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Iraqi boy assists Soldiers

Jun-22-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

Great story. There's a photo of Logan in our gallery.

by Sgt. Fred Minnick
139th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

MOSUL, Iraq – If the Army had an adopt-a-child program, Logan Omar Sahle would be the poster child. For more than a year, the 13-year-old boy, who contends he’s 13 and a half, has lived and worked with Coalition forces Soldiers at a forward operating base in Mosul. The boy speaks four languages and his official title at the FOB is translator and supervisor, but he is a Coalition forces Soldier at heart.

“I love American Soldiers. I want to help them in every way possible, because without them we (Iraqis) would have nothing,” said Logan, who also speaks Turkish, Arabic and Kurdish and is currently learning Spanish.

“When Saddam ruled Iraq, he would kill somebody for speaking English or Kurdish. Things were very bad, but now we are much happier and I can speak all my languages freely.”

Not a day goes by that Logan doesn’t use his four languages. At the FOB, he helps Soldiers with more than 50 workers, who maintain buildings, electricity and plumbing.

“It would be very difficult to do my job without Logan. Some of the workers only speak Kurdish, Turkish or Arabic. Rather than having a translator for each group, Logan can talk to all of them,” said Staff Sgt. Phillip Powers, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the contracted workers on the FOB for 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team).

“We tell him what we need done and then he supervises the workers on the project.

Sometimes you forget he’s just a kid because he’s telling grown men what to do.”

Even though he’s barely 4 foot 10 inches, Logan is the big man at the FOB. He knows every Soldier by name and the Soldiers believe that the camp would not function without him.

“Everybody looks forward to talking to Logan,” said Spc. Jim Pelletier, scout platoon, 2/3.

“He’s funny and is always asking if there’s anything he can get us at the market. Plus, when people first see a kid bossing around workers for the first time, they want to meet him and hear his story.”

Logan’s story is both compelling and sad. His uncle was killed by members of Saddam Hussein’s regime for speaking Turkish in Baghdad. One of 11 children, Logan learned English from his mother, who speaks seven languages.

His father, who provided magazines to U.S. Army Soldiers during the first Gulf War, always told Logan about how great American Soldiers were. Even before Logan met a man in uniform, he liked Americans.

“Logan sees how American Soldiers act, and he tries to imitate their actions from the way he treats his workers to lifting weights to being confident,” said Sgt. Maj. Michael Brown, 2/3’s staff sergeant major. “In a lot of ways, he is a Soldier.”

Logan already owns two U.S. Army uniforms and although they barely fit him, it’s his dream to one day see specialist rank on the collar and his name on the chest.

“I want to be an American Soldier when I grow up,” he said. “I really want to be a specialist because those are the guys doing all the work.”

With tours with the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division and the Stryker Brigade, when Logan enlists, he may be the most experienced private to ever join the Army.

(via DVIDS)

UPDATE: I just realized that this article was in one of The Coalition Scimitar newspapers we linked to. Oh well, many of you might not have seen it before.


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