A promise kept

Soldier helps Iraqi boy gain asylum after he rooted out insurgents

Sarah Peasley, Special to the News

Published July 18, 2006 at midnight

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Life was already brutal for 13-year-old Jamil when U.S.-led coalition forces invaded Iraq in early 2003. As the oldest of six children, he had been forced to leave school in third grade to support his family. His volatile father constantly belittled him - once pressing a burning spoon into the boy's hand as punishment while his mother stood by helplessly.

But things got much worse when Jamil's father, a member of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, organized a local insurgent cell and made Jamil join them on ambushes. The terrified child was handed an AK-47 rifle and expected to fight.

The dramatic story of how Jamil fled his home, helped an American Army unit root out insurgents and eventually made his way to live in the United States, is told in Daniel Hendrex's new book (co-written with Wes Smith), A Soldier's Promise: The Heroic True Story of an American Soldier and an Iraqi Boy (Simon Spotlight Entertainment, $25). Hendrex, of Colorado Springs, will appear at local bookstores this week, in support of the release.

A Soldier's Promise is a compelling account of life on the ground in war-torn Iraq and the friendship that blossomed between Hendrex and the skinny, charming Iraqi boy.

Jamil had already made two unsuccessful attempts to run away from home when he walked up to the American checkpoint at the Syrian border and demanded to be arrested. His friends were watching, and he wanted it to appear that he was taken against his will. The skeptical soldiers complied, and Hendrex was assigned to interview the boy. Jamil knew details about the insurgents and their activities, and when the soldiers checked out the leads, they all panned out.

"This kid was like finding the Rosetta Stone," writes Hendrex. "He seemed to grasp the whole picture. He was like a little CIA agent . . . much smarter than most of the informants who'd come walking into our camp . . . . He said he'd identified some of his father's cohorts as Syrian by the accents. He had a very analytical mind and a very thorough understanding of the insurgency, its hierarchy, and the way it operated."

Jamil didn't want money, just safety for himself, his mother and his siblings. Unable to return home once Iraqis learned of his cooperation with the Americans, Jamil worked and slept with the unit's kitchen crew. Dubbed Steve-O, he donned a military haircut, learned to throw a football like a pro and pulled pranks on his surrogate brothers - "a celebrity guest star and the source of no small amount of entertainment," Hendrex writes.

He provided ongoing intelligence to Hendrex's unit and even joined it on some raids, protected in a tank, so he could identify insurgents on the spot.

Soldiers arrested his father, who eventually went on trial. Sadly, while the Americans tried to protect the rest of his family, it was later learned that his mother had been shot and probably killed. His siblings may have gone to live with another relative, but their fate remains unknown.

In September 2004, following Hendrex's extraordinary efforts to gain political asylum for Steve-O, the boy came to America. We caught up with Hendrex for a Q&A:

Question: Your book ends in mid-2005. How's Steve-O doing?

Answer: "He's doing very well, given the circumstances. Differences between the Arab and American cultures have been difficult, especially in the treatment of women.

"Initially, he was living with me, but the psychologist who is helping him thought he needed to live apart from the military environment and in a more stable setting, which I think is best for him. We are still very close, and it's great to see him and how much he's progressed. He plays football and every sport there is. His spoken English is fantastic and he's learning to read and write."

Q: Has he been adopted by a Muslim family?

A: "I don't want to give that information, for his privacy and theirs. He is living with a great family, and they are a perfect fit for him. He has an earring and wears his hat and little pants and he's annoyingly like every other teenager I know at this point."

Q: You give Steve-O's account of an insurgent ambush on your unit on a bridge in November 2003. How did you learn about this?

A: "We became very close in Iraq, but I wasn't aware of a lot of things that happened to him until we got back to the States and we lived together. An Arabic-speaking woman in Denver was an amazing help as translator and, over time, we got to know him better.

"We asked him, 'Did you ever get in a fight with your father where tanks fired at you with a main gun?' His eyes opened up and he laid out that story. His father forced him to participate, and he was terrified. His father's cell fired rocket-propelled grenades at our convoy and opened fire with guns, and we responded with heavy tank fire. Jamil threw down his rifle and hid in the marsh, while the bridge above him vibrated with the weight of our vehicles.

"I cannot tell you how bizarre it is to hear a story that you know so intimately, but from the enemy's perspective. That really caught me off guard."

Q: An insurgent named Sayed was not only a dangerous opponent to coalition forces but also a direct threat to Steve-O. How was he captured?

A: "Sayed was in Steve-O's father's cell. After Steve-O sought refuge with our unit, he returned home and found his mother had been beaten. She said Sayed was responsible. Come to find out this guy was directly involved with not just attempting to kill Americans, but also with brutalizing and terrorizing Iraqi families who had any connection to coalition forces.

"We conducted four raids and came up with the only photo we could find of Sayed, but we didn't catch him. He was very smart in the way he operated and stayed in the shadows. Iraqis were terrified of him. After my unit left Iraq, and Steve-O stayed with the Marines who replaced us, the Marines rounded him up in a raid. They were mostly a group of foreign fighters, and here was this guy in the corner who played Mr. Innocent, saying he was just a local shop owner, and he would have gotten away if the Marines hadn't shown Steve-O pictures of all the detainees.

"Remember: This is the man who shot Steve-O's mother and, we believe, probably killed her. So when Steve-O saw Sayed's picture, he got angry, because the Marines didn't seem to realize what they had. He managed to get across to them who they had, and the Marines looked at the operational summary I had left, with a picture of Sayed.

"What really hurts is that this guy probably killed his mother. So, at the end of the day, even though it's satisfying to see him caught, I think the loss of his mother, and the fact that he's connected with the reason for that, will haunt him forever."

Q: By embracing Jamil and conducting raids as a result of his intelligence, you caused Jamil to be marked as a snitch and his family retaliated against. How do you feel about that now?

A: "I would love to be able to go back and change the way things worked out. Husaybah was the most dangerous town I've ever been in. There were insurgent eyes everywhere, and we did the best we could to protect Steve-O. For example, after he walked into the checkpoint and we started talking to him, we moved him 30 kilometers away to Tiger Base.

"He knew the seriousness of what he was doing, and he put a lot of thought into it before he walked up to us. He just wanted his father out of the house and his family moved away from the insurgency. We thought arresting his father and removing him from the family situation would help.

"This little boy gave up everything, and it became my personal responsibility to get him out of there, to safety and a better life. I'm glad I was able to do that."

Q: You write about the rage you and your soldiers felt when ambushed by this hidden enemy. In light of recent accusations that some American soldiers have committed war crimes against civilians, how did you help your soldiers control rage?

A: "It's a tough situation, but you look at the number of troops there and you're talking about a very small percentage of soldiers who may have done the wrong thing. There is that rage you feel any time someone is trying to kill you. . . That's why the relationship I forged with Steve-O is so unusual. Soldiers must separate themselves emotionally from things and the rage that comes in, you have to be clinical and make smart decisions. In Iraq, I didn't want to make it personal because it's deadly if you extend your hand to the wrong person."

If you go

• What: Daniel Hendrex appears to promote his new book, A Soldier's Promise.

• Wednesday: 7 p.m., Barnes & Noble, 795 Citadel Drive East, Colorado Springs (information: 1-719-637-8282)

• Thursday: 7:30 p.m., Tattered Cover in Highlands Ranch, Highlands Ranch Pkwy. at Lucent Blvd. (information: 303-470-7050)

• Cost: Free

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