Roll Call - part 1

Yesterday I happened to watch the movie "Taking Chance" with Kevin Bacon. Perhaps in itself not a great movie, but the story nevertheless had a profound impact on me. It sent me almost six years back in time to Iraq. I was posted there from end of May 2003 until July 2005. The story of the movie suddenly came alive and I relived some of the incidents that I witnessed close up in Iraq.

The burning Humvee on the road from the airport to the Green Zone the day I set foot on Iraqi soil for the first time. The increasing number of bombings and mortar attacks since the bombing of the UN Headquarters i Baghdad, the attack on the Rashid Hotel, the events in March and April of 04 with Muqtada Al Sadr and his Mahdi Army - and the memorial service for a sergeant of the US Army.

The Memorial service was what the movie brought back to my mind with both so much clarity in the form of crisp images stored somewhere in my brain - and the emotions reliving that particular event.

It was probably the first such memorial service to be held in the Republican Palace - or the Freedom Palace as the Americans liked to call it. Once one of Saddam Husein's preferred dwellings - although he rarely stayed for more than a day or two in most of his different hideouts around Baghdad and Iraq. What made the memorial Service special and in many ways ironic was that it took place in the "Throne Room". Saddam's gold chair - his throne - was there in front of the enormous painting of the" holy SCUD Missiles" and with the Al Aqsa mosque surrounded by jumping Arabic horses painted on the ceiling.

I was working for the Coalition Provisional Authority - CPA - but sent out to Baghdad by one of the Coalition Partners. Most of my co workers were American, but there were a few Brits and Australians and a single Dutchman an Dane in the team as well.

At that time some of us would drive in our own armored vehicles (I did not have my own at the time so I piggy bagged on the Brits and the nice guys from USAID) but without any escort to places around Baghdad to participate in meetings mainly with U.N. officials as there was no local Iraqi authority anywhere to deal with. The few escorts provided by the U.S. Army were used almost exclusively by the Americans. On a rare occasion the rest of us got a chance to get this extra security - and we were grateful for that. And this is where the memorial service comes in..