AR RAMADI, Iraq -- A group of Iraqi children playing soccer in the street here halt their game to welcome a formation of Marines and Iraqi Security Forces as they patrol through their neighborhood. One of the smiling youngsters high fives Lance Cpl. Juan-Luis Valdes, and several men, who are gathered on the sidewalk, greet the ISF in their native tongue. The locals’ acknowledgments are friendly.
According to Valdes, a machine gunner with 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, the city’s residents are reacting well to seeing Marines and ISF operating hand-in-hand.
“It lets them know their own people are out here and not just Americans,” said the 22-year-old from Houston. “I think it’s helping us make progress with the people.”
Company C Marines routinely bring a squad of ISF with them when they conduct patrols in their area of operations, according to 2nd Lt. Austin P. Adams, the platoon commander for 2nd Platoon.
“Our intent is to have a positive influence on the people in our AO by letting them see the Marines and ISF working together,” he said.
Valdes, his fellow 1st Squad warriors and seven ISF members mission for this patrol was to discern the messages a mosque was broadcasting over its loudspeakers during midday prayer.
“We’ve heard anti-American messages from other mosques in the area,” explained Valdez, a 2002 graduate of Marine Military Academy, Harlingen, Texas. “We want to see if this one is doing the same.”
The Marines and their ISF counterparts patrolled through several neighborhoods on their way to the mosque, greeting locals along the way.
Though Valdes isn’t fluent in Arabic, he said he knows a prayer from an anti-American message.
“I can tell because when they’re singing like this it’s normal prayer,” he said as the Dhuhr Muslim prayer started up and sounded over the holy building’s loudspeakers, echoing through the street he and his comrades were patrolling. “It gets suspicious when they start talking. They sound mad, and I can sometimes make out words like bomb and America. It sounds a lot different from plain worship songs.”
As soon as the prayer started, the Marines and ISF ran to a house a few blocks from the mosque and used it as a temporary surveillance position while the speaker broadcasted the prayers.
Adams and the unit’s interpreter positioned themselves next to one of the building’s windows to better hear the message. Within minutes of the prayers start, it went from humble singing to angry shouting.
The interpreter recorded the message to be taken back to the unit.
“He’s asking for the insurgents to have victory over their enemy, which is us,” said Adams, a 23-year-old from Arcadia, Calif. “We’re not going to detain the speaker because that’s part of their freedom. They can say what they want about Americans, but they can’t take up arms against us. That’s beauty of democracy.”
The Marines waited until the prayer ended and then patrolled back to their base, Camp Snake Pit, without incident.
“The prayer turned out bad, but we expected that,” said Valdes. “We’ll know to keep our eyes and ears open when patrolling now.”