From Iraq To
USA ... Becoming A Marine
by U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Dana Beesley June 19,
2021
U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Abdullah Alshimmari still remembers the fragile line between
chaos and peace.
As a young boy growing up in the heart of
Baghdad, he would sit at the kitchen window of his family home every
day and feel the summer breeze on his face. He recalls the view of
the houses in his neighborhood; so close to each other that one
could practically leap from one roof to the next.
This particular
day, he remembers what he was having for lunch as he sat in the
window: biscuits and tea, which he balanced on a tray in his lap.
“I hear this sound coming from down the street,” Alshimmari
said. “It took a minute for me to realize a mortar had just dropped
on the house two doors down. Everything started to move in slow
motion, and the tray flipped in my hand; biscuits flew everywhere
and I saw metal window casings and bars flying past. I knew this was
a firefight. Every time it happened was scary, but I had grown used
to it.”
Alshimmari’s mother and sisters were in the house
with him at the time of the first blast. The dust and smoke became
so thick, the family had to evacuate to the alleyway in between
their house and the neighbors’.
“I could see who I thought
were members of Al Qaida running past carrying RPGs, AKs, landmines,
you name it,” Alshimmari said. Being one of three men in the house,
Alshimmari – who was 11 years old at the time – had the
responsibility of running from the house to the store where his
uncle and father worked to warn them to find safety.
Alshimmari remembers the firefight going on for hours.
After the smoke had settled, the family emerged to find their
neighborhood in complete chaos; buildings and pieces of construction
metal covered in bullet holes were scattered across the street;
rubble and debris had worn into the houses lining the street.
Alshimmari said the disarray was unnerving, despite seeing it happen
many times before.
“Ever since the war started, my childhood
was really scary,”
Alshimmari said. “You hear something pop off and your only thought
is, ‘Thank God it wasn’t me.’ It was horrible; you had to come to
peace with the fact that you were going to lose family members and
friends.”
Despite this, Alshimmari remembers being taken care
of and treated with kindness by American service members who would
patrol near his grandparents’ farm.
“The Marines would give
me and my sisters gifts when they could stop on their patrol,”
Alshimmari said. “I got a football, a bag of tennis balls…I actually
ate an MRE before I even joined the military. Giving a kid something
like that is giving them the world, even if I didn’t know what
something like a football was used for at the time.”
Alshimmari’s father worked as an electrician on the military base
near their home. Upon receiving death threats, Alshimmari and his
father were given work visas allowing them to travel to America.
Through assistance from the U.S. Government, Alshimmari’s mother and
sisters were granted asylum in Jordan, and he and his father moved
to Texas in 2011, where his journey to becoming a United States
Marine would begin.
“When I was in school in America, I felt
like I was a part of something but I didn’t ever really belong,”
Alshimmari said. “Every 9/11 remembrance day I would sit at the back
of the class and just watch as heads would turn to look at me. I was
judged by where I came from and what I looked like. That was until I
found the Marine Corps.”
A friend in class first introduced
Alshimmari to the possibility of joining the Marine Corps, and he
began to research the various opportunities online.
“At the
time, I saw joining the military as a way to give back,” Alshimmari
said. “I never really liked to take the easy way in things; I think
I saw the Marine Corps as a challenge I had never experienced, and I
had already been through so much worse, what’s the worst that could
happen?”
Ashimmari said he was a quick study as a poolee. His
recruiters saw that his mental and physical toughness made the
desire he had to succeed as a Marine even stronger.
Alshimmari graduated recruit training in November of 2015.
Now, as a
Drill Instructor School student at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris
Island and a sergeant of Marines, his goals have shifted to how he
can better lead his Marines and train his recruits; not only because
of his experiences in the Marine Corps, but because of the adversity
he has overcome.
Sgt. Abdullah Alshimmari leads his platoon during
drill inspections on Peatross Parade Deck aboard Marine
Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, SC on June 15, 2021. A
native of Baghdad, Iraq, Alshimmari is currently pursuing
his goal of becoming a drill instructor.(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Dana Beesley)
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First Sgt. Juan Segura, the senior enlisted
advisor for Drill Instructor School and one of Alshimmari’s
instructors, recollects meeting Alshimmari in the first days of
class and being struck by his story of resiliency. Segura remembers
a similar experience from the opposite side of the coin, as a Marine
deployed in Iraq. Segura and his squad would stuff their pockets
with candy and small trinkets from their care packages to give to
the children as they patrolled the area.
“When I talked to
him about how he got to where he is today, where he experienced what
he did as a child in Iraq, and having been there myself it was
different,” Segura said. “The kids we saw when we went on patrols
were the future, and we learned that if we treated them as such,
they would go on to do great things just as Alshimmari has.”
Segura said Alshimmari stood out to him because of his clear
professionalism and determination in every task he was given.
“I see him in the future sharing his story with his Marines and
that’s something to admire,” Segura said. “His story had so much
tied in to what the Marine Corps has gone through in the last 20
years. It’s almost symbiotic.”
Alshimmari says his desire to
take care of his Marines and recruits in the future is that much
stronger because of what he survived.
“If I could say one
thing about my experience from living in Baghdad to coming to
America and serving, it’s to give your Marines a chance,” Alshimmari
said. “I always apply what I went through in the past to how I am
now; often, I see people given one and only one chance and if they
make a mistake, and they are then labeled for life. Second chances
are a must.”
Segura spoke of a similar pride of belonging
that came from being in the Marines and experiencing firsthand the
relationships built between nations.
“I think about those
times when we would meet those children on patrol,” Segura said.
“Even small-level leadership I had understood that not everybody was
an enemy, and where there is mutual respect, there is friendship.
What I see in Alshimmari is that, somewhere down the line, a Marine
or a few Marines got it right, and now not only to come to the
United States to become a citizen, but to also become a Marine and
serve; and on top of everything, have the desire to make and lead
the Marines of the future … that is admirable.”
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