*
Justin Cliburn (JC): One day we saw this child
walking through the compound.
His name was Ali
and he did not want to talk to us.
Deanne Cliburn (DC): As opposed to a lot of the other Iraqi kids that you encountered?
JC: Yes. He was very shy.
And the second or third time that I met him,
he brought his best friend Ahmed.
And Ahmed was much more outgoing.
And so, Ali really opened up.
And, once I met these children,
it made every day something I looked forward to.
We would play rock, paper, scissors.
We would kick around a soccer ball.
We were about as close as people
that don't speak the same language can be.
I had never been really good with children
and this was the first time I felt like
I loved someone who wasn't my family member.
But one day Ali showed up
and I could tell something wasn't right.
He kept saying, "Ahmed, Ahmed. Boom."
We learned that Ahmed and his mother went to the gas station
and a suicide bomber detonated.
Ahmed's mother's dead. She died instantly.
And Ahmed is in a hospital somewhere.
And so other soldiers and I collected what cash we had
and gave it to Ali and said,
"Go take this to Ahmed's father."
But later, I saw Ali walking up very slow
and, uh, he sat down on the curb next to my Humvee.
He dug a hole in the ground with his fingers.
He picked up a rock and put it in the hole
and then he put the dirt back over it.
And he just pointed to the ground and said, "Ahmed."
And I knew that Ahmed was dead.
And so I sat on the curb with him.
Me in desert camouflage, carrying an M-4 rifle
and him just a North Baghdad kid.
Just sat there and cried.
I don't know what came of him.
That's the nature of war I suppose.
But whenever I see any footage from Baghdad,
I'm always kind of looking around,
wondering if he's in the frame.
*