A couple months had passed by now in our Iraq time and things had mostly settled in. We still had to do gate guard shifts, but after the events in the first gate guard story shifts were now split up enough to be balanced out. In my case I had a four hour shift roughly every three days. My next story is about one of those shifts.

The FOB (pronounced like key fob - Forward Operating Base) that we were on was a joint US and Iraqi Army base, though it was rather small, especially for the Iraqi side. The gate guard shifts were four person shifts consisting of two US soldiers, an Iraqi interpreter, and two contracted guards from another country entirely. In addition to the Iraqi Army that were on base there was also a small merchant shop, barber shop, and a small cafe run by local nationals that were allowed access onto the FOB.

Before we were allowed to go on gate guard you had to understand your job there, to include rules of engagement. We would pull guard in what we called full battle rattle. That consisted of body armor with six thirty-round magazines, helmet, M-16 rifle, and a seventh magazine in the weapon itself for a total of two hundred and ten rounds carried. Normally when just moving around the FOB we still carried our weapon with a magazine on us, but not the body armor. To help prevent accidental incidents we were on gate guard in amber weapon status. Amber meaning the magazine was in the weapon but the chamber was empty and the weapon safety was on. We would have to pull the charging handle back to chamber a round and and then flip the safety (AKA selector lever in Army jargon) from safe to semi before being able to fire the rifle. We also had set situations where we were allowed to fire at a perceived enemy. The first being that personnel, gate, or equipment - like vehicles - were in danger. Second, you still had to shout to warn them, show your intent to use your weapon, shove them away (if applicable), fire a warning shot, and only then if it were still a threat could you shoot the person. (Aka shout, show, shove, shoot, and shoot. Readers please be aware rules of engagement vary on area, time frame - 2009 in this case - and what it is you are guarding. So my RoE referenced here can be very different from someone else’s even if they were in Iraq at the same time frame)

Most of the “action” at the gate was Iraqi Army people coming in or US Army convoys going out or returning. With those as gate guard our job was to have anyone dismount their vehicles and present their ID for access. Any of the merchant vehicles were subject to a search that included a mirror check of the undercarriage to look for any sign of explosives/IEDs.

As you can probably imagine, guard shift in thirty pounds or so of gear in the middle of the day in Iraq isn’t the most fun. I for one typically ended up with a sweat soaked uniform and drinking multiple quarts of water per four hour shift.

It was about the end of my shift when a Iraqi car came around the last corner before our gate and into view. I would estimate it coming in at approximately 40 mph, well above the speeds it was supposed to becdriving. We had rough a half mile distance between the last corner and our gate so that speed got our attention quickly. With my rifle held in my right arm and pointed at the ground I raised my left above my head in the signal for “STOP!” I also shouted in Arabic “Qf!” as well as English “Stop!” The vehicle kept on coming, not slowing down.