On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 14:34:27 GMT, "Jim," wrote:

A cut and paste was snipped. Just for Jim, some good news:

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Recruitment drive for Iraqi Army draws thousands

By U.S. Army Sgt. Lorie Jewell, Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq
Public Affairs

SOUTHERN IRAQ – An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 men arrived by foot, bus, and other
vehicles by sun up Feb. 14, at an airfield outside an Iraqi Army base in an
effort to join Iraq’s army, officials said.

Of that, approximately 5,000 made it through a screening process that led them
onto the base, which is home to several thousand Iraqi Soldiers and a contingent
of U.S. service members, officials said. Most will be transferred to other bases
in Iraq to supplement existing units.

The process was a result of the largest recruitment effort for the Iraqi Army to
date, said U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Woodley of the Multi-National Security
Transition Command-Iraq.

During the screening process, potential recruits were given a literacy test,
physical condition check and questioned about prior military service. Once
inside the base, they went through a medical screening and received uniforms,
boots and other military-related clothing.

Of those who were turned back, or did not make it through the screening, leaders
told them to return for another recruitment drive.

Many recruits showed up with proof that they were serving when Saddam Hussein’s
regime fell and they were subsequently released from duty. Former Iraqi Army
Maj. Hussien Ali Kadhun, 48, traveled about an hour and a half by bus to rejoin.

“I want to serve my country and fight the terrorists,” he said through a
translator.

Ali Kadhun said he graduated from a military college in 1979 with a bachelor’s
degree in military science. He returned to school to study law shortly after his
release from the army in 2003.

Another former Soldier, Hakeem Shaial Hassan, 27, worked as a farmer after his
first stint in the Army. It took him nearly four hours to get to the airfield
with a group of friends, looking for a job to provide him and his family with a
better income. New recruits earn 420,380 dinars a month, or the equivalent about
$212 in U.S. dollars, officials said.

“I am proud that I made it,” Shaial Hassan said through an interpreter. “But I
am sad that my friends did not. They will have to go back home and tell their
families they did not make it.”

U.S. Army officials were expecting a little more than 6,000 potential recruits.
U.S. military members from the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy were
joined by several civilian security personnel and a few hundred Iraqi Soldiers
stationed at the base. Several dozen Iraqi Soldiers arrived at the base the day
before and went right to work early the next morning, said U.S. Army Lt. Col.
Mark Harvey, base commander.
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John H

On the 'PocoLoco' out of Deale, MD,
on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay!

"Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it."
Rene Descartes