Muttaz

Pulled out the iphone tonight and was greeted by an email with the subject line "happy thanks giving"

Muttaz almost only emails me on New Years. I knew something was up.

"Dear travis
Happy Thanks giving dear friend
I hope next year will be better than the this one and remains in happiness
and good health
I am in the United States now I arrived 20 days ago"

There was a phone number too, with a New Jersey area code. I dialed it, and when he answered I responded with the very same greeting that I used to make fun of him for using when he answered the phone around me in Baghdad. He knew it was me right away.

Muttaz, along with his wife and two children, has made it to America after five years of trying and the wave of relief I feel that he is safe and alive is overwhelming me right now.

I could go on forever about what this man means to me. Let me just say two things about him.

1. There hasn't been a day since I drove away from Baghdad on October 31, 2003 that I haven't thought of him.

2. I wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for him looking out for me.

Muttaz was my translator and driver in Iraq (how do you like that sweet-ass ride he fixed me up with? We had a Mercedes, too!) but over the course of two and half months he became a dear friend. The day before I left to come home, he held my hand as we walked to lunch and said "I'll miss you my friend."

That's the last time I ever saw him.

Get outta the way people... I'm headed for Jersey as soon as I can.