Photo By Spc. Samantha Johnson | Workers on the "Bumblebee Crew" – named for the color of their uniforms – work to...... read more read more
By Spc. Samantha Johnson
CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq — The day starts bright and early for the escorts on Sgt. Keith Paulson's team, and even earlier for the "Bumblebee Crew," the Iraqi workers they escort on Contingency Operating Base Basra.
This is the third group of local workers for COB Basra. They used to be called "The Blue Man Crew," because when they first started here they had blue jumpsuits. The crew members now wear black and yellow, though the foremen still wear blue.
The workers have to wake up early to make the lengthy walk from their homes in the nearby villages of Basrah and get through all three checkpoints to start work around 9 a.m.
On a typical day, some 80 worker's try to make their way through the gates.
Once they get though the gates, they are lined up, put on buses and taken to the block yard and other various job sites. Around the base, they stack fallen blocks, empty sand bags left over from the British, and pick up trash.
"We work hard and by the end of the day we can see what we've done" Paulson said.
The old Blue Man Crew started out making $17 a day, but when the latest group started, they took a pay cut to $9 a day. This was hard for some of them, but they said that they like working for Paulson, and for him they would stay.
After some time, they got a raise, and now make around $13 a day.
The Bumblebee Crew have collectively seen a lot of change and in their time, and with the 34th Infantry Division headed out the door and the 1st Infantry Division headed in, the workers and current escorts both said they hope that it's a smooth transition.
One worker, Muhsen ABD Al Zahra recalled when he was in the Iraqi army in the 1980's and his leg was seriously injured in the war with Iran. It happened during a "big battle," he said, close to the Iraq border.
"Every time I just keep looking at the injury and I keep remembering what happened to me in the war," he said through an interpreter.
Another worker, Muhsen, has been working for the Babylonian Woman company for two and a half years now, and said that he thanks God that he was able to find this job.
Many of the workers have dreams of living in the U.S.
"Personally I would love to go to the United States and start a new life there," one foreman, who wished to remain nameless, said through an interpreter. He has been a foreman for three months.
The foreman's father was a soldier in the war with Iran and was injured and received no compensation from the Iraqi government. Despite that and having two brothers and seven sisters living at home, the foreman said they had a "good childhood."
Working with the locals means a lot to Paulson, he said.
"This is a very rewarding job," he said, "knowing, where we came from, where we started out and what it has become, and we have personal relationships with each other. We have a lot of things in common right now and it's just very rewarding."
| Date Taken: | 01.04.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 01.04.2010 01:16 |
| Story ID: | 43423 |
| Location: | BASRA, IQ |
| Web Views: | 360 |
| Downloads: | 352 |
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