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Liberatorys Bridging Power Gap
By JONATHAN FOREMAN in Baghdad
The New York Post, April 9, 2003
The simple note, written in a blend of Arabic and broken English, was left two days ago at a U.S. checkpoint on the Euphrates, 20 miles southwest of Baghdad.
"We are Iraqi peepl in this place," it began. "We say to you no for war yes for peace.
"There is no electricity, we have animals and trees some water for grow and the people would kindly thank you."
The soldiers in the unit that received the note, the 54th Army Engineers, are guarding two key bridges and monitoring traffic along a main supply route to U.S. controlled Baghdad Airport.
But because of the forlorn appeal for help, they've also set up a civil affairs team to assist nearby villagers. With a little investigation, they discovered that the note was written by one of the four wives of a local man the troops now know as "Gillen," the self-described mayor of a village north of the bridges being guarded by the engineers.
"He wanted permission to move a generator to the site of a water pump," said Sgt. Dominic Higgins, the soldier who was handed the note. "They needed to irrigate their fields and he didn't want us to think he was moving a weapon."
Through two Arabic-speaking soldiers from the 299th Engineers, Higgins learned the story behind the generator. "It was kept at a water tower, but made into a fighting position by the Iraqi military, and was destroyed by an Apache helicopter. Gillen said he removed the generator and took it to his house," said Higgins.
The engineers gave Gillen a green light to move the generator, and water is now irrigating the fields. Gillen has explained to his neighbors the U.S. soldiers are on the alert for potential suicide-bomb attacks, said Capt. William Brown, head of the civil affairs unit. He said Gillen has told them that's why they should avoid moving around at night or going within 150 yards of a checkpoint, and why they should keep their hands in view and lift up their shirts to show they're not carrying explosives.