thedrifter
10-05-07, 07:44 AM
CONN. REFUGE FOR VET'S PAL
By NEIL GRAVES
October 5, 2007 -- The only sounds Sinan Abdullah hears nowadays come from the rustic New England woods.
No more roadside bombs, no more screaming wounded, no more rattle of an AK-47 or of a Marine unloading with an M-4.
The Iraqi man is safe now, living in the Brookfield, Conn., home of retired Marine Lt. Col. Michael Zacchea, under whom he served as a civilian translator.
The two warriors have been bonding since 2004, when Zacchea was given orders to form the 5th Iraqi Motorized Rifle Battalion and chose Abdullah as his main interpreter.
The two couldn't have been happier the other day when Abdullah got off the plane in Newark - finally arriving in America.
"We hadn't seen each other since Feb. 28, 2005," recalled Zacchea of the date when he shipped out of the war zone. "It was wonderful seeing that look on his face, that look of joy."
The two have remained in touch by e-mail over the years since Zacchea returned home and went into the commodities business.
"I worried about him," said Zacchea, who earned a Purple Heart at Fallujah. "Sometimes I couldn't get a response for months. I was worried he'd been killed."
Only 820 Iraqi refugees have been granted entry to the United States on the special immigration visa program for translators during fiscal year 2007, the State Department said.
Abdullah is one of them. He went on patrols with the leathernecks, wearing a ski mask for anonymity. He got cooperation from some Iraqis and took guff from others, although their resistance was seldom verbal.
"You felt it in their looks," said Abdullah, 37, who lived with the Marines on their base at Taji, knowing that his family would pay the price if he were ever found out.
But patriotism kept him going.
"I thought I was making my country better," said Abdullah, who learned English in high school and at the College of Science in Baghdad.
Soft spoken and painfully polite, Abdullah thinks of his family quite a bit - of his mother, father, wife and nine younger siblings.
"They felt happy for me," said Abdullah. "They know I am safe. It is unsafe there."
American culture is beginning to sink in. Abdullah has found it interesting that houses here are built of wood. He has developed a taste for chicken nuggets.
And in a bid to get news about Iraq, he has found out where the BBC and CNN are located on the remote.
The long-range plan calls for getting his family here.
"If I can help, I will do that," he said. "I hope to become a citizen, but I don't know how that process works."
Abdullah is entitled to no U.S. benefits at this point, although his coveted green card is expected next week.
Zacchea is trying to get him a job as a translator with the military here.
neil.graves@nypost.com
Ellie
By NEIL GRAVES
October 5, 2007 -- The only sounds Sinan Abdullah hears nowadays come from the rustic New England woods.
No more roadside bombs, no more screaming wounded, no more rattle of an AK-47 or of a Marine unloading with an M-4.
The Iraqi man is safe now, living in the Brookfield, Conn., home of retired Marine Lt. Col. Michael Zacchea, under whom he served as a civilian translator.
The two warriors have been bonding since 2004, when Zacchea was given orders to form the 5th Iraqi Motorized Rifle Battalion and chose Abdullah as his main interpreter.
The two couldn't have been happier the other day when Abdullah got off the plane in Newark - finally arriving in America.
"We hadn't seen each other since Feb. 28, 2005," recalled Zacchea of the date when he shipped out of the war zone. "It was wonderful seeing that look on his face, that look of joy."
The two have remained in touch by e-mail over the years since Zacchea returned home and went into the commodities business.
"I worried about him," said Zacchea, who earned a Purple Heart at Fallujah. "Sometimes I couldn't get a response for months. I was worried he'd been killed."
Only 820 Iraqi refugees have been granted entry to the United States on the special immigration visa program for translators during fiscal year 2007, the State Department said.
Abdullah is one of them. He went on patrols with the leathernecks, wearing a ski mask for anonymity. He got cooperation from some Iraqis and took guff from others, although their resistance was seldom verbal.
"You felt it in their looks," said Abdullah, 37, who lived with the Marines on their base at Taji, knowing that his family would pay the price if he were ever found out.
But patriotism kept him going.
"I thought I was making my country better," said Abdullah, who learned English in high school and at the College of Science in Baghdad.
Soft spoken and painfully polite, Abdullah thinks of his family quite a bit - of his mother, father, wife and nine younger siblings.
"They felt happy for me," said Abdullah. "They know I am safe. It is unsafe there."
American culture is beginning to sink in. Abdullah has found it interesting that houses here are built of wood. He has developed a taste for chicken nuggets.
And in a bid to get news about Iraq, he has found out where the BBC and CNN are located on the remote.
The long-range plan calls for getting his family here.
"If I can help, I will do that," he said. "I hope to become a citizen, but I don't know how that process works."
Abdullah is entitled to no U.S. benefits at this point, although his coveted green card is expected next week.
Zacchea is trying to get him a job as a translator with the military here.
neil.graves@nypost.com
Ellie