Mock Prison Riot in Iraq

From my cousin, a civilian contractor, working with the military in Iraq. Now, don’t get me wrong, we Marines love our Sister branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, but the rivalry is strong..
~Wally

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Wally here is an incident that I saw it’s a funny story concerning the Marines and Air Force. I had received a request to go to the small port town of Umkasar in southern Iraq.

To assist in the construction of a new prison camp (Camp Bucca), this place is what comes to mind when you think of the Middle East on one side hot with miles and miles of sand as far as you can see and on the other the gulf.

Well one afternoon we were sitting in the DFAC enjoying lunch when two young Airmen sat down at the table across from us and were involved in a heavy conversation when I noticed that they looked very upset, not knowing what was or may have been happening being civilians we began to listen to their conversation and to our ease they were discussing a training exercise.

The first Airman said to his partner that this was not going to be a good idea and you could tell from his voice and the look on his face that the kid was scared to death; about this time 3 US Marine Stallion helicopters touched down full of troops to participate in the exercise, which was to be a mock riot in the prison yard and the Marines were the detainees. I thought to myself this is going to be good and inquired as to what time this is going to take place so I could be there, and as the rest of the afternoon passed you could feel the tension in the air building.

Finally around 16:30 the Air Force showed up in full riot gear shields and all… meanwhile you could see the young Marines ready to tear them apart just like their name sake Devil Dogs and you could hear the Marine commander giving the order not to hold back but to attack and use any means necessary to obtain their objective. Then the carnage began and it did not take long for the Marines to unarm the Airmen.

Wally, it was brutal, the Marines put an ass beating on them like I have never seen, Airmen were being carried off the field and taken to the hospital there was fighting, biting, bleeding and eye-gauging not to mention the broken bones it was great they total destroyed them and I was proud to have been there.

Allen Mayer

photo: defenseimagery.mil