Remembering Rassor A’Bas

Iraq is in the news once more. The urgency of dealing with the atrocities committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has driven policymakers to again send forces into the region. Beyond the discussion among leaders on Capitol Hill and the so-called “talking heads” on news channels, on the ground a historian attached to the Department of Defense will be diligently preserving the history of those military forces while they carry out operations on the ISIL terrorists.

Historians practice their craft in many ways, sometimes beyond the world of academe. One of the more challenging positions I held was as a civilian Air Force historian with the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing (AEW) at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, in 2011. Producing the official history of the 332nd AEW was equally interesting and demanding. The wing itself descended from the famous “Red Tails,” the Tuskegee Airmen of World War Two. In the Air Force, the historian is a member of the wing commander’s personal staff. The wing commander was a brigadier general, who expected me to give presentations and write articles for the base paper on the storied history of the “Red Tails” as a means to inspire the troops.

Balad was a fortified, well-defended air base of almost 10,000 people. Capturing that modern wing’s history in a war zone was both physically and mentally demanding. During periods of heavy attacks, one was required to wear Kevlar helmet and body armor. Although I normally worked twelve-hour days, I often worked fifteen to sixteen hours and once worked for twenty-six hours straight.

Each month’s history was about the length of a book chapter and consisted of a narrative history, a daily chronology, supporting documents, and tables and data that would be useful to military commanders and future historians. The pace was quick and everything was done electronically. The Air Force chain-of-command set hard and fast deadlines for the production of the history, and each month the historian submitted that particular month’s official history to the wing commander or vice commander for approval before forwarding the completed product to US Air Force’s Central Command at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, for review by one of the professional historians there. Dr. Karen Miller, who received her terminal degree from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, was the first historian to review my work. Although the staff at Shaw could be critical and exacting, they were also friendly and helpful.

Generally, the monthly history was straightforward, with text coming directly from primary sources. Several times, something significant occurred that demanded deeper investigation to create an analytical narrative. One such account that I carefully put together from various, yet disparate, sources involved an eight-year-old Iraqi boy, Rassor A’Bas, on a cold, clear day in March 2011.

The Command Historian from Shaw, Kathi Jones, flew out to Iraq that month to conduct a field inspection of historians deployed “downrange.” She also assisted us with preparations to ship each unit’s historical and heritage memorabilia home to the United States, since US forces were mandated to leave Iraq by December. The inspection went well but put me several days behind in collecting documents and writing the March history.

Wednesday, 16 March 2011, dawned crisp and clear—cold enough that one could see one’s breath when walking to the shower trailer from our sleeping quarters, dubbed CHUs by the military—Containerized Housing Units. I needed my gloves that morning, and after getting ready for work, I stopped at the recreation center to Skype home since that was one of the few locations with Wi-Fi on base. The daily Skype was the best way of staying connected with home—a far cry from my days in the service when we were authorized one ten-minute “morale call” home per week!

Arriving at the wing headquarters for work, I enjoyed a hot cup of coffee with other members of the staff in the wing Protocol Office. Besides having the coffee pot, Protocol also kept the official schedules of the...