Think Fast- Stories from Iraq-What Would You Do

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The purpose of this article is for the people to understand the quick decisions that soldiers need to make on a daily basis.  These stories are true, but names and places have been changed to protect the identity of individuals.  A good exercise would be to discuss these stories with fellow soldiers, so you can brainstorm ideas and thoughts. Should you have a true story that required a quick decision, please send the story to the contact information at the end of this article.

Setting: Overseas mission in a combat zone.  This story was submitted by a sergeant carrying out duties as a military policeman (written in the first person).

I was working security at a front gate of a military base.  A civilian convoy working for military personnel was entering the base. These convoys frequently drive night and day, with minimal stops, to make it to their destination safely.  One of the trucks stopped at the front gate to ask one of my soldiers for water.  One of the MPs from another company who was leading the convoy the past few days was standing outside his parked vehicle a few feet from the gate.  He immediately recognized the trucker who was asking for water.  The MP stormed over to the driver’s side of the truck and began swearing at him.  The trucker, who understood some English, starting yelling back.  The MP was upset that the trucker was falling asleep at the wheel the past couple days.  Apparently, they got shot at a couple times in the night when the MPs had to stop the convoy and wake the trucker up.  The MP was not impressed that the trucker was yelling back. The trucker was equally upset saying that the MPs didn’t let them sleep for 2 days, that is why he kept falling asleep at the wheel. The MP, who has already lost all military bearing with his words, took his 9-millimeter pistol out of his holster, cocked it back, and pointed it in the truckers face.  At this point, me and my fellow soldiers didn’t want to touch the MP, if we tried to touch him, the trigger might have been pulled and we would have had a bloody mess.  We tried yelling at the MP, but he was solely focus on the trucker, incoherent to the people around him.  The trucker remained in his truck and continued to yell at the MP, not making any forward advances or threats. 

If you were the sergeant in charge, what would you do to dissolve this situation?

Situation #2: Southern Iraq, October 2003

It was about 1630 and I was manning a checkpoint about 10 miles outside our base. I had one other soldier with me, who has been studying the Arabic language for several months out of a couple books he purchased.  A civilian truck comes down the off ramp by our checkpoint and pulls off to the side of the road. Two guys get out, we cautiously approach, and they frantically shake our hands. We could tell something was wrong, they were very jittery and their eyes were bugging out of their heads.  They didn’t speak a word of English.  They started yelling “Ali Baba, Ali Baba!” and made a gun signal with their hand. Ali Baba is a common term used by Middle Eastern civilians.  The term comes from a folktale called Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.  In short, Ali Baba means “a bad man”.  Through his novice understanding of the Arabic language, my battle buddy managed to get out of them that two vehicles, a white Chevy Caprice and a gray Mercedes, tried to run them off the road and fired a gun at them.  One of the men was bleeding on the arm and needed medical attention.  I called headquarters on the singar radio and requested immediate medical support. 

The shooter is still on the highway between our checkpoints.  They have two exits; one exit is through our other manned checkpoint and the other exit leads away from town.  Besides my partner, and myself I had four other personnel at my disposal (2 teams of 2 personnel) and two vehicles. One of the teams was guarding the checkpoint and the other team was roving the highway.

What would you do? Would you consolidate your roving vehicle to double up your personnel at one of the checkpoints? If so, which one? Or, would you keep that roving element on the highway to search for the shooter by themselves?

Discuss these situations in the forum, I bet you will be surprised at some of the answers.

SGT Michael Volkin is the author of The Ultimate Basic Training Guidebook, available in both paperback and e-book format at www.ultimatebasictrainingguidebook.com.

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