NAVY NEWS, FEBRUARY 2008 15
● Tankers fi ll their vast holds at the Al Basrah Oil Terminal (ABOT) at sunset
Picture: LA(Phot) Owen King, FRPU Whale Island
I
N THE fading light of
Mod cons, in fairness, are the Today they have uniforms. they tune into Coronation Street.
an autumn afternoon,
IN THE second of our features on operations in the last of these men’s concerns. They have guns. They have ranks. “A’right, Chuck,” isn’t quite a
a dozen or so men in
northern Arabian Gulf, RICHARD HARGREAVES
No-one must know what they They don’t just board their own common phrase on the streets of
desert fatigues check
visits the Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal and meets
do. They leave their base at Umm patrol craft on training exercises, Umm Qasr just yet, but the soap
weapons and radios on
the Iraqi sailors and marines who will one day
Qasr under cover of darkness, in they sweep tankers waiting to does help the Iraqis’ English.
civilian clothes. They carry no gorge themselves on the black And they talk. They talk a lot.
the upper deck of RFA Sir
safeguard it on their own. identity cards. If the insurgents gold pumped out of Iraq’s oil In groups. They joke with the Brits
Bedivere.
knew what they did, they would terminals. about “jiggy jiggy” – seemingly
die – and their families too most But the infectious, almost an all-purpose phrase meaning
A few don black woolly hats. All warrant offi cers, but the gulf has ballooned fourfold.
probably. child-like enthusiasm – utterly anything from fun and having a
slip on bright orange life jackets. between the men and their offi cers But before the 2003 toppling of
With such danger, why do these unlike anything you might see at good time to, well, what young
A few hundred yards away sits was cavernous. the Saddam regime, Wahid could
men put their lives on the line Raleigh or Dartmouth, and that’s people do of an evening… (Play
the Rio Genoa, high in the water, There were offi cers and below buy 5kg tomatoes for 25p. Today
daily? not to disparage those institutions Scrabble? – Ed.)
waiting patiently. them were the workers. 1kg will set him back maybe 50p.
Wahid rubs his thumb and – remains despite all that is dark But why the enthusiasm and
The men scramble down rope That gulf has to be closed. Non- Infl ation is compounded by
fi nger together. “Money,” he says. in this land. high spirits where many might
ladders into waiting boats, bobbing commissioned offi cers are the the extended families many of the
“This job, good money.” “I was a bit nervous before crumble?
up and down rather violently in backbone of any fi ghting force. men look after – not merely wives
The Iraqi sailor is generally coming out here,” says Lt Cdr “We enjoy our jobs. We want to
the heavy swell. But how do you teach leadership
and children, but often parents,
better paid than his civilian Toby Norman – also known as protect our country. We want to
The boats bounce and thump as in a land where for decades
brothers, sisters and their families
compatriots (a teacher, for ‘my friend in Iraq’ by some of the stop the smuggling,” says Wahid.
they head for the red-black tanker, leadership equalled dictatorship?
too.
example, will earn perhaps barely locals. One day they will. On their own.
then bob furiously once more as You choose examples from
It is hardly surprising, then, that
half what a sailor or marine takes “I wondered how friendly the They already patrol the length of
they ride the waves beneath the history. There is ‘the Book’ – The
these men have no mod cons. No
home every four weeks). Iraqis would be towards someone the Khawr abd Allah into Umm
Rio Genoa’s rope ladder. Koran – which provides plenty
iPods, no laptops in their messes. But there is more to this job
who’d invaded their country.
Qasr – Iraq’s Voie Sacrée – and
In the glare of the sun, you of paths to follow. And there
But no books, no magazines even. than money.
can just make out a few bright are military leaders – Suleman,
(They do, however, have lots The last time I visited Umm
“I should not have worried.
eventually all Iraq’s waters will fall
orange dots scrambling up the Saladin (it’s important to pick
of ‘Casanova’ – a Saudi-made Qasr, the men carried out basic
I’ve been struck by their
under their wing.
ladder, then on to a much more great Muslim warriors as role
deodorant whose overpowering drills on the water and very
friendliness, by their hard
“Are you confi dent for the
accommodating stairway to the models).
smell drifts through the passages tentative boarding operations.
work. They will do anything
future?” I ask Wahid.
tanker’s upper deck. That said, it can be diffi cult to
of Sir Bedivere during evening They brandished paddles, not
for you.”
He raises his hands to the mess
deck ceiling.
This is typical work in the follow the example of someone
rounds – “Psst psst” = “Very rifl es. Some had uniforms, most In the evenings, the Iraqis Allah karim. Allah karim. God
northern Arabian Gulf. who fought almost a millennium
clean,” the Iraqi sailors explain.) did not. play football, they watch DVDs, willing.
The marines will secure the ago.
ship, their boarding offi cer will join So, there are more simple,
them, check the manifest, conduct tangible ‘leaders’ to look up to.
a search and then the Rio Genoa “Think of someone you admired,
will have cleared one hurdle before you looked up to as a child or as
it can fi nally fi ll its tanks from one a young man – a teacher, an old
of Iraq’s two oil platforms. man, perhaps a sergeant,” imparts
We have been doing similar tasks Lt Cdr Tristan Lovering of the
for decades. So too the Australians. Naval Transition Team to a couple
And the Americans. of dozen Iraqi NCOs.
But today, it is Iraqi naval “Remember that person and
infantry – marines – and Iraqi why you were prepared to follow
★ Academic excellence
sailors doing this, under the them. Always remember them.”
watchful eye of British-led experts, In a few years’ time, these men
the Naval Transition Team. will lead scores, perhaps hundreds
Each week a group of Iraqis and of new jundi – junior rates; Iraq’s
their trainers leave Umm Qasr navy will more than double from
behind and spend fi ve days aboard just shy of 1,200 men today to
Sir Bedivere, a fl oating school and 2,500 by 2012.
base at the hub of the Allied effort “They will be the small boys
to safeguard Iraqi waters.
and you will be the old men to
It would be wrong to judge the
look up to,” says Lt Cdr Lovering.
Iraqi sailors and marines by our
“Show them the attributes that
standards.
you admired.
They are not as honed as the
Allied navies, but then we have
“The future lies in your
centuries of expertise and tradition
hands. It has to be better
to call upon; Iraq’s navy has existed
than it used to be.”
less than fi ve years. Indeed it must. It is not for
Of course, there was a navy here me to say whether life is better or
before and many men in the ‘new worse than before.
navy’ were also in the ‘old navy’. Wahid, a boat driver, was a
But in the old navy, rank and senior rating in the ‘old navy’.
leadership, counted for little. Now, aged 36, he is at the bottom
There were offi cers. And there rung of the ladder again.
were men. Period. Five years ago he earned around
Yes, there were sergeants and £25 each month; today that fi gure
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