Photo By Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky | Seven-year-old Faathsid Saad Adeah (right) and a younger cousin play by one of the...... read more read more
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By Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky
FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq – Members of the Obeidi tribe in Maderiyah, 25 kilometers south of Baghdad, have always relied on one another through difficult times.
Now, thanks to successful implementation of the counterinsurgency policy, the tribe can also rely on Soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, for help.
Soldiers from 1st Platoon, Battery B, 1-9th FA, met with an Obeidi woman May 21 to coordinate treatment options for burns she suffered during a mortar attack aimed at coalition forces.
Reshi Hadey Afeiy was cooking in her home last December when a mortar landed near her home. The explosion and shockwave caused the oil she was cooking with to spill all over her upper body, leaving her with second- and third-degree burns from her waist up to the top of her skull, said Sgt. Ian Loud, 1st Platoon medic.
Soldiers of 1st Platoon found her during a presence patrol through the area to remove al-Qaida remnants.
Loud, a native of Hanford, Calif., said although she received some surgery on her face in Taji, Afeiy still needs much work to recover from her injuries.
Even though coalition forces were not responsible in any way for her injuries, Cpl. Adam Peak, vehicle commander in 1st Platoon, said helping her was the right thing to do.
Now, Loud, Sgt. Kyle Nygaard and Sgt. Mark Loper all contributed some of their own money to buy Vaseline cans to help soothe her injuries.
Except, this isn't the first time innocent villagers suffered injuries at the hand of criminal attacks.
Last September, Afeiy's 7-year-old cousin, Faathsid Saad Adeah was also injured by an al-Qaida mortar attack. Adeah was playing in her yard with her cousins when shrapnel from a mortar struck her in the stomach. Unable to help her, Adeah's father rushed her to the front gate of Joint Security Site W1, located nearby.
Nygaard, 1st Platoon sergeant, said the incident struck a deep cord with him, having a 4-year-old himself named Aiden.
His fatherly instinct kicked in, said the Houston native. Likewise, the desire to help rose in other Soldiers, who worked to stabilize the girl and arrange helicopter transportation to the International Zone for surgery.
Now, eight months later, Adeah is out playing with her family and the only proof of the incident is a vertical scar on her stomach.
This success is what 1st Platoon Soldiers hope for Afeiy. Eventually, they hope to get her transferred to the al-Kendu Hospital in Baghdad, where she can get specialized treatment, Peak said, a native of New Boston, N.H.
These relationships will continue to strengthen as Soldiers continue to provide her with medicine, document her injuries and provide her with treatment from a female physician with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).
Although a small token, these efforts have gone a long way toward building relations with the local population, Peak said.
These Soldiers have also vowed to rid the area of al-Qaida so they cannot injure any more people.
Aggressive targeting of al-Qaida sympathizers, removal of insurgent weapon caches, daily patrols and recruiting local citizens into the Sons of Iraq program have all increased in the past month to drive out the last remnants of the insurgency and keep them from migrating back.
"Our mission now is to keep the peace," Nygaard said.
| Date Taken: | 05.23.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 05.25.2008 15:14 |
| Story ID: | 19793 |
| Location: | ISKANDARIYAH, IQ |
| Web Views: | 369 |
| Downloads: | 313 |
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