My nephew returned from Iraq a couple of weeks ago. After debriefing and parties and seeing everyone else in the family he was around for Christmas Day. He was hesitant to talk about what happened even when pressed and especially when asked, “How many did you kill?”

He was in Fallouja when the Marine Corps went through that town like a hot knife through butter. While eating breakfast on Christmas Day the TV was on and a news report came on about the bomb that blew up the mess tent that the US Army had in Mosul. My nephew looked at the TV and under his breath said “Pussies” I said, ”Pussies” he said, “Yeah Pussies. Those Army pukes were eating in a tent. We rarely ate inside let alone a hot meal. They had hot showers and hot chow. You know on Thanksgiving Day we were killing these guys and someone from the rear came along and said hey Hot Chow. So we stopped killing these guys and went over to a truck and there were plates with turkey and potatoes and stuff. It wasn’t hot but it wasn’t a MRE. We finished the meal and then we right back to killing those guys.”

I asked him about the incident that was widely reported on TV about the Marines that shot that supposed un-armed Iraqi in the room. He laughed and said, Hey over there everyone is armed. Little kids run around with guns. Trust me he was not un-armed.”

He then started to talk about an incident where his squad got into a bit of a jam while clearing a couple of houses in Fallouja.

“ We were trying to clear a small block when suddenly we started getting small arms fire from all around. Everyone ran for cover in a different direction and we took off and headed for a corner that I thought would provide sufficient cover for my buddy and myself. We dove around the cover and were kind of laughing at each other and figuring we really did dodge a bullet. Slowly the firing stopped and we heard that the rest of the squad was safe and secure. We all re-grouped and moved out in a different direction and once again we had to find cover from the incoming fire. We humped it around this corner and realized that we were once again separated from the squad. I was looking at an Iraqi with an AK 47 pointed right at me and I froze in my track and figured this is going to hurt, really hurt. He started firing at us now and when my buddy came around the corner and he took a stray round in the shoulder. He dove back behind the corner and was yelling and screaming. I was in clear sight with no protection other than what I had on me and I figured that if I moved, I would take around or two. This Iraqi idiot was 20 or 25 feet away with an AK 47 and could not hit me. Finally the guy emptied his weapon and I took him out with a couple of quick rounds from my weapon. My buddy was fine; it was really just a scratch.

I sat there mesmerized by the story and asked well what did you do next? He said they went through the body and found his Iraqi ID card and $250.00 in brand new American currency. They kept the cash and when the rest of the squad returns from Iraq in January this dead Iraqi will be buying the squad drinks.

We will be taking him out for pizza and beer in a couple of weeks maybe we will get to hear some more stories.