Jane Cook - Stories of Faith and Courage from the War in Iraq and Afghanistan

“It could take months to secure the funding and then who knows how long it will take the Iraqi contractor to actually renovate our facilities. In the meantime we don’t have a single vehicle, computer, printer, phone, or any office space to place equipment, if we did manage to get our hands on the tools we needed,” Head explained.

Because the United States Army was in control of Taji, Head and his team often took their supply requests to the Army. They found themselves navigating key differences between the Army and Air Force, such as the number of officers to enlisted men. The Army at Taji had thirty enlisted men/women to each officer. The Air Force had a smaller ratio, with six enlisted for every ten officers. When an Army colonel offered to supply Head, a Major, with one of his office chairs, he was surprised when Head picked up the chair himself instead of asking the Air Force Captain with him to move it.

The cultural differences between military branches were nothing compared with the cultural differences with the Iraqis. Iraqis think in terms of decades and centuries while Americans tend to think in terms of days and weeks. The Iraqis wanted a three-year program to commission their new officers; too long by U.S. military standards for standing up the Iraqi Air Force.

The U.S. military convinced the Iraqis to begin with a special fifteen-week senior term at the Iraqi Military Academy in Rustamiyah specifically tailored for cadets indentified to come into the Iraqi Air Force. However, these different approaches made it difficult to know how to guide the curriculum. What should an Iraqi Air Force lieutenant fresh out of the Academy know and be able to do?

“We literally have nothing,” Head explained.

Their true mission was to make something out of nothing. And that requires resourcefulness and faith.

Thank you for the abundant resources you have given me and for your faithfulness to make something out of the nothings in my life and in others.

“He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” (Romans 4:17b)

“While the chaplain was preaching the one thing that kept popping into my mind was that the previous three weeks had been a test of my character, and I’d failed miserably,” Major Brad Head emailed his wife after attending a worship service at the base in Taji.

The battlefield is not immune to personnel conflicts. If anything, the increased life or death tension combined with scarce resources only worsens such problems. Head had observed that his commander was content to “sit back and let things unfold,” failing to be more proactive. Another was frustrated that he had not received the commander’s role. All of these threatened their mission of standing up the Iraqi Air Force. The chaplain’s message that day encouraged Head to boldly face these personnel challenges.

“I committed to myself that I would confront him and let him know. That night we were in the office trying to put the finishing touches on our request for funding and he was basically saying there was no need to keep my position on the books because he didn’t see what my replacement would be doing. I couldn’t swallow it any more and I expressed my frustration to him in pretty plain language,” Head explained, knowing such frankness normally wouldn’t go over so well when addressing a superior.

Their shared faith, however, played a role in resolving the conflict. “He is a Christian, also, and apologized for offending me. I apologized for not coming to him sooner. The commander joined in and apologized for not taking a more active leadership role and not addressing the brewing discontent earlier. He was convinced that God had sent him there for a reason,” Head indicated.

His commander then started crying, saying that when God grabs a hold of his heart it comes out of his eyes.

“Next thing you know, two hours later we were all praying together,” Head said. “I won’t say everything is now magically perfect in my life, but the air is clear and I’ve opened a channel of communication with both bosses.”

Head was thrilled at what clearing the air did. He was able to provide some guidance to the funding process for the renovations they so desperately needed to get the school going. The resolution also had a ripple effect on the other team members.

“People are starting to notice a difference and morale seems to be improving across the board.”

Thank you for the sweet relief that comes by resolving a conflict and setting paths straight.

“The speech of a good person clears the air; the words of the wicked pollute it.” (Proverbs 10:32; THE MESSAGE)

“When the Iraqi Air Force members are at work, they typically eat and sleep at the base because military members are regularly targeted for assassination,” Major Brad Head revealed in an email to his wife.

An Iraqi Air staff deputy director had been recently kidnapped and killed. Most Iraqi Air staff didn’t tell anyone they were in the Iraqi Air Force. As a result, members didn’t like to stay at work very long so they could “show up” in their neighborhood every few days to keep people from asking questions. The commander of one of the Iraqi flying bases went so far as to put up a taxi cab sign on his car to disguise his real job.

Despite facing overwhelming odds, Head and his teammates managed to start the Iraqi Air Force program with twenty-three students on schedule in April 2007. They solved their renovation woes by securing temporary digs in a building they labeled “the Alamo” until the renovation of their permanent facility known as the “White Castle” was complete.

Head and his team finalized the curriculum, customizing it to reflect the subtle nuances of Iraqi culture and taking into consideration the unique roles, mission, and equipment fielded by the new Iraqi Air Force.

“In spite of the complete failure of our staff to plan for our arrival, we are doing the best we can with what we’ve got. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that successes for the original team will be to lay a solid foundation for those who will follow in our footsteps,” Head explained, noting they were effectively re-creating the Iraqi Air Force from scratch.

“When I call headquarters in Baghdad for guidance, they respond that no one knows better than I do; so just do what I think makes the most sense. I regularly find myself creating policies that will drive the creation of the Iraqi Air Force for years to come,” Head noted.

Head identified disconnects between the number of Iraqi military personnel on the books and what the Iraqi military was supposed to look like by calendar year’s end. Taking space limitations into consideration, he mapped a plan that flowed the majority of people possible into the most critical career fields. As he made something out of nothing, he was doing general’s work well above his pay grade.

“In the U.S. Air Force, the person who makes those types of decisions is the four-star general in charge of Air Education and Training Command. Here I am a newly pinned Major sitting in a trailer in Taji (with little to no input from Iraqi military or anyone in the coalition) and effectively making that same level of decisions. Another Major is doing something similar. Surreal,” he wrote.