The Potato Chipper by Paul Irons

Author:Paul Irons
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: novum premium Verlag
Published: 2023-09-29T00:00:00+00:00

Key Learning Point: The training of Third World personnel is usually a generational process, and the forceful changing of habits takes at least twenty years. The author was to later work as an embedded consultant on a Third World construction site, overseen by American Engineers’ and only through continual harassment of local staff on an hourly basis after six to twelve months, did the importance of wearing basic safety equipment such as gloves, fluorescent clothing, and safety goggles sink in. The micro-management of the staff was the key factor, and the withdrawal of the American supervisors would have seen a return to lazy, accepted & non-safe acts within a day. Third World mentoring, while not totally fruitless, usually ends in failure because western governments are not prepared (understandably) to deploy thousands of advisers at great cost for many years to see the job through. The failure of the Iraqi Army in Northern Iraq during the ISIS/Da’esh crisis is a prime example of such a failure where an army that had been mentored by United States advisers for an undefined period, simply collapsed when left to ‘fend for itself’. Third World Aid is, just a cosmetic, tick box exercise.

The first few days of my first rotation in Iraq, blended into weeks and our mileage count had us bouncing all over the field down to ‘Oil’ Wellhead locations proximal to the Kuwait border. Any call signs from our client that were operating in the area required our presence within fifteen minutes driving time in case of an emergency. This area was close to the Safwan Border crossing that would be familiar to any soldier involved in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a location that had more than its fair share of militia.

At times, we would see these individuals passively observing as we slipped through ‘their’ turf. I always remember my teammates reminding me that we would increase or intensify our posture when cutting through this area on the pre-mission brief. This involved subtle but important changes in how we would carry our weapons, maintaining a higher index of suspicion regarding vehicles that were in our vicinity, people suddenly talking on mobile phones as we passed junctions and dare, I say this; the blocking out of other vehicles where we felt it to be prudent.

Medically, the task was proving to be quiet fortunately, and contrary to the popular misconception that much of what we do medically is trauma based gun shot, burn and blast related and while we do deal with those, and I personally have dealt with this; even at times of intensified kinetic operations, seventy percent plus of the work is non-trauma medical and pertains to heat exhaustion, dehydration, gastro-Intestinal problems and skin disorders.

After several weeks of operations, I dealt with the first medical case, and this was an opportunity to use my Italian language skills that while not fluent, were at a reasonable conversation level.

We had been mobile, patrolling around an area of the Az Zubayr field, and as was

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