"Soldiers of Today and Yesterday"
" Honor,Dignity & Hope "

Perched on a Syrian border, Al Qaim has always been a lawless town where smugglers do a brisk trade in movement of weapons and people. Outside of town barren waste stretch for hundreds of miles into Syria, spanning a vast area far more permeable than any part of the U.S. Mexico border. There’s no Rio Grande outside Al Qaim to serve as a neutral barrier – just acres of squat scrub brush, the occasional Bedouin, and dangerous, desert-roaming bandits who enjoy nothing better than an unfair fight.

"It’s just like that town from Star Wars," one of the troops from Dolan’s 3^rd Armored Cavalry Regiment said upon arrival, referring to Mos Eisley, the city on the desert planet Tatooine where intergalactic criminals take one another down in smoky bars while Jabba the Hutt secretly runs the show.

When the war began in March, Al Qaim’s location on the Syrian border made it a strategic target. It was an ideal spot for Baath Party loyalists to hide and a perfect point for radicals to slip into Iraq to kill Americans. It was here, in the early days of the war, that a group of tractor-trailers reportedly crossed into Syria, possibly carrying $1 billion that Saddam’s ambitious younger son, Qusay, stole from Iraq’s Central Bank. Saddam’s oldest son, Uday, was also allegedly spotted in the area during the early days of war, cruising the streets in a shiny, souped-up Mercedes with an entourage of bodyguards. Coalition forces heard whispered accounts of secret caves stocked with gold bouillon and ancient tunnels and fortified lairs leading into Syria.

The only thing Dolan knew for sure was that the town was extremely dangerous. That info came from the British Royal Marines, who had entered Al Qaim a few weeks after hostilities began. When they arrived a mob of 300 angry Iraqis greeted them with rocks and bullets. The Brits fled to the hills outside of town, but not before an unknown number of villagers lay dead in the dusty streets. The town quickly spiraled into anarchy; most of the police force was driven out, and local thugs began looting and shooting at will.

"There’s gunfire every night," a British major warned Dolan before the colonel’s men arrived. "Don’t go in there without armor."

As I said "The Story keeps getting better and better".So I again say "Stay tuned for more fun in the Sun In the Wild Wild West of Iraq"!!!!!!

See you next week for the on going Saga.

Johnie Lee Qualls Webmaster