can certainly say that I’ve never been anywhere around Easter when I was considered a “liberator”. That is truly a very, very special memory.
Easter is really about renewal. Renewal of life, of spirit, renewal of hope! Embrace the renewal. Don’t dwell on past regrets, focus on future possibilities.
We love you, worry about you, and have cried more than a few tears for you guys. We may not know you all by name, but please know that each of you has a place of honor in our hearts!
Memories like that are meant to always be special. To know that there are those in Iraq that so appreciate what you have done~that is a memory you should never forget.
A happy memory from over there. I know they don’t outnumber the unhappy memories, but… sometimes, the more rare, the more sweet.
Easter egg coloring… always an interesting adventure.
R2A - bittersweet memories. It’s those little moments or memories that sustain time.