Welcome Back
Almost all Iraqi soldiers leave there unit for seven days a month to go home. Reason they are allowed seven days of leave a month is for them to take their pay home. See Iraq does not have a centralized banking system. This is the only way they can get money to their families. Most of them do not tell their friends or people who live around them that they are soldiers. If the insurgents in their home area find out they are in the Iraqi Army, they will kill them or their families. So when they leave they travel in civilian clothes and leave all their military gear here on the post.
You never now when they will leave. They just decide to go at the last minute and they are gone. So when I walk into the Admin (S1) office my counterparts may be gone. Yesterday most of them returned from their seven days. They were very happy to see me. They cannot say Helms, so it comes out Helmes. There were many hugs and kisses thrown my way. They all told me of their families and how good it was to see them. I expressed my happiness that they made back safe and sound.
Sometimes they do not return, because they have quit. Some of the young privates only serve a couple of months and then take their paycheck and never return. This is a problem in the Iraqi Army. They sign a contract, but they are not really held to it. No Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) is in the Iraqi Army like we have in our Military. UCMJ is a federal law, enacted by Congress. Its provisions are contained in United States Code, Title 10, Chapter 47. Article 36 of the UCMJ allows the President to prescribe rules and procedures to implement the provisions of the UCMJ. The President does this via the Manual for Courts-Martial (MCM) which is an executive order that contains detailed instructions for implementing military law for the United States Armed Forces. We have 146 Articles in the UCMJ. The Iraqi Army needs to implement something like this.
I was told that in the coming weeks I will go to Tarmiyah for about three to five days. We run a office in this town and I will be there to assist one of our Iraqi counterparts. This will be my first time staying there for a couple of days. I have been there before to drop off other members of our team. Everyone of them have told me that it can be a fun time, or a boring time depending on what you do to keep yourself busy. They also have told me the Iraqis constantly feed you, but when you return be prepared to go to the bathroom a lot. My roommate returned one time and had the runs for three days. I am looking forward to it, well not the runs, but the stay.
See ya,
Randy
You never now when they will leave. They just decide to go at the last minute and they are gone. So when I walk into the Admin (S1) office my counterparts may be gone. Yesterday most of them returned from their seven days. They were very happy to see me. They cannot say Helms, so it comes out Helmes. There were many hugs and kisses thrown my way. They all told me of their families and how good it was to see them. I expressed my happiness that they made back safe and sound.
Sometimes they do not return, because they have quit. Some of the young privates only serve a couple of months and then take their paycheck and never return. This is a problem in the Iraqi Army. They sign a contract, but they are not really held to it. No Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) is in the Iraqi Army like we have in our Military. UCMJ is a federal law, enacted by Congress. Its provisions are contained in United States Code, Title 10, Chapter 47. Article 36 of the UCMJ allows the President to prescribe rules and procedures to implement the provisions of the UCMJ. The President does this via the Manual for Courts-Martial (MCM) which is an executive order that contains detailed instructions for implementing military law for the United States Armed Forces. We have 146 Articles in the UCMJ. The Iraqi Army needs to implement something like this.
I was told that in the coming weeks I will go to Tarmiyah for about three to five days. We run a office in this town and I will be there to assist one of our Iraqi counterparts. This will be my first time staying there for a couple of days. I have been there before to drop off other members of our team. Everyone of them have told me that it can be a fun time, or a boring time depending on what you do to keep yourself busy. They also have told me the Iraqis constantly feed you, but when you return be prepared to go to the bathroom a lot. My roommate returned one time and had the runs for three days. I am looking forward to it, well not the runs, but the stay.
See ya,
Randy
