I’ll never forget how we honored our fallen heroes on Memorial Day in Baghdad
Memorial Day in combat has a different purpose.
By Steve Miska May 30, 2021
The bell tolled 64 times for 64 dead. As the vibrations from one ring settled, another sounded, marking the ebb and flow of an emotional tide for those of us gathered to observe Memorial Day on Forward Operating Base Justice in Baghdad.
It was 2007 and I was a lieutenant colonel commanding Dagger Brigade’s Task Force Justice. Our mission was to stabilize Kadhimiya, a part of the city that holds tremendous religious significance and thus a source of violence between the Shia and Sunni.
We hadn’t given much thought to having Iraqi colleagues attend the traditional Memorial Day services until they started being butchered for helping the “American enemy.”
I’ll never forget how we honored our fallen heroes on Memorial Day in Baghdad
But at the height of sectarian cleansing in 2006 and 2007, Iraq was averaging more than 3,000 monthly casualties. Americans stood between violent factions in a civil war with trusted Iraqi partners — interpreters and other locals who supported us — by our sides. Those Iraqis took extraordinary risks and they did so almost entirely alone, unable to tell friends and family about their work for fear of creating unnecessary risks. They were our window into Iraqi culture. They kept us alive in Baghdad, which was then the most dangerous city in the world.
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/memorial-day-baghdad-iraq/
