During hazardous duty, a U.S. Marine and his Iraqi interpreter forge an unbreakable bond.

Reader's Digest ^ | November 2006 | Gail Cameron Wescott

[blitzgig]

Something was wrong. It was a blistering June morning in 2005 when Marine Maj. Christopher Phelps led his team into the center of Saqlawiyah, a small Iraqi city ten miles from Fallujah. The place normally teemed with vendors hawking cucumbers, tomatoes and a hodgepodge of goods, but in front of the soldiers now stretched a chaotic pile of dusty rubble and thatched roofs. Fellow Marines, who thought the market a perfect place for insurgents to hide homemade bombs, had demolished it overnight at the request of the Saqlawiyah city council.

Phelps noticed groups of Iraqis quietly glaring at them. He didn't like the feel of it. Neither did his Iraqi interpreter, Mustafa Subhy Abdualla. Sixty-five U.S. soldiers had been killed by insurgents the previous month in Iraq, and the marketplace was located in eastern Al Anbar Province, one of the most murderous sections of the Sunni Triangle. Phelps and Abdualla looked at each other. "Let's get out of here!" shouted Abdualla as Phelps simultaneously ordered his team to take cover in the nearby police station.

-snip-

But Phelps worried about him. "When you are in combat with someone, you rely on them day in and out," he says. One evening, Phelps asked Abdualla if he had ever thought of going to America. Abdualla confessed that it had been his lifelong dream, but how could it come true? "It's going to happen," Phelps replied.

He helped Abdualla apply to the University of Kansas, Phelps's alma mater, to pursue a master's in economics, and in August, Abdualla was accepted. The next month, Phelps's team, having completed its tour, packed up to leave. -snip-

[blitzgig]

This is a great article in Reader's Digest! I like how it describes the close friendship between Phelps and Abduallah. And good for Phelps for helping his Iraqi friend apply for a graduate education in the U.S. This is a welcome change from the propaganda we always get from the leftist media telling us that all Iraqis hate American troops and that our soldiers are brutalizing them.

[tongue-tied]

Thank you, and thank you Reader's Digest for a good news story.

[beltfed308]

What a nice story. Thanks for posting.

[areafiftyone]

Great Story! Hopefully this guy's mother and family will get to come here too.

[fishergirl]

Wow, what a wonderful article and great ending! Propaganda about all Iraqis hating our troops is exactly that. Our son told us so many times about Iraqis in their first sector, which was about 20 miles east of Fallujah, who would bring them water and food and watched out for them. He has a great respect for the Iraqi people. One of their interpreters had an engineering degree and wanted to come to the U.S. to attend L.S.U. I haven't yet heard if he was able to.

[Sergio]

Thanks for posting, what a great story. There is a link within the story for another article about how Christopher and his 58 year old Dad were in the same unit and deployed to Iraq together. This one is also a "Must Read".