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Ron Harris : Marines' diversity offers puzzle for Iraqi guessing game
By Ron Harris Post-Dispatch
updated: 04/05/2003 05:07 PM
TWENTY MILES SOUTH OF BAGHDAD, 7th MARINES - The Marines were less than 48 hours into their invasion of Iraq when Pfc. Michael Lara of Raymondville, Texas., was first asked the kind of question that he and some other Marines would hear repeatedly from civilians.
Lara, 19, was standing guard in the turret of his Humvee manning a machine gun along the Shatt Al-Basra bridge in southern Iraq when an old man and his two sons asked permission to pass across the strategic checkpoint.
As Marines waved the man through, he suddenly turned to Lara and asked, "Kuwaiti?"
A stunned Lara paused for a second because he wasn't sure the man was talking to him.
"Kuwait?" the man asked again.
"Naw," Lara responded, "American, Mexican.
"But I don't think he believed me," Lara, a member of Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, said later. "He just keep looking at me."
As the Marines move across the country towards Baghdad, their racial and ethnic diversity has caught the Iraqis by surprise. In what has become an almost comical game, locals frequently try to figure out soldiers' ethnicity, with guess often way off the mark.
Cpl. Raul San Martin, a 23-year-old Mexican-American from Los Angeles, said he was first mistaken for Iraqi, then Kuwaiti as he was standing guard a few days ago in defense of the Marines' position at a soccer stadium in the town of Numaniyah.
"He kept asking if I was one thing and then the other, and I was thinking, 'Well, now I know that if I wanted to, I could get a job for the CIA," San Martin said Saturday as he again was standing guard, this time along a road leading into Baghdad.
The Marines just take the guessing game with a smile.
"They're just curious," said Cpl. Henok Tefera, 30, who was born in Ethiopia but now calls Columbus, Ohio, home. "You tell them, we're U.S., we're all U.S."
Sometimes the questions leave the Marines confused.
"Yeah, these kids asked me if I was Iraqi," Navy Corpsman Ron Dawson, 20, an African-American from Columbus, Ga., said incredulously. "I don't look Iraqi. At least I certainly don't think I look Iraqi."
But Corpsman Benedict Bito, 19, of Alameda, Calif., may have gotten the strangest question while at his post in Numaniyah.
"One kid asked me was I related to (martial arts movie star) Jackie Chan," said Bito, who is Filipino. "I was standing guard in the square and the people started to stare at me. At first, they told me I was Chinese, then they said Korean and finally one guy thought I was Vietnamese.
"They just couldn't believe I was American."
Cpl. Quentin Milroe of Chicago encountered that same disbelief a few days ago when he and other members of India Company visited a small village about four miles south of the town of Afak looking for weapons caches.
"So, we went to this area and the elder of the village came out, and we started asking him were there any weapons in the village," said Milroe, a 24-year-old African-American. "This elder just kept staring at me, and then he made a gesture for me to speak."
When Milroe didn't, the elder said to him, "Syrian. Syrian."
"I said no, American," Milroe said.
Positive, however, that he had Milroe's identity pegged right, the elder refused to accept that response and turned to Lt. Adrian Haskamp, a 27-year-old Puerto Rican and India Company platoon leader.
"I guess he thought maybe because I was doing all the talking he figured out that I was in charge," said Haskamp of Greensboro, N.C. "So, he points to Milroe and says to me 'Syrian. Syrian'"
Haskamp said he gestured no and repeated, "American."
Their business concluded, the elder turned and started back heading toward his house, but as he did, Milroe and Haskamp said they could hear him muttering to himself in disbelief, 'Syrian. Syrian."
Ron Harris : Marines' diversity offers puzzle for Iraqi guessing game
By Ron Harris Post-Dispatch
updated: 04/05/2003 05:07 PM
TWENTY MILES SOUTH OF BAGHDAD, 7th MARINES - The Marines were less than 48 hours into their invasion of Iraq when Pfc. Michael Lara of Raymondville, Texas., was first asked the kind of question that he and some other Marines would hear repeatedly from civilians.
Lara, 19, was standing guard in the turret of his Humvee manning a machine gun along the Shatt Al-Basra bridge in southern Iraq when an old man and his two sons asked permission to pass across the strategic checkpoint.
As Marines waved the man through, he suddenly turned to Lara and asked, "Kuwaiti?"
A stunned Lara paused for a second because he wasn't sure the man was talking to him.
"Kuwait?" the man asked again.
"Naw," Lara responded, "American, Mexican.
"But I don't think he believed me," Lara, a member of Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, said later. "He just keep looking at me."
As the Marines move across the country towards Baghdad, their racial and ethnic diversity has caught the Iraqis by surprise. In what has become an almost comical game, locals frequently try to figure out soldiers' ethnicity, with guess often way off the mark.
Cpl. Raul San Martin, a 23-year-old Mexican-American from Los Angeles, said he was first mistaken for Iraqi, then Kuwaiti as he was standing guard a few days ago in defense of the Marines' position at a soccer stadium in the town of Numaniyah.
"He kept asking if I was one thing and then the other, and I was thinking, 'Well, now I know that if I wanted to, I could get a job for the CIA," San Martin said Saturday as he again was standing guard, this time along a road leading into Baghdad.
The Marines just take the guessing game with a smile.
"They're just curious," said Cpl. Henok Tefera, 30, who was born in Ethiopia but now calls Columbus, Ohio, home. "You tell them, we're U.S., we're all U.S."
Sometimes the questions leave the Marines confused.
"Yeah, these kids asked me if I was Iraqi," Navy Corpsman Ron Dawson, 20, an African-American from Columbus, Ga., said incredulously. "I don't look Iraqi. At least I certainly don't think I look Iraqi."
But Corpsman Benedict Bito, 19, of Alameda, Calif., may have gotten the strangest question while at his post in Numaniyah.
"One kid asked me was I related to (martial arts movie star) Jackie Chan," said Bito, who is Filipino. "I was standing guard in the square and the people started to stare at me. At first, they told me I was Chinese, then they said Korean and finally one guy thought I was Vietnamese.
"They just couldn't believe I was American."
Cpl. Quentin Milroe of Chicago encountered that same disbelief a few days ago when he and other members of India Company visited a small village about four miles south of the town of Afak looking for weapons caches.
"So, we went to this area and the elder of the village came out, and we started asking him were there any weapons in the village," said Milroe, a 24-year-old African-American. "This elder just kept staring at me, and then he made a gesture for me to speak."
When Milroe didn't, the elder said to him, "Syrian. Syrian."
"I said no, American," Milroe said.
Positive, however, that he had Milroe's identity pegged right, the elder refused to accept that response and turned to Lt. Adrian Haskamp, a 27-year-old Puerto Rican and India Company platoon leader.
"I guess he thought maybe because I was doing all the talking he figured out that I was in charge," said Haskamp of Greensboro, N.C. "So, he points to Milroe and says to me 'Syrian. Syrian'"
Haskamp said he gestured no and repeated, "American."
Their business concluded, the elder turned and started back heading toward his house, but as he did, Milroe and Haskamp said they could hear him muttering to himself in disbelief, 'Syrian. Syrian."
