Sovereignty transfer is a welcome change
By 1st Sgt. Douglas E. Power
Special to The Advertiser
Douglas Power photo
The early Transfer of Sovereignty (TOS) was as much of a surprise for my Marines and me as I am sure it was for most Americans.
Marine 1st Sgt. Douglas Power, in front of an old Iraqi T-55 tank.
For about the last two weeks now the ACF (Anti-Coalition Forces) have picked up their indirect fire attacks on this camp. For several weeks it had been pretty quiet here and then we started receiving incoming rocket and mortar fire daily, usually in the early mornings. Everyone was expecting the number of attacks as well as the intensity to pick up in June.
When we heard the news that the TOS had taken place, everyone was very happy but there was no celebrating. The local workers were not aboard the camp that day so I have no idea what the Iraqi people were thinking. However, they are back to work now and everything seems to be OK. Today we only had one impact here at the camp, so it has been a pretty quiet day for us in that respect.
I would have to say that most of us were pretty happy that the TOS took place. The popular phrase here is "Who washes a rented car?" — meaning if something is not yours, you usually don't care about it or take personal pride in it. Now that Iraq is back in the hands of the Iraqi people, the hope is that they will step up to the plate and work toward making their country a safer place for all Iraqis.
The Advertiser periodically will run updates from service members in Iraq and Afghanistan. Marine 1st Sgt. Power, 42, is with the 3rd Radio Battalion out of Kane'ohe Bay. He is at Camp Fallujah near the city of Fallujah in Iraq with about 60 Marines. Power has a smaller group of Marines near Ramadi, about a dozen at Al Asad, and teams of six assigned to battalions. He and his wife, Gretchen, have eight children and live at Marine Corps Base Hawai'i.
